Jim Chastain wears many hats. On the professional side, he's an author, attorney, journalist, film critic, poet, screenwriter, and band manager who likes to talk about himself in third person. On the personal side, he's a husband, father, cancer survivor, and generally strange fellow. He lives in Norman, Oklahoma with his wife LeAnn and two kids, Maddye and Ford.  

Jim’s memoir, I Survived Cancer, but Never Won the Tour de France, a collection of essays and poems, was published in October of 2006 by HAWK Publishing and was named Top Ten Nonfiction of 2006 by the Austin Chronicle. The book covers Jim's five year battle with cancer and includes a series of horror stories that will cause you to choke on your doughnut with laughter.

Jim is an attorney for the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals. He's a judicial assistant, or, as some have said, a “legal ghostwriter.” Jim helps resolve dozens of criminal  trials each year, involving some of the strangest stories one can ever imagine. He refers to his job writing opinions for the Court as the "very essence of creative writing."

Jim has also written many feature articles for the award-winning magazine Oklahoma Today and for the Oklahoma Gazette alternative weekly.

Jim has been a film critic for The Norman Transcript for more a decade. His film reviews have also appeared in The Edmond Evening Sun, The Enid News and Eagle and The Briefcase. Many may be accessed on the popular Rotten Tomatoes website. Jim is a founding member of the Oklahoma Film Critic's Circle.

Jim’s screenplay, The Dead Game, finished in the top ten percent of screenplay entries at the 2003 Austin Film Festival. He also co-wrote a second screenplay, Saint Nick. Jim will soon enter another year with firm intentions on submitting these somewhere.

Jim has many poetry credits, including recent poems in World Literature Today and Oklahoma Today. He has been a featured reader at the Oklahoma Festival of the Arts, Full Circle Bookstore, Benedict Street Market, Performing Arts Studio, Scissortail Creative Writing Festival, and the Woody Guthrie Folk Festival. He has twice been named to the poet laureate nominating committee and has served as a state finalist judge for Poetry Out Loud. His first poetry book, Like Some First Human Being, was released in late 2006, and his second, Antidotes and Home Remedies, was released in July of 2008. Jim also has a few songwriting credits that result in royalties of about $2.00 a year. 

Jim loves hanging out with his family. His wife teaches math at Whittier Middle School in Norman and recently ran a half marathon. His daughter Maddye is an awesome swimmer who is interested in art and multimedia. His son Ford is a musician and songwriter who founded the popular rock band, Refuje, and has just released his own solo EP.