Jessica Keener

I grew up in the greater Boston area, graduating from high school early because I couldn't wait to get out and explore the world outside the classroom. Eventually, I got my B.A. (with honors) in English from Boston University. I picked up my diploma and a few weeks later checked into a hospital for a bone marrow transplant. For the next 2.5 months, I lived in a sterile room. After I left the hospital, I spent another year under strict orders to keep away from germ-infested crowds. The happy ending to this part of my life is that the transplant worked and was a cure for my (fatal) blood disorder: Aplastic Anemia.

I returned to school for a Masters degree at Brown University's Creative Writing program (fiction). Brown awarded me a full-tuition scholarship based solely on writing excellence. I starting publishing stories, including one called Recovery, which won Redbook's second prize.

--Married and moved to Miami, Florida. Taught ESL, freshman literature and composition classes at the University of Miami, FL. More recently, taught writing at Boston University (2002, 2003).

After Miami, moved to Atlanta then to Budapest, Hungary, then to Portland, ME, back to Greater Boston.

In addition to teaching, I've held several writing and editing jobs including development writer and editor at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston, and an internship at The Atlantic Monthly.

I began freelancing full-time in 1997 for The Boston Globe Magazine and other national magazines including O, The Oprah Magazine, Inspired House, Coastal Living, Design New England and Poets & Writers. I love the variety and enjoy working on deadline.

My short stories have appeared in literary magazines such as Sundog:the Southeast Review, Chariton Review, Northwest Corridor, Heat City Literary Review, Elixir, Night Train, Eclectica, Wilderness House Literary Review, and cited in The Pushcart Prize. Other stories have been finalists or place winners in various contests.

I am also a grateful recipient of a Massachusetts Cultural Council grant in fiction.

In recent years I've been on a few radio shows and was surprised by how much fun I had. You can listen to my National Pubic Radio interview with John Ydstie (click on link). Ydstie asked me to talk about Bill Rosenberg, the founder of Dunkin' Donuts and coauthor of my book, TIME TO MAKE THE DONUTS. Bill died in 2002 at the age 86. He was a fascinating, unique man.

These days I am a fiction editor at Agni, which is published at Boston University and edited by Sven Birkerts (see Agni link in right column).

And the writing, publishing and freelancing continues.

All best,

Jessica