Christopher John Farley has been a member of the TIME magazine staff since the fall of 1992. As a senior writer covering arts and entertainment, he serves as the magazine's chief music critic in addition to covering national affairs. During his tenure at TIME, Farley has written cover stories on Ricky Martin and Latin music, Lauryn Hill and hip-hop culture, and smoking in America. In addition, his numerous profiles of influential personalities include Aretha Franklin, Whitney Houston, Neil Young and Chris Rock to name a few. Farley has also written numerous book reviews, as well as features on the militia movement, civil rights, and anti-smoking legislation.

Previous to his position at TIME, Farley worked as a general assignment reporter for the Life section of USA Today where he covered entertainment, features and lifestyles, interviewing luminaries such as Oprah Winfrey, Jodie Foster, Nadine Gordimer and Spike Lee in his time there. The National Association of Black Journalists lauded him in three separate categories for his journalistic achievements in 1998. In addition, he was a finalist for the Livingston Award for exceptional journalists under 34 and the recipient of the Minority Issues Award from the Deadline Club of New York for his investigative piece, "Dead Teen Walking" (January 19, 1998).

He has appeared on CNN's Showbiz Today, ABC-TV's Good Morning America, NBC's Today Show, PBS's Charlie Rose Show, MSNBC, MTV News, BET, VH1, and various national radio programs.

In August of 1996, Farrar Straus & Giroux published his first novel, My Favorite War, a satiric look at the Persian Gulf War and American society in the 1990s. The Boston Globe gave the book rave reviews: "Farley is...a savagely smart and savvy observer." Mademoiselle deemed it "worth missing Friends for" and the Washington Post called the book "one of those rare jewels. It has everything a page-turner should, and it also has 'layers' (the required ingredient of literary fiction)." My Favorite War has also been published in England and has been translated into German, French and Spanish. Ecco books published the American paperback edition in early 1998. Farley is also featured in the upcoming anthology Step into a World: A Global Anthology of the New Black Literature, which was published in September of 2000 by John Wiley & Sons.

Farley graduated with honors from Harvard University in 1988 with a B.A. in government. At Harvard, he was an editor at the Harvard Crimson and the Harvard Lampoon. As an undergraduate he also worked as a contributing reporter for the Boston Globe and the Chicago Tribune.

Born in Kingston, Jamaica and raised in Brockport, New York, Farley now lives in New York City with his wife, CNBC News reporter Sharon Epperson.