J.D. O'Brien was educated by nuns and holds a degree from the Jack Dempsey Bartending School in New York City. He has studied under Gordon Lish and Jonathan Ames, and his writing has appeared in McSweeney's, The Lowbrow Reader, Arthur Magazine, and elsewhere. He's been a bartender, a cold caller, and a clerk at the Strand Bookstore. He lives in Massachusetts and has a dog named Lefty.