Born and raised in Monroe, Connecticut, John Searles is the son of a truck-driver father and stay-at-home mom. After high school, Searles worked at the DuPont factory close to his hometown. He quickly realized that the job wasn't for him and set his sights on becoming the first in his family to graduate college. He earned an undergraduate degree from the state university in Connecticut before moving to New York City to attend New York University on a writing scholarship. His stories were quick to receive recognition at the school, winning two top literary awards. After completing his MFA, Searles took a job at Redbook magazine reading fiction submissions for fifty cents a story. He soon moved onto a part-time position in the books department at Cosmopolitan, where he is now the Deputy Editor overseeing all book coverage for the magazine.

Upon the publication of his first novel in 2001, Time named him a "Person to Watch" and the New York Daily News dubbed him a "New Yorker to Watch." Searles appears frequently on morning shows such as NBC's Today, CBS's The Early Show, Live! with Regis & Kelly and CNN, where he discusses his favorite seasonal book selections. He is at work on his third novel to be published by William Morrow/HarperCollins in 2010.