Clarke moved to New York City where he worked at the
Harold Ober Associates literary agency. He quit his job after the release of his debut novel ''We're So Famous'' in 2001.
Laura van den Berg on Clarke's work wrote, "Jaime Clarke has been one of our foremost chroniclers of obsession since his debut novel,
We’re So Famous, appeared in 2001." He subsequently wrote a trilogy of novels about the protagonist Charlie Martens:
Vernon Downs,
World Gone Water, and
Garden Lakes (2016). He is also the author of the Golden Age detective novel,
The Disappearance of Swenson’s Secretary: A Harold Ober Mystery under the pseudonym J.D. West as well as the memoir,
Typical of the Times: Growing Up in the Culture of Spectacle, which is the basis for his microcast, Typical. Clarke has taught creative writing at the
University of Massachusetts in Boston and
Emerson College. ==Personal life==