steve capone jr., Author/Editor

Steve is a Utah transplant from coal and steel country who writes across genres. He’s had nonfiction publications in trade presses such as Education Week Magazine and The American Society for the Advancement of American Philosophy. His short fiction has appeared in the Inkpot online literary magazine (literary fiction, 2021) as well as in the We Are Dangerous anthology (horror, 2023). He’s won awards for his work in these areas, too. His forthcoming Jimmy vs. Communism is a YA historical fiction novel set during the McCarthy era, and it’s due out nationwide in early 2026 with Gibbs Smith / True Fiction Press. In development: a GameLit/ LiteraryFic mashup and one horror novel set during the Satanic Panic. Steve is a member of the Horror Writers Association as well as the League of Utah Writers. He also works with Arctic Rescue to help Arctic breed doggies and makes pizza for his family and guests.

longer bio:

Updated Fall 2023.

I’ve been writing my whole life and teaching since January 2008.

I spent eleven years studying Philosophy, critical theory, literature, and writing. My research interests in grad school included in Ethics, Political Philosophy (focusing on Egalitarianism), and Moral Psychology. Universal Basic Income was my jam before it was cool (of course surfers should be fed).

I speak most years at one conference or another. Recent years have found me sharing what I’ve developed for my classroom at the National Council for the Social Studies (2018), the state chapter of the NCSS (2019, 2021), at the Association for Middle Level Education conference (2019, 2020), and at educational conferences in the state of Utah on behalf of the Utah Middle Level Association (UMLA), on whose board I serve.

In the past, I’ve gamified my classroom, have developed and implemented choose-your-own adventure units of study, led middle school students to spot and analyze propaganda, turned what I knew about education upside down to handle a rapid change at the start of the 2020 pandemic, and have settled back down as I realize that the changes I made to adapt to that circumstance were changes I should have been making anyhow. I’ve shared some of this through an article at Education Week magazine. Through all of this, I have strived helped others to find joy in learning as best I’m able at every opportunity. I currently teach high school English.

As a personal educational coach and educational consultant, I work one-on-one with students who benefit from individual expert support and personalized planning and attention. You should reach out to me about this if you think this might be what you or your student needs. We can do personalized lessons in writing, the humanities, or social sciences, and we can also do coaching in the sense of finding out what kind of learner you are, what your needs around executive functioning are, and/or planning for your success at your undergraduate institution of choice. I can even offer survival tips for grad school, if that’s what’s next for you. Let me know how I can help!

I’ve published short fiction in Inkpot, an online literary magazine, and in the anthology We Are Dangerous (2023), and I’ve won awards for nonfiction and fiction alike. My YA historical fiction novel Jimmy vs. Communism is due out nationwide in early 2026 with Gibbs Smith / True Fiction Press.

Before moving to Utah, I received a B.A. in 2006 from Washington & Jefferson College and a Master of Arts in the Humanities in 2007 from the University of Chicago. I found my way to living in the Rockies back in June 2008, and I earned a M.S. in Philosophy from the University of Utah in 2013.

Apart from honing my teaching skills, I’m an avid hockey fan and retired recreational player (concussions brought my illustrious career to an end) and curler. With baseball’s new rules, America’s pastime is now watchable, so I’m now a Pirates fan. And I still love watching hockey. Winter is my season, and I love to ski—I’m a weekend warrior.

I also really enjoy traveling—by plane, boat, or train—and I spend as little money as possible in my everyday life so I can visit someplace new and exciting each year. One of my favorite destinations so far has been Switzerland (photos from my Matterhorn hike pictured above), and my favorite “I’d love to live there” destination is always Germany. Now that I have kids, my number one travel goal is to take them to all of the places they dream of seeing—Naxos, Berlin, Prague, Paris, and Rome. These are places I know and love, and I can’t wait to share them with these budding scholars and sports superfans.

I haven’t included an email address due to spam harvesters collecting and using my email anywhere it appears, but you can definitely reach me at stevecaponejrauthor at gmail or by following me on twitter (@CaponeTeaches) and reaching out to me there. I’m on tiktok, too, @steve_capone_jr_author. Please find me there!

Interested in knowing more about my professional development pursuits? You can find them here, where I keep a live CV of sorts.