John Champagne received his BA from the Hunter College Thomas Hunter Honors Program (where he studied with Louise DeSalvo, Audre Lorde, Elizabeth Beaujour, and Eve Leoff), his MA in Cinema Studies from NYU, and his Ph D in English/Critical and Cultural Studies from the University of Pittsburgh. The author of two novels and three monographs of cultural criticism, Champagne works in queer theory/gender and sexuality studies in a multinational frame. His most recent book is Italian Masculinity as Queer Melodrama: Caravaggio, Puccini, Contemporary Cinema. Dividing his time between Erie and his 33 square meter apartment in Perugia, Champagne is married to Richard Krone (because getting married was easier than hiring a lawyer).
Before landing at Hunter, Champagne went for a semester to the UW Milwaukee; worked as a waiter and in a factory that produced industrial buffs; attended Goddard College for a year (the year it was debating whether to fold or sell off part of the campus to a military academy); went to NYU Undergraduate drama for a semester (until he ran out of money); worked playing ballet classes, accompanying singers, and in wholesale tabletop gifts.