A native of central Kentucky, John Brooks (b. 1978) studied Political Science and English literature at the College of Charleston, South Carolina, with continuing education in art at Central St. Martins and the Hampstead School of Art in London, England. His visual work has been exhibited in the United States and Europe and is held in the collections of 21C Museum Hotels, Grinnell College Museum of Art, OZ Arts, The University of Kentucky Medical Center, and numerous private collections; he has been featured in The New Yorker, The Yale Review, and Golf Digest. Brooks' poetry has been published in Good River Review, Assaracus, East by Northeast, and Plainsongs, and he has written criticism for Ruckus Journal and UnderMain. Over the last two decades, he spent several years in London and Chicago and has been based in Louisville, Kentucky, since late 2013. From 2017-2022, Brooks operated Quappi Projects, a Louisville-based contemporary art gallery focusing on exhibiting work reflecting the zeitgeist, where he curated over twenty-five exhibitions.