John Casteen and his wife lived in Iowa City for two years while he was a student in the Iowa Writers' Workshop. While in the state, he says, he became "a great admirer of Iowa's daylilies." Currently, he is self-employed as a designer and builder of custom furniture. His poems have been published in Ploughshares, The Georgia Review, Shenandoah, and The Southern Review.

"Murmur" appears in the current issue of The Iowa Review (37/1, Spring 2007).