With over twenty-five years of teaching experience, Jen is currently Professor of English and Creative Writing Coordinator at Norfolk State University. She has written for or appeared on the New York Times, the Washington Post, NPR, Parents, Glamour, Woman’s Day, Self, and others.
Jen has a B.A. in English from Bowdoin College. At the University of Southern California, she earned her Ph.D. in English, M.S. in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages, and a black belt in Taekwondo. She is currently pursuing an MFA in Writing for Children and Young Adults at the Vermont College of Fine Arts.
Jen writes the children’s books she wishes she had growing up as an undiagnosed autistic girl and the books she wants her neurodivergent kids and others like them to have now. She believes neurodivergent kids deserve to see themselves as the heroes and heroines of their own stories. While she writes children’s books especially for kids with different brains, she also wants neurotypical kids to read her books, so they have a better understanding of what it’s like to be a kid with a differently wired brain. |
