John Bowers (born 1928) is an American writer. Bowers was raised in Johnson City, Tennessee, during the Great Depression and World War II era. He graduated from Science Hill High School in 1946 and from the University of Tennessee in 1951. From there, he attended the Handy Writers Colony in Marshall, Illinois, founded by and her husband, Harry Handy, along with her student, the best-selling novelist James Jones. An autobiographical account of this adventure is Bowers's first major book, the memoir The Colony, published in 1971.