John Temple, 35, is an assistant professor of journalism at West Virginia University.  He teaches reporting and writing courses and chairs the News-Editorial Program at the P.I. Reed School of Journalism.

Temple is the author of Deadhouse: Life in a Coroner’s Office, a book about a team of death investigators at the coroner’s office in Pittsburgh.  Deadhouse was published in 2005 by the University Press of Mississippi.  Temple also is the co-editor of Cancer Stories: Lessons in Love, Loss and Hope, a student-produced book about a group of cancer patients.  Cancer Stories was published in 2005 by the West Virginia University Press.

Prior to teaching at WVU, Temple taught and studied creative nonfiction writing at the University of Pittsburgh, where he earned an M.F.A.  Temple worked in the newspaper business for six years.  He was the health/education reporter for the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, a general assignment reporter for the News & Record in Greensboro, N.C., and a government and politics reporter for the Tampa Tribune in Tampa, Fla.

Temple lives in Morgantown, West Virginia, with his wife, law professor Hollee Schwartz Temple, and their two sons.

PHOTOS (by Melissa Nethken)