He is a founding editor of the literary journal Post Road[1] and co-owner, with his wife, of Newtonville Books, an independent bookstore in Boston.
[3] After graduating, Clarke moved to New York City, where he worked at the Harold Ober Associates literary agency.
His novels Vernon Downs, World Gone Water, and Garden Lakes are part of his Charlie Martens trilogy and is collected in a limited-edition omnibus published by Roundabout Press to celebrate the story collection Minor Characters, (New York Times New & Noteworthy selection) featuring original stories about the minor characters in the trilogy by Mona Awad, Christopher Boucher, Kenneth Calhoun, Nina de Gramont, Ben Greenman, Annie Hartnett, Owen King, Neil LaBute, J. Robert Lennon, Lauren Mechling, Shelly Oria, Stacey Richter, Joseph Salvatore, Andrea Seigel, and Daniel Torday.
The collection features a foreword by Jonathan Lethem, and an introduction by Laura van den Berg.
"[4] He is the author of the Golden Age detective novel, The Disappearance of Swenson’s Secretary: A Harold Ober Mystery under the pseudonym J.D.