John Brantingham is a recipient of New York State’s Council on the Arts Grant for 2024 and was the first poet laureate of Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks and the writer-in-residence at the dA Center for the Arts in Pomona, California. He is a retired professor of Creative writing at Mt. San Antonio College where he coordinated the creative writing program. He often teaches classes online and at the Chautauqua Institution.
His work has appeared in hundreds of magazines including Writer’s Almanac, The Journal, Tears in the Fence, and Confrontation. He has been nominated for ten Pushcart Prizes and won a spot in The Best Small Fictions 2016 and 2022 and was a semifinalist in The Best Small Fictions 2018. He was a fiction editor for The Chiron Review.
John Brantingham is a widely sought speaker and educator. Along with teaching at his home institution, Mt. SAC, he has taught advanced courses in creative writing for the Chautauqua Institution, Inlandia Institute, NYU Shanghai, the Northwest Institute of Literary Arts, and Cal State, Long Beach. He has read across the United States and in China, Canada, England, and Wales.
He co-edited The L.A. Fiction Anthology (Red Hen Books). His 23 poetry and fiction collections include Gone Back to Wild (Arroyo Seco Press), East of Los Angeles (Anaphora Literary Press), The Green of Sunset (Moon Tide Press), Let Us All Pray Now to Our Own Strange Gods (World Parade Books), Crossing the High Sierra (Cholla Needles Press), and California Continuum: Volume 1 (Pelekinesis Press), with Grant Hier.
John's book featured on Fox26News's Great Day Book Club.
John’s poem featured on Writer’s Almanac.
“In an age of superficiality, mediocrity, and sound-cliches, John Brantingham is a genuine throwback to when Men of Letters roamed the literary prairies. His creative and intellectual emanations brim with his enthusiasms, his versatility, and the depths of spirituality and social conscience at the core of his soul. There is no one of whom I could speak more highly, as a writer and as a person.”
~ Gerald Locklin author of The Case of The Missing Blue Volkswagen and others.
“Wise and insightful, Brantingham’s work brilliantly captures the light and darkness in us all.”
~ James Brown author of This River.
John’s Obituary, written by Scott Noon Creley, Elder Zamora, and Tim Hatch
John Brantingham, poet, novelist, and educator, of California and New York, passed away suddenly during the evening of Easter Sunday in 2026.
John Brantingham would probably hate that you are reading his obituary. Not because he was afraid of death or because he found the subject distasteful (John's poetry, in fact, dealt rather adeptly, and often, with embracing life in the face of finality), but because he was, at the end of the day, a person whose life had been filled with magnificent, meaningful accomplishments that he was embarrassed to have pointed out.
John’s life began on December 30th, 1970, in The Hague, the Netherlands. In his early childhood, his family traveled from there to England and Canada before returning to the United States, where John spent his early childhood years in Pittsburgh.
From his family, John learned the importance of hard work, humility, and not losing touch with the experiences and troubles every person faces. John’s life took him all over the world, receiving numerous awards and honors, but he nevertheless always carried with him that quiet sensibility, and he always stayed very much a “common man”.
John moved to California in 1975, where he grew up and attended Damien High School in La Verne. He loved the San Gabriel Valley and his childhood adventures in nature. He loved the hills and mountains and the nearby wild spaces where he would ride his motorcycle. For John, the land was a character with its own life and personality, and it was a central concept that appeared continually in his writing and his personal stories.
In 1991, John met Ann, his lifelong love, and the person who would ultimately complete his identity as they grew up together. John was 20 and traveling to London as part of a study abroad trip with Mt. San Antonio College. Ann saw John, tall and black-haired and leaning over the payphone, haltingly speaking into the line on an international call home. She sensed that they had a lot in common just from hearing him talk, and she was intrigued. A few weeks into the semester, John missed class, and Ann took the opportunity to bring him the reading for their shared course (appropriately, Shelley’s “Mutability”), and they never truly parted again.
After that, John and Ann traveled together in whatever they undertook. They were married in 1995 in Ann’s parents’ backyard on John’s 25th birthday.
John and Ann are partners in the truest sense. Throughout John’s life, he and Ann were constant collaborators in art, writing, and education. They enabled each other’s many artistic pursuits and achieved work that would otherwise have been impossible. They are mirror images in their dedication to living meaningful lives by making an impact. A person can’t really discuss John’s life without also writing about Ann, whom he would tell you is a pillar that made him bigger than himself and much more than he otherwise might have been.
In 2006, John and Ann met the woman who would become their adoptive daughter. Shaymaa, John, and Ann quickly formed a family bond and stayed in constant contact with Shaymaa as she finished her education in the United States and abroad. In 2008, Shaymaa lived with John and Ann as she pursued her studies. John and Ann had always thought of Shaymaa as their daughter, and they formalized that in 2025. Shaymaa brought John immense pride and joy throughout his adult life, and the Brantingham family shows how powerfully our chosen family can enrich our lives and give us meaning.
Appropriately, John will be widely remembered as an educator and mentor. This will be especially true for all those who had the privilege of knowing him at Mount San Antonio College, where he himself had once been a student, and where he would go on to build a celebrated career as a professor of English and Creative Writing. John began teaching at Mt. SAC in 1998, shortly after graduating from Cal State Long Beach. John loved to joke that he got to have the two best jobs at Mt. SAC, flipping burgers at the Mountie Grill in his youth and teaching young people to believe in their own ability as writers. John also joked that he was a bundle of nerves when he first entered the classroom, but anyone who ever sat in his classes would tell you he was born to teach. John loved what he did. He loved connecting with each and every one of his students. His office door was always open for anyone who wanted to talk, discuss homework, or just play a game of chess and listen to jazz. John forged lifelong friendships in and out of the classroom, and though he was never comfortable talking about his own numerous accolades, he was always proud to share and celebrate those of his students.
As John’s teaching career matured, it became increasingly clear that one of his special gifts was his ability to create a community wherever he went.. People naturally found themselves drawn to John, and John’s core trait was wanting to share the loveliness of the world with other people and to comfort people who needed it.
John was tireless in his commitments, not just to his family and his students, but also to fellow educators who struggled to make inroads into academia. He was a fervent advocate for new and aspiring instructors, working to ensure they receive opportunities and fairness in the workforce. John knew firsthand how difficult it is for new teachers to build careers, and whether it was through serving in committees or through personal mentorship and guidance, he was always happy to be a supporting figure at their side.
John’s literary career is prolific. He wrote with dedication and a discipline possessed by few others. He considered one of his first major publications to be the selection of “Morning Rituals” by Pearl in 1998. John would quickly go on to have “Putting in a Window” and “When I Call” featured on National Public Radio’s The Writer’s Almanac. East of Los Angeles, his first full collection of poetry, was published by Anaphora Literary Press in 2011, and was followed two years later by his collection, The Green of Sunset, which served as the framework for the emotional depth of the rest of his career as a writer. His list of publications is extensive. Over the course of his career as a writer, he published more than 20 books of poetry, fiction, flash fiction, and nonfiction. His poems, short stories, and flash fiction pieces add up to more than 400 publications.
In 2001, John took over leadership of the annual Writer’s Weekend at Mt. San Antonio College. Writer’s Weekend/Culturama Festival. This was the first public manifestation of what was a lifelong trend for John. The dream was for this festival to offer an accessible version of the same intensive experience as the exclusive, expensive festivals and retreats that populate literary and art culture. The event (now called Culturama and expanded to include visual artistic mediums) continues to this day and will likely continue far into the future because of the strong foundation and public enthusiasm John engendered by making the event equitable, fun, and the keystone of a huge community of writers from across the United States and beyond.
John, Ann, and a few fellow writers founded The San Gabriel Valley Literary Festival and its accompanying 501 (c) (3) in 2012. Originally taking place in West Covina in 2013, the Literary Festival would go on to host annual events in the arts districts of Pomona and Ontario through 2020. This free public event showcased the rich artistic and literary work of the San Gabriel Valley and surrounding areas while bringing national and international writers as speakers and teachers. Like John’s other endeavors, it provided a freely accessible gateway into the literary world.
In 2014, John and Ann acted as the founding chairs for the Drawing Inspiration from the National Parks writing, art, and volunteer service program in Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Park. Set in the Wolverton Volunteer Camp (A former Civilian Conservation Corps and Boy Scouts camp), this program captured everything John loved—building up others by nurturing their talents, plunging deep into nature and helping others to enjoy it, and preserving the beauty of our shared wilderness.
John would go on to become the first Poet Laureate of the Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks in 2018. The Drawing Inspiration program continues to this day, with dozens of writers and artists finding their way into the parks each year to practice prompts inspired by John and still taught by John’s students (many of whom are now professors themselves).
John loved adventure. He undertook every journey with excitement and optimism. This is the spirit that brought him and Ann to Jamestown, NY, where they made their home. As in California, John soon became enamored with the wonder of this place. He loved the trees, the streams, and even the snow he had to shovel from the driveway. For John, New York was a breath of fresh air and new life. He quickly made himself a valued and much-loved part of his new community. In New York, he carried on his passion for education and mentorship, working with the Literary Arts Center at the renowned Chautauqua Institution, where he was a featured author and host of a weekly writer’s group. He taught various classes at the Sinclairville and Prendergast Libraries, where he helped inspire and guide upcoming writers. Most recently, John was scheduled to host a weekly five-minute poetry slot on the local radio station, highlighting poetry that focused on radical wonder. John loved nothing more than sharing a bit of wonder with the world.
It’s impossible to think of John without thinking of his smile, his laugh, his energy, his enthusiasm, and his seemingly constant desire to be an optimistic person and make those around him happy through that optimism. John was simultaneously boyish in his enthusiasm while retaining the confidence and ease of a veteran teacher, leader, and mentor. He often had a literal twinkle in his eye as he rehashed a long-standing running joke or undermined some tense moment at just the right time. John was silly when people needed him to be, but he simultaneously always seemed to sense when things were serious and someone needed a confidant, a sympathetic ear, or a stalwart champion for their cause.
When you see the scope of John’s life, it’s easy to think of him as a saint, one of the great men of letters, a distinguished professor in the hallowed halls of academia.
John would be the first person to tell you, however, that he was a human being with all the passions, pride, flaws, and foibles that every human has. John lived a life of pacifism, dedication to others, and humility—even in the face of frustration and unfairness.
John made a conscious choice each day to overcome the turmoil we all face and to be a good person who strove to make the world a better place than it was when he woke up—sometimes that meant a seemingly small kindness like hours of missed sleep while editing the work of an aspiring writer, or it meant spending his mornings emailing art galleries and libraries to set up a public writing workshop. No matter how tired he may have been, he always had time for others, especially for his students. He was a great advocate and supporter of anyone taking their first steps in artistic self-expression.
It’s easy to notice John’s prolific writing output and his accomplishments. What might be less apparent is that John’s life is the story of uncountable small kindnesses and sustained discipline that added up to an almost unimaginable impact.
Perhaps the thing that John showed us most often is that kindness and goodness are choices we make. John’s life is proof that we can wake up each morning and choose to meet the harshness of this world with open arms and to give back with love. John would want us to know that this in no way made him special.
Despite John’s modesty and his assertions to the contrary, all his students and friends know that his life was an incredibly special one.
John showed us how we can all choose how to live on our hardest days.
Because he truly exemplified his own ideals of living for wonder and empathy, the lives John has touched are almost innumerable. John officiated weddings, served on nonprofit boards, and mentored the people who needed it most. He occupies a central place in hundreds of lives and careers.
John is survived by the kindness he bestowed upon the world and by every kind act that is carried forth in his memory. He’s survived by the incredible number of words he wrote and published. He’s survived by the fact that his words and ideas are carried out by hundreds (likely thousands) of people each day.
His closest memories and sentiments are carried on by his wife, Ann Brantingham, his daughter Shaymaa, and his beloved dog, Lizzy. The world isn’t darker because we’ve lost John; it’s brighter because his legacy is too big to truly be lost.
John’s life was exceptional. He gave more to the world than he took from it, and we are better for having had him. We all get a lifetime.
John would want you to be proud of what you make of yours.
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John created a large library of writing prompts and craft discussions for those who want to write, pursue art, or engage with mindfulness in their day-to-day life. He would love it if you took some time to write with him.