Coyne was born in Chicago United States; at age of ten he began working as a caddie at Midlothian Country Club near Chicago, Illinois. After graduating from Saint Louis University, he earned a masters in English at Western Michigan University, served in the Air Force, and in the Peace Corps from 1962 to 1964, teaching English at the Commercial School in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. He currently lives in Pelham Manor, New York, with his wife and son, where he works in communications and edits PeaceCorpsWriters.org.

Coyne became one of modern horror fiction's "brand name" writers with the publication of his first novel, The Piercing, in 1978. He followed this up with a number of other horror novels, including bestsellers such as The Legacy and Hobgoblin, before cutting back on genre writing in the mid 1980s. His short stories have been collected in a number of "best of" anthologies, including Modern Masters of Horror and The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror.

Coyne's most recent novels, The Caddie Who Knew Ben Hogan, was published in 2006 and is a literary exploration of golf and everyday life. Norman Rush praised the novel, saying that "John Coyne has managed to employ golf as a lens through which aspects of Midwestern daily life in the 1940s, of thwarted love, of social class, are revealed with stark and unsettling clarity." His latest novel is "The Caddie Who Played With Hickory" which is set in 1946 at the Midlothian Country Club.

Novels

• The Legacy, NY: Berkley, 1979
• The Piercing, NY: G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 1979
• The Searing, NY: G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 1980
• Hobgoblin, NY: G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 1981
• The Shroud, NY: Berkley, 1983
• Brothers & Sisters, NY: Dutton, 1986
• The Hunting Season, NY: Macmillan, 1987
• Fury, NY: Warner Books, 1989
• Child of Shadows, NY: Warner Books, 1990
• The Caddie Who Knew Ben Hogan, Thomas Dunne Books, 2006; paperback, St. Martin's Griffin, 2007.
• The Caddie Who Played With Hickory", Thomas Dunne Books, 2008; paperback, St. Martin's Griffin, 2009.

Selected short stories

• "Cabin in the Woods" Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine, July 1976. Reprinted in Modern Masters of Horror (1988).
• "The Crazy Chinaman" published in The Dodd Mead Gallery of Horror, ed. Charles L. Grant, 1983. Reprinted in Gallery of Horror by Stephen King, Charles L. Grant, 1997.
• "Snow Man" published in Monsters in Our Midst, ed. Robert Bloch, (1993). Reprinted in The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror: Seventh Annual Collection (1994).
• "The Ecology of Reptiles" published in Predators, ed. Ed Gorman & Martin H. Greenberg (1993). reprinted in The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror: Seventh Annual Collection (1994).

Anthologies

• Alfred Hitchcock’s Tales to Take Your Breath Away, NY: Dial Press, 1977 (Contributor)
• Hitchcock's Anthology, 1977 (Contributor)
• The Berkley Showcase: New Writings in Science Fiction and Fantasy, no date (Contributor)
• Modern Masters Of Horror, Coward, McCann & Geoghegan, 1981 (Contributor)
• Dodd Mead Gallery Of Horror, 1983 (Contributor)
• The Second Black Lizard Anthology of Crime Fiction, 1988 (Contributor)
• Masques IV, Pulphouse Publishing, 1993 (Contributor)
• Monsters in Our Midst, Tor, 1993 (Contributor)
• Predators, Roc, 1993 (Contributor)
• The Year's Best Fantasy & Horror (contributor), St. Martin's Press, 1994
• Gallery of Horror (contributor), Penguin Group, 1997.
• Living on the Edge: Fiction by Peace Corps Writers, editor and contributor, Curbstone Press, 1999

Selected Nonfiction

• Letters from the Peace Corps (contributor), Washington: Robert B. Luce, Inc., 1964
• Better Golf, Follett, 1972
• This Way Out: A Guide to Alternatives to Traditional College Education in the United States, Europe and the Third World, with Tom Hebert, NY: Dutton, 1972 (Co-author)
• Getting Skilled: A Guide to Private Trade and Technical Schools, with Tom Hebert, NY: Dutton, 1972 (Co-author)
• New Golf For Women, NY: Doubleday, 1973
• By Hand: A Guide to Schools and Careers in Crafts, with Tom Hebert, NY: Dutton, 1974 (Co-author)
• Ellery Queen's Cookbook, Random House, 1974 (Contributor)
• Playing with the Pros: Golf Instruction from the Senior Tour, NY: Dutton, 1990
• Peace Corps Writers Talk About Their Craft: Talking with . . . (21 Interviews), Rochester, NY: RPCV Writers & Readers, 1992 (Editor)
• Going Up Country, Travel Essays by Peace Corps Writers, Scribner’s, 1994 (Editor)
• To Touch the World: The Peace Corps Experience, editor and contributor, Peace Corps/USGPO, DC, 1994, 1995
• At Home in the World: The Peace Corps Story, editor and contributor, Peace Corps/USGPO, 1996
• Peace Corps: The Great Adventure, editor and contributor, Peace Corps/USGPO, 1997, 1999