"Storytelling is about exploring the nuances of life, the anguish within beauty and wisdom within pain. When we hold our stories inside, they weigh us down. When we release them, we find not only our voice but perspective and a different way of engaging with the world."
Jen was a high school dropout who went on to find purpose through writing, which led her to earn a BA in English from Otterbein University (cum laude) and an MFA from Bennington College. Now, her short fiction and creative nonfiction are taught in classrooms and appear in over a hundred publications around the world, including The Best Small Fictions (edited by Amy Hempel), Chicago Tribune, Chicago Quarterly Review, Room Magazine, and The Saturday Evening Post. Her collections include The Glass City (Prize Americana winner), Resolutions (AUX Media), and After the Gazebo (a Pen/Faulkner nominee). Jen’s chapbook of flash fiction, Dandelion Ghosts, was released in 2021, and she is currently working on a craft book about how to write compelling fiction.
Jen's first novel, We Arrive Uninvited, was one of the top-rated projects of all time on Coverfly's Red List for family stories. It won the Winter Goose Award and the Steel Toe Books (STB) Award in Prose in the same week. It will be released by STB in Spring 2023.
After teaching creative writing for over a decade, Jen began to coach writers 1:1 and offer idea-to-publication services through Unleash Creatives, a holistic arts organization she founded and co-owns.
Buy Jen's new novel, WE ARRIVE UNINVITED, here.
Author Bio:
The co-owner of Unleash Creatives, Jen Knox is an educator and storyteller who teaches writing, leadership, and meditation.
Her books include the short story collections The Glass City (Hollywood, CA: Winner, Prize Americana for Prose), After the Gazebo (New York City, NY: Rain Mountain Press), and Resolutions: A Family in Stories (AUXmedia).
Jen was the 2020 Editor's Choice recipient for the Flash Fiction Magazine's competition. Her writing has been nominated for the Pen Faulkner, The Best of the Net, and a Pushcart. Her short stories have been featured in textbooks, classrooms, and both online and print publications around the world. Her fiction appears in The Best Small Fictions 2017 (Braddock Avenue Books), The Adirondack Review, Sivana East, Chicago Tribune's Printers Row, Chicago Quarterly Review, Cosmonauts Avenue, Crannog, Cutthroat Magazine, Elephant Journal, Fairlight Books, Fiction Southeast, Juked, McSweeney's Internet Tendency, MJI News, Poor Claudia, The Saturday Evening Post, The Santa Fe Writers Project Quarterly, NPR, Short Story America, and Sequestrum, among over a hundred other publications. Read many of her stories here.
Jen has had the pleasure to read her work for Gemini Ink in San Antonio, Texas; Eastfield College near Dallas, Texas; Otterbein University in Ohio; Busboys and Poets in Washington DC; Columbus Arts Festival in Ohio; KGB in New York; Cervena Barva Press in Massachusetts; AWP in California and elsewhere.
The company Jen co-owns is Unleash Creatives, a holistic arts organization that provides writing, mind-body coaching and art services. For visual arts services, additional workshops, and more, go to unleashcreatives.net
Mission and Vision:
I write to explore. I teach to empower.
Storytelling is about exploring the nuances of life, the anguish within beauty and the wisdom within pain. When we hold our stories inside, they weigh us down. When we release them, we find not only voice but also perspective.
I am an educator and storyteller who teaches leadership, writing, and meditation - sometimes all at once. Every day, I write with the aim of asking new and better questions. I teach with the aim of helping others to do the same.
My vision is to continue on, words to page, and to provide creativity coaching and mind-body services that enable you to break blocks, create the life you want, and make the art you were meant to make.
Jen's holistic training and experience:
-
MFA, Bennington College
-
Lecturer, The Ohio State University
-
Lecturer, San Antonio Community College
-
Director, Gemini Ink
-
200hr through Uplifted™ Yoga YTT
-
Kundalini Training RaMa Institute
-
Yoga instructor at Kula Yoga and Wellness
-
Meditation instructor at Insight Timer
-
Science of Well-Being Course at Yale University