J. Adams Oaks has an MFA from Columbia College Chicago. He curates the RE:Action Reading Series for Around the Coyote and is a member of Serendipity Theatre Collective's story development team. He has been published in Hairtrigger, River Oak Review, 2D, No Touching and The Madison Review. His work won Chicago Public Radio's "Stories on Stage" competition. And his first novel, Why I Fight, (April 2009, Simon and Schuster), won both the National Society of Arts and Letters regional competition and an Illinois Council Fellowship Award.