come from a superstitious lot, was tutored at a very early age by my grandmother in the sacred art of the four-leaf clover hunt. I knock wood, throw salt, talk to the dead—discretely—so as to pass as a sane member of society, but it’s all there beneath the surface, ready to rear at the slightest hint of trouble. I have red ribbons under the beds, amulets tucked in pockets, and stars or fates that keep sending me off to school.

I received a BA from Cornell, an MFA from Brown in poetry, and another MFA from Vermont College in writing for children and young adults. It was at Vermont College, under the tutelage of my amazing mentors, where the whole marvelous world of children’s literature opened up for me. I was blown away by what was going on, what had been going on, unbeknownst to me, for decades!—voice after voice that just leapt off the page, experimentations in form—it all inspired me to work around the clock on a first novel after previously being devoted solely to writing poetry.

For the past twelve years I’ve been a literary agent with Manus & Associates Literary Agency where I’ve had the pleasure of working with a prodigious group of authors of adult fiction and nonfiction, a group who continually inspires me, as do my colleagues in literary arms at Manus. Before agenting, I worked in theater, doing everything from making palm trees out of styrofoam to stage managing to dramaturgy. I love teaching, and plan to do more in the near future. I’ve taught creative writing at Brown and other places, and given lectures and workshops on various subjects at writers conferences all over the country throughout the year.

Sections of my book length prose poem Somniloquy, a work in perpetual progress, have been published in literary journals like American Letters and Commentary and Five Fingers Review. A section of it was nominated for a Pushcart, and I hope to finish the blasted thing by the time I’m eighty. Over the years, I’ve gotten assorted awards, scholarships and fellowships for my poetry and critical writing. Other miscellaneous info: I’m crazy about Franz Marc’s blue horses, rivers, red desert mountains, innovative neuroses—especially taken to the Woody Allenth degree, Garcia Marquez, Woolf, Steig, night-blooming trees and people. I’m an unabashed foodie and wine lover, a Francophile, an indiscriminate passionate movie go-er, a political junkie and occasional activist. I love California, how it teeters on the edge of the continent. I can’t imagine situating a novel anywhere else.
 
My first YA novel, The Sky Is Everywhere, was published by Dial/Penguin in March 2010. It was chosen as a Junior Library Guild selection, a PW Flying Start debut, an ABC New Voices Pick, a YALSA Best Fiction for Young Adults title