J.A. Jablonski was born in Milwaukee, WI (USA) and is one of ten children of a university professor and college administrative assistant. Jude worked their way up from flipping burgers, cleaning school classrooms, selling fabric, and assistant managing a bookstore to eventually making their way into academe where they finished 2 degrees in English (BA, MA) and 2 in Information Studies (MSLIS, PhD). They have taught in both disciplines: professional and academic writing, science fiction and fantasy literature, information organization, and database indexing.

They've been a storyteller/maker for as long as they can remember. Telling and making go hand-in-hand; in part, they say, because their family are all natural storytellers who are also creatively talented, e.g., fine artists, woodcrafters, writers, urban planners, calligraphers, automotive repair and paint artists, photographers, and clothing, costume, theater set designers. They themself have been a graphic designer, award-winning display window and exhibits designer, fictional letter writer, live-action role playing actor, theater designer and seamstress.

Jude currently writes in three different genres (mystery, speculative SF, and magical realism) while trying to still keep one foot in the academic scene by researching material culture in utopian fiction. Their pronouns are she/her/them/they; their honorifics are Dr/Ms/Mx.