Forbes is the author of numerous books, monographs and articles. He is also a poet, a writer of fiction, and a guest lecturer in Russia, Japan, Britain, Netherlands, Germany, Italy, France, Canada, Belgium, Switzerland, Norway, Mexico and elsewhere. He received his Ph.D from the University of Southern California in 1959, having graduated from Glendale College in l953 and from Eagle Rock High School in 1951. Forbes was born at Bahia de los Alamitos in Suanga (Long Beach) California in l934. He grew up on a half-acre farm in El Monte del Sur in the San Gabriel Valley and in Eagle Rock, Los Angeles, California.

Professor Forbes has served as a Visiting Fulbright Professor at the University of Warwick, England, as the Tinbergen Chair at the Erasmus University of Rotterdam, as a Visiting Scholar at the Institute of Social Anthropology and Linacre College of Oxford University, and as a Visiting Professor in Literature at the University of Essex, England.

His novel RED BLOOD appeared in 1997 from Theytus Books of Canada. His chapbook WHAT IS TIME? is now in print, along with NAMING OUR LAND and EL-LAY RIOTS, two earlier collections of poetry.

Jack Forbes is the recipient of the Before Columbus Foundation's American Book Award for Lifetime Achievement for 1997. He has also been a Guggenheim Fellow.