Phill Provance was born in an Appalachian valley town of 5,000 people to a Kirby salesman and a welfare caseworker who divorced when he was four. Subsequently spending his early years in a trailer on his grandparents' farm, he witnessed the same alcoholism, drug abuse, mental illness, domestic violence, and poverty that figure into most stereotypes of Appalachia. Yet, at the same time, he also experienced the genuine devotion and kindness of people whose only hope, often, is sticking together. From his father, a recovering alcoholic, he learned humility, patience in the face of his own faults, and unconditional love; from his mother-now a PhD. but once a single mom raising him and his brother on a part-time state employee's salary-he learned the sort of drive that saw him master three languages and not only attend Bethany College and Oxford University as an undergraduate but also go on to complete his MFA in Poetry and Fiction at WV Wesleyan College. Since leaving home at eighteen, he's published comics, nonfiction, journalism, and poetry in numerous newspapers, journals, and magazines throughout the English-speaking world. A Plan in Case of Morning is his third book and his first full-length collection of poetry. His other works include the nonfiction popular history A Brief History of Woodbridge, New Jersey (The History Press 2019) and the poetry chapbook The Day the Sun Rolled Out of the Sky (Cy Gist Press 2010). His second full-length work of nonfiction, Postcards of McHenry County, Illinois, is forthcoming from Arcadia Publishing in 2021. Visit the author: www.phillprovance.com
