A founder of the Hub City Writers Project, John Lane is a place-based educator at Wofford College, an expert kayaker, and the author of numerous books of essays and poetry. In addition to his work with Hub City, his outdoor adventure prose has appeared in Outside, American White Water, Canoe, South Carolina Wildlife, and anthologies from National Geographic Books.

His first collection of place-based personal essays, Weed Time, appeared from Briarpatch Press in 1993. In 1999 the University of Georgia Press published The Woods Stretched for Miles: Contemporary Southern Nature Writing, an anthology of Southern nature writing he co-edited with Wofford colleague Gerald Thurmond. His second collection of place-based essays, Waist Deep in Black Water appeared in 2002, and a book-length personal narrative, Chattooga, followed in 2004, both from The University of Georgia Press as well. His next book, Circling Home: Settlement on the Edge of a Southern Flood Plain, will also appear from UGA Press in Fall 2007.

John is featured in Hub City Anthology, Hub City Christmas, In Morgan's Shadow and Noble Trees of the South Carolina Upcountry. He writes a weekly column in The Spartanburg Journal called "The Kudzu Telegraph."