John May was born in Burlington, North Carolina. He has a BA in English from the University of North Carolina in Greensboro and a Masters in Fine Arts in Writing from Bennington College, Bennington, Vermont. He is the author of two historical fiction novels about Edgar Allan Poe, "Poe & Fanny" and "The Poe Letters." His history, "The Founding of English America: An Introduction to the Lost Colony and Jamestown" was published in 2024.