Joseph Edward "Jay" Lake, Jr. was an American science fiction and fantasy writer. He was born on June 6, 1964, and passed away on June 1, 2014. In 2003, he was a quarterly first-place winner in the Writers of the Future contest, and in 2004, he won the prestigious John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer in Science Fiction.

Lake lived in Portland, Oregon, and worked as a product manager for a voice services company. His writings appeared in numerous publications, including Postscripts, Realms of Fantasy, Interzone, Strange Horizons, Asimov's Science Fiction, Nemonymous, and the Mammoth Book of Best New Horror.

He was also an editor for the "Polyphony" anthology series from Wheatland Press and a contributor to The Internet Review of Science Fiction.