 As a journalist he wrote for the "Toledo Free Press", which ceased to exist in 2015, and his work has been published in a variety of local, regional and national periodicals.Brooks won Touchstone Awards in 2004 and 2005 for best news articles in a non-daily periodical, awarded by the Toledo Press Club.He was also awarded an Ohio Newspaper Association award in 2005 for his coverage of conditions at the Toledo Jeep facility, which has been translated into German, Spanish and Portuguese.