ABOUT JENNY

My career includes a decade of project management in advertising, marketing, and film production. Project management honed my organization and collaboration skills. Marketing taught me the impact of clear communication. Filmmaking was exacting in budget and time constraints and exhilarating in terms of team work. Each job entailed writing and editing: talking points, website content, print collateral, press releases, screenplays, and more. 

For several years when my children were born, I was self-employed as a textile artisan and wrote a popular sewing blog called Stumbles & Stitches. My mother and grandmothers always had a needle in hand when I was growing up — stitching seemed genetic. That work led to publications in sewing anthologies by Lark Crafts and a stint as managing editor for Quiltfolk magazine.

I write creative nonfiction in prose and poetry. My writing has been published in Room and WhipUp. My memoir manuscript is currently in revision. 

I'm an alumna of the rigorous Editing program at the University of Washington where I was trained in all aspects of editing. After completing the program in 2016, I deepened my expertise with professional development courses like Editing Memoir and Advanced Developmental Editing through the Editorial Freelancers Association.

I hold a master's degree in sociocultural anthropology from Columbia University in New York and a bachelor's degree from the Moody College of Communication at the University of Texas at Austin where I was selected for the Intensive Film Sequence cohort.​ For many years I wanted to become a documentary filmmaker. That passion for true storytelling and its ethics evolved into my love of creative nonfiction writing.

I have taken myriad writing classes and workshops with Hugo House, Seattle Writes, Hedgebrook, and Creative Nonfiction among other organizations. Some of my favorite teachers have been memoirists Theo Nestor and Claire Dederer, fiction authors Karen Finneyfrock and Jennie Shortridge, and mystery writers Ingrid Thoft and EC Murray.

I grew up in France and I'm fluent in French. I moved to Austin, Texas, as a teenager and have lived in New York, San Francisco, Nashville, and Seattle. I love to travel and my most vivid travel memories are from the stunning coast of Ireland.

I currently reside in Tacoma, Washington, with my husband, our three children, and a cat. When I'm not engulfed in words, you can find me practicing yoga, engaging in a creative activity like sewing or painting, or enjoying the beauty of the Pacific Northwest with my family.