Even if you’re a prize-winning author and one of the country’s most respected journalists, it’s always good to have a fallback career.

Just ask Say Nothing and Empire of Pain author Patrick Radden Keefe. The writer recently took a turn in front of the camera in a photo shoot for J. Crew, the New York Times reports.

Keefe, who won the National Book Critics Circle Award for Say Nothing and the Baillie Gifford Prize for Empire of Pain, appeared in an Instagram post for J. Crew, the 41-year-old clothing retailer known for its preppy looks.

In the photos, Keefe wears a variety of outfits, including a plaid jacket over a blue polo shirt and a trench coat over a suit and tie. In some photos, he is clutching a cup of coffee; in others, a copy of the New Yorker magazine, where some of his best-known articles have appeared.

Keefe told the Times that he got the gig after an acquaintance, brand consultant Chris Black, suggested him to the retailer.

“It’s in the genre of what if we had regular people, what if we had someone who’s not a catalog model, do this kind of thing,” Keefe said. “They couldn’t get Daniel Craig, and they were like, all right, who’s next on our list?”

Keefe, whose most recent book, Rogues, was published in 2022, said he does not intend to leave the literary life behind in favor of a career on the catwalk.

“I’m gonna hold on to my day job,” he said. Asked by Times reporter Jacob Gallagher whether modeling agencies were “banging down his door,” Keefe gave an answer bound to disappoint readers hoping he’ll be the next David Gandy: “So far it has been deafening silence.”

Gallagher seems more bullish on Keefe’s new career. “I chatted with the hottest model of the moment,” he posted on the social platform X. Eat your heart out, Lucky Blue Smith.

Michael Schaub is a contributing writer.