About Jack Lewis
Born in Portland, Oregon in 1964, Jack Lewis is a middle-aged curmudgeon of catholic writing proclivity. Jack holds a BA English cum laude from Washington State University and an MFA in screenwriting from the University of Southern California. He wears thick glasses, drinks Ardbeg, owns two motorcycles and a chainsaw, and prefers slip-on shoes.
Jack has two published books: Head Check: What it Feels Like to Ride Motorcycles (2014, Litsam) and Nothing in Reserve: True Stories Not War Stories (2011, Litsam). Nothing in Reserve was selected as a Midwest Book Review Reviewer’s Choice in January 2012.
In 2006, Jack contributed two chapters to Operation Homecoming: Iraq, Afghanistan and the Home Front (ed. Andrew Carroll, Random House 2006), and participated in two documentary films based on that book including Richard Robbins’s Oscar-nominated, Emmy-winning Operation Homecoming: Writing the Wartime Experience. Those writings stemmed from his service leading a tactical psychological operations team in NW Iraq during 2004-2005.
Editorial writing earlier in Jack’s career resulted in the D.B. Houston Journalism Prize, SPJ Editorial Writing honors, Best of the Palouse citation, and WSU Philosophy Club Gadfly of the Year.
Between spasms of frenzied writing activity, Jack has worked as a busboy, geriatric nursing aide, soldier, production assistant, telecommunications circuit designer, soda jerk, computer technician, hotel manager, farm hand, editor, hardware store clerk for the coolest hardware store in Seattle, and motorcycle service writer.
Appearances
Jack read in venues around the PNW including Elliott Bay Books, Third Place Books, and The Writer’s Workshop in support of his 2011 release of Nothing in Reserve: True Stories not War Stories.
Jack has promoted Operation Homecoming on radio talk shows (KING 5 news in Seattle and ABC World News), has appeared at multiple book signings with fellow writers from the Operation Homecoming project, and was a guest at major underwriter Boeing’s annual executive conference.
Jack has appeared four times (in St.Louis, at Kansas University, the Seattle Public Library and Powell’s Books in Portland, Oregon) during March 2007 in support of Richard Robbins’s film, the opening of which resulted in some approving if inaccurate ink on “Road Work” in the New York Times.
Contact Jack
Media inquiries should be made directly to Jack. Images are available on request.
"Jack Lewis takes the overall literary crown with his new book...there’s a lot more to Lewis’s work than what it feels like to ride motorcycles.” — Ultimate Motorcycling
"Insightful and from the heart ... a driven and much recommended look into the mind and conflict of the next generation of war veterans. " — Midwest Book Review (Reviewer's Choice)