J.E. Knowles' first novel, Arusha, was a Lambda Literary Award Finalist, and her second is The Trees in the Field. She has also edited Faith in Writing, a collection of essays. She grew up in Carter County, Tennessee, and was first published in Phoenix at the age of seventeen. She then went to the University of Chicago, where she earned a B.A. and was a member of the Grey City Journal Editorial Collective. She also holds a Diploma in Jewish Studies from Oxford. Her stories and poems have appeared in Chicago Poet, the Chicago Literary Review, Writer's Block, Canadian Writer's Journal, Read These Lips, QWERTY, and Toe to Toe: Standing Tall and Proud. She is a graduate of the Humber School for Writers in Toronto, and her columns appeared for six years in the lesbian and gay biweekly Xtra! She moved to England on the same day that Mary Travers died.