J.D. Mathes

I am a screenwriter, 2019-2020 PEN America Writing for Justice Fellow, award-winning author of four books, photographer, book critic, and librettist. Two of my four books are Shipwrecks and Other Stories - awarded Honorable Mention Los Angeles Book Festival - and a memoir, Ahead of the Flaming Front: A Life on Fire - awarded the North American Book Prize for Memoir, about my experiences fighting wildfire throughout the American West, including four years on an elite helicopter rappel crew and ten years as a crew boss and an incident commander. My script, In The Desert of Dark and Light,” is in pre-production.