Jaime Clarke

Jaime Clarke is an American novelist and editor. He is a founding editor of the literary journal Post Road.

Early life and education Clarke was born in Kalispell, Montana, but grew up in Phoenix, Arizona where he graduated from Brophy College Preparatory. He attended Arizona State University as an English major, but flunked out while working as a runner for financier Charles Keating. He earned a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Arizona and an MFA in creative writing from Bennington College in 1997.

Career Clarke moved to New York City where he worked at the Harold Ober Associates literary agency. He quit his job after the release of his debut novel We're So Famous in 2001. Laura van den Berg on Clarke's work wrote, "Jaime Clarke has been one of our foremost chroniclers of obsession since his debut novel, We’re So Famous, appeared in 2001."

He subsequently wrote a trilogy of novels about the protagonist Charlie Martens: Vernon Downs, World Gone Water, and Garden Lakes (2016). He is also the author of the Golden Age detective novel, The Disappearance of Swenson’s Secretary: A Harold Ober Mystery under the pseudonym J.D. West as well as the memoir, Typical of the Times: Growing Up in the Culture of Spectacle, which is the basis for his microcast, Typical.

Clarke has taught creative writing at the University of Massachusetts in Boston and Emerson College.

Personal life Clarke is married to Mary Cotton with whom he owns a bookstore in Newton Centre, Massachusetts.