Jennifer Jacobson

Jennifer is a mother, writer, curriculum developer, and community gardener. She founded the nonprofit, When Children Save the Day, uniting storytelling and social action, and with Voices from Inside, created the Family Storytelling Project for currently and formerly incarcerated women. Jennifer’s prose has been published in Switch, The Masters Review, jubilat, Chronogram, Linea, and Storytelling Magazine and elsewhere, with honorable mentions from Glimmer Train, Hunger Mountain, Symphony Space, and the Tennessee Williams Festival. The Massachusetts Cultural Council, National Storytelling Network, League of New England Storytellers, Straw Dog Writers Guild and Turkey Land Cove Foundation have generously supported Jennifer’s work. Born in Zomba, Malawi, Jennifer now lives in western Massachusetts where she works at UMass Amherst. She served as the associate director of the M.F.A. for Poets and Writers and the director of the Juniper Summer Writing Institutes from 2014 to 2022. She is currently the UMass English department’s director of community engagement. Since 2014, Jennifer has taught at Smith’s pre-college program for creative writing, one of her favorite summer activities!