JJ is a writer and professor.

He has, in no particular order: received a Master’s degree in creative writing from the University of Southern California; lived in Sydney, Australia; hiked (and, yeah, okay hitch-hiked) 2,000 miles from Maine to Georgia by way of the Appalachian Trail; been a teenager in the suburbs of New Jersey; majored in English at Georgetown University; published short fiction in the Santa Monica Review and Fifth Wednesday; taught writing at USC; had his work rejected literally hundreds of times; been a stay-at-home dad; written a young adult novel, which you can read about here; been mistaken for a street performer and arrested on Hollywood Blvd., which he wrote about for LA Weekly; quit social media forever (or until his agent makes him join again); and had stage plays produced in Los Angeles, San Diego, St. Louis, and New York, one of which was a finalist in the Neil LaBute New Theater Festival and featured the reincarnation of Elvis. 

He currently teaches in the Literature Department at American University in Washington, DC.