Jacob M. Appel has published short fiction in more than seventy literary journals including Agni, Alaska Quarterly Review, Apalachee Review, Beloit Fiction Journal, Confrontation, Colorado Review, Columbia, Florida Review, Green Mountains Review, Greensboro Review, Gulf Stream, Louisiana Literature, Nebraska Review, North Dakota Quarterly, Raritan, Seattle Review, South Dakota Review, Southern Humanities Review, Southwest Review, StoryQuarterly, Subtropics, Threepenny Review, West Branch and Xavier Review. His short story, “Shell Game With Organs,” won the Boston Review Short Fiction Contest in 1998. Another story, “Enoch Arden’s One Night Stands,” won first prize in the New Millennium Writings competition in 2004. A third story, “The Ataturk of the Outer Boroughs,” won the William Faulkner-William Wisdom short story competition. Jacob has also won annual contests sponsored by Missouri Review, Briar Cliff Review, North American Review, Sycamore Review, Writers’ Voice, the Dana Awards and Washington Square. His story about two census takers, “Counting,” was short listed for the O. Henry Award in 2001.  Other stories received "special mention" for the Pushcart Prize in 2006 and 2007. 

Jacob holds a B.A. and an M.A. from Brown University, an M.A. and an M.Phil. from Columbia University, an M.F.A. in creative writing from New York University, and a J.D. from Harvard Law School. He has most recently taught at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island, where he was honored with the Undergraduate Council of Students Award for Excellence in Teaching in 2003, and at the Gotham Writers Workshop in New York City. He also publishes in the field of bioethics and contributes to such publications as the Journal of Clinical Ethics, the Journal of Law, Medicine & Ethics, the Hastings Center Report, and the Bulletin of the History of Medicine. His essays have appeared in The New York Times, The Chicago Tribune, The Providence Journal and many regional newspapers.

Jacob is admitted to the practice of law in New York State and Rhode Island, and is a licensed New York City sightseeing guide.