J. D. Mathes is a 2019-2020 PEN America Writing for Justice Fellow, a screenwriter with Rehabilitation Through the Arts, a recipient of the Norman Levan Grant, a Jack Kent Cooke Scholar alumnus, an award-winning author of four books, photographer, book critic, screenwriter, and librettist. He is currently working on a book length project with The New Press called ILL SERVED which will tell the stories of justice involved veterans and their experiences with mass incarceration. His script, In the Desert of Dark and Light, is in post-production. He loves his two daughters very much.