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OTHER WRITINGS

Short Fiction

When Jen isn’t writing novels for young adults and adults—or let’s be honest, while she’s writing novels—she’s also diving into other worlds: short fictions that bite and scream along the edges of speculative spaces; essays that braid together narratives of the personal with what’s happening in the world; and the occasional, not-so-great, poem.

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SHORT FICTION

 

LITERARY JOURNALS

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“This Story is Against Resilience, Supports Screaming As Needed,” CBC Books (2023). Web.

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“Missing,” The Malahat Review 219 (Summer 2022): 5-49. Print.

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“Hunting for Wolf” The Malahat Review 216 (Fall 2021): 5-7. Print.

 

"Ab-si-dee” Room Magazine 44.3 (2021): Print.

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"The Last Polling Station Reporting” Hairstreak Butterfly Review 3 (Spring 2020). Web.

“Like Water” Meridian 44 (2020): 133-7. Print.

“The Pleiades Cluster” Grain 46.5 (Fall 2019). Print.

“How to Calculate the Depth of a Line” pacificREVIEW: A West Coast Arts Review Annual (2019). Print.

“Like Grass” Quarterly West 96 (Summer 2019). Web.

“Poached Eggs in Space” 3Elements Review 22 (Spring 2019). Web.

“She Will Become a Bird Scientist” matchbook (January 28, 2019). Web.

“What’s Behind You” Oyster River Pages (Summer 2018). Web.

“The Rodeo” Embark 5 (July 2018). Web.

“72 Hour Leave” Temenos (Spring 2017): 7-8. Web.

“The Crossing” [a one-act play] Swamp Ape Review (Jan 2017)

“The Intersection[s]” in Eleven Eleven 20

“Brotherhood of Men” in The Delmarva Review 8

“You Couldn’t Undo a Night of Drinking at Sixteen” in carte blanche 24

“Print Predictions: a story” in Wreck Park 0.1

“[Everyday Magic]” in Foliate Oak Literary Magazine

“Portrait of a Centennial Community” in Stirring: a Literary Collection 17.3

“Both Sides, Again” in Festival Writer 2.5

“The Dead” & “Just Like it Should” in Festival Writer 2.4

“CHOOSE YOUR OWN ADVENTURE: THE DETROIT-WINDSOR TUNNEL, 2010” in jmww

“Thoughts on Pacaya” in Thrice Fiction 8

“The Cake Man” in 605 Magazine

“Guatemala III” & “Guatemala IV” in Storm Cellar 2.3

“Boneyards and Other Places to Sleep” in The Citron Review

“Smart Girl” in Work Magazine 3.42

“Corner Shop” & “Ice Cream Around the World” in The Maynard 2.2

“Marie” & “Guatemala V” in Glossolalia 1.3

“Rapeseed” in Existere, Journal of Arts and Literature 28.2 (Under pseudonym).

“Guatemala” in NANO Fiction 2.2

“Saskatchewan Sky” in Excalibur: York University’s Community Newspaper, Creative Writing Supplement

Just YA: Short Poems, Stories & Essays

Just YA: Short Poems, Essays & Fiction for Grades 7-12

Just YA cover (16).png

Just YA: Short Poems, Essays, & Fiction is a powerful collection of literature celebrating the diverse and dynamic experiences of contemporary youth. This open-access anthology features short texts that can be read in a single class period and are designed to spark deep conversations.

 

Organized around themes of identity, love, place, justice, and the future, these works offer inclusive and affirming perspectives. With contributions from  acclaimed young adult authors, flash fiction writers, and teacher-poets, Just YA provides educators with contemporary texts that resonate with and inspire today’s students.

 

All content is freely available online, encouraging widespread access and use.

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Bonus feature: This book includes 50 pages of instructional materials for teachers.

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Just YA: Short Poems, Essays and Fiction
Essays
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ESSAYS

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ANTHOLOGIES


“Off Balance” Best Canadian Essays 2020 (Biblioasis) (Oct 2020). Print & e-book.

“Off Balance” Re:Creation Stories Anthology (Frog Hollow Press) (2020): 36-58. Print.



LITERARY JOURNALS

“Floods and Other Disasters.” The Fiddlehead (forthcoming 2022).

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“Maple Creek. Summer. Late August” Sweet 14.1 (Fall 2021). Web.

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“On Bloodlettings” The Iowa Review 50.3 (Winter 20202/2021). Print.


“Off Balance” Hamilton Arts & Letters, Re:Creation Stories (March 2020). Web.

"Crush" The Nasonia (Dec 2019). Web.

“My Carrie Fisher Year” Big Muddy (May 2019). Web.

“On Sharks” Muse/A Journal 9 (Spring 2019). Print.

“Excerpt from the Annotated Syllabus” Crab Fat Magazine (April 2019). Web.

“Excavating Rias: the Balkans 1995, the Balkans 2016.” The Malahat Review 204 (Autumn 2018): 7-17. Print.

“She’d Title This Essay Something Like: Complains, Concerns, and Shit She Can’t Escape, Like These Problems Are Ingrained in the Walls of Her Very Fleshy, Very Bloody, Beating Heart” York Literary Review (2018): 63-66. Print.

“What We Pretend to Know About the Ocean.” The Account: A Journal of Poetry, Prose, & Thought 11 (Fall 2018). Web.

