Former Handy Writers Colony author John Bowers passed away on August 17, 2025 in New York City. He was raised in Johnson, Tennessee, and came to the Handy Writers Colony after graduating from the University of Tennessee in 1951.
In 1971, his book The Colony was published by E.P. Dutton in New York. The work recounts the lives and personalities of the Handy Writers Colony in Marshall, blending firsthand observation with narrative reconstruction.
While it reads much like a novel, Bowers himself acknowledged that it is “perhaps slightly fictionalized,” using reconstructed dialogue and selectively shaped episodes to create a compelling story. Today, it is best understood as a semi-fictionalized memoir—a vivid, interpretive portrait of a unique literary community rather than a purely invented work of fiction.
Learn more about John Bowers through his obituary at Legacy.com, or through his website and explore the Handy Writers’ Colony on Wikipedia.
Mr. Bowers is also mentioned on the Marshall Area Chamber of Commerce website post about the Handy Colony Walldog Mural.
