John Briscoe's poetry has been praised by Foreword, Kirkus, and US Review of Books, as well as others. He received the Oscar Lewis Award for Western History in 2020, among other awards, for his book Crush: The Triumph of California Wine, and for his other historical works. His book A Child's Christmas in San Francisco, a work of narrative and light verse, was a Foreword Indie Finalist in 2021.Briscoe is also a lawyer, advising and representing clients such as Kuwait, Mexico, the Republic of Korea (South Korea), Ethiopia and the United Nations in cases of international-boundary disputes, the dumping of nuclear waste into the oceans, the environmental consequences of war, and alleged violations of the laws of war.He is a Distinguished Fellow at the University of California, Berkeley School of Law, and has served on the Advisory Board of the St. Mary's College of California MFA Program in Creative Writing since its founding in 1995. Briscoe is co-owner of Sam's Grill, a famed gathering place of writers, artists, steamfitters, cops, poets and politicians in downtown San Francisco.