“Dead in America” Gigantic Sequins 9.2 (Summer 2018): 56-68. Print.

“On Facing Rejection” s [r] blog (March 24, 2018). Web.

“The Things That Will Shape Us Under the Surface” Superstition Review 20 (Fall 2017). Web.

“Why I Write, In Brief” Fiction Southeast (Sept 2017). Web.

“They Say I’m Lucky I Haven’t Had It Worse” Santa Clara Review 104.1 (Winter 2017). Online and pages 66-75 in the print edition.

“Quebec’s Reluctant Daughter” MacMedia Magazine (Mar 2008).

“Ode to Aspartame” MacMedia Magazine (Feb 2008).

“Country in My, Ahem, Soul” MacMedia Magazine (Jan 2008).

“The New Heroes” MacMedia Magazine (Dec 2007).

“The Pessimist Manifesto” Excalibur: York University’s Community Newspaper (2007).

“The Construction Manifesto” Excalibur: York University’s Community Newspaper (2007).

Best Canadian Essays 2020
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BEST CANADIAN ESSAYS 2020

BEST CANADIAN ESSAYS 2020 - Light green book cover

The twelfth installment of Best Canadian Essays speaks with striking prescience to our contemporary moment.

 

"This book--like most that have found their way into the world this fall--began life in the Before Times," writes editor Sarmishta Subramanian. Written and first published by leading magazines and journals in 2019, the essays selected here speak with striking prescience to our contemporary moment. From health concerns both global and individual; to decisions about how much of ourselves we should share, online and in person; to surveillance capitalism and cancel culture, public and private concerns intertwine throughout Best Canadian Essays 2020. Just as our current challenges in public health, policing, and justice require researchers, lawmakers, and citizen groups, writes Subramanian, they also require writers. Here she presents sixteen, "essaying in the French sense of the word to think it through."


Featuring work by: James Brooke-Smith - Larissa Diakiw - Jenny Ferguson - Wayne Grady - Alexandra Kimball - Amorina Kingdon - Andy Lamey - Michael LaPointe - Benjamin Leszcz - Alanna Mitchell - Alexandra Molotkow - Jeremy Narby - Andrew Nikiforuk - Michelle Orange - Christina Sharpe - Carl Wilson

Poems
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POEMS

 

LITERARY JOURNALS

 

“The Body That Calls, or White-Coded in the News Cycle” Prairie Fire.

“Yes, I Gave Him Mono…” in Kentucky Review

“Now, You and I Crunch Like an Overpriced Gluten-Free Pretzel” in 
Apeiron Review 9

“One, Two, Three, Four Little Ponies” in 
Josephine Quarterly

“Places We Have Emptied” & “A Catalogue of Bugs, Filed Under ‘Phobias I Once Had’” in In/Words Magazine 14.3

“Girl Atomic” in HOUND 1

“Ode to Summer Camp in the Second Person” in 
Dialogist 2.1

“Untitled, in Winter” in Cactus Heart 8.5

“After the Trial, October 4th 2013” in 
Sweet 6.2

“THIS POEM IS A BUMPER STICKER” in 
Gravel

“Defence After Stealing the Afghan Blanket,” “We’re Living on Mars!” & “Consignment Life” in Spittoon Magazine 3.3

“In Which Summertime You Again Chase Bear” in 
The Fieldstone Review 6

“Father’s Day Snapshot” in Architrave Press Edition 4

“This Week in Mad Science” & “Leave-taking” in 
Stone Highway Review 2.2

“The Catholic Guilt” & “That Summer of Cigar Sunrises” in burntdistrict 2.1

Critical Publications
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CRITICAL PUBLICATIONS

 

CRAFT

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Far Villages: Welcome Essays for New & Beginner Poets

“The Five Senses Are Imagery / Imagery is Poetry,” Far Villages: Welcome Essays for New & Beginner Poets, edited by Abayomi Animashaun, Black Lawrence Press (June 2020): 120-1. Print.

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Poetry manuals, at their most essential, are aimed at demystifying aspects of poetry, in order to make poetry less daunting – especially for beginner poets. Such manuals are also reminders that poetry itself is a discipline with a landscape and a history. Far Villages builds on the body of work in this tradition by bringing a number of established and emerging poets together in a single volume to welcome new and beginner poets to the art of poetry, its craft, and the long journey within it.

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PEDAGOGY

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“Teaching Creative Writing as Composition: Kekla Magoon’s How It Went Down, Social Justice Texts, and Expanding Student Narratives of Difference Through Use of Engaged Pedagogy and Significant Learning Goals.” Ideology and Identity in Young Adult Literature: Connections to the Composition Classroom, edited by Tamara Girardi and Abigail Scheg, McFarland (Fall 2018): 144-155. Print.

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Young adult literature holds an exceptional place in modern American popular culture. Accessible to readers of all levels, it captures a diverse audience and tends to adapt to the big screen in an exciting way. With its wide readership, YAL sparks interesting discussions inside and outside of the classroom. This collection of new essays examines how YAL has impacted college composition courses, primarily focusing on the first year. Contributors discuss popular YA stories, their educational potential, and possibilities for classroom discussion and exercise.

Far Villages
YA Literature
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