An essayist whose work has been published in Electric Lit, The Normal School, and The Fiddlehead, J Brooke (they/e) are the winner of Columbia Journal's 2020 Nonfiction Award, maintain an extensive collection of rare cigar boxes, and once dined alone with Bob Dylan. Brooke is the former nonfiction editor of The Stonecoast Review and is visiting faculty at University of Southern Maine's M.F.A. program. The property in Sag Harbor they share with their spouse, Beatrice, was originally stolen from Algonquian-speaking Native Americans. Brooke's misspent youth was spent in advertising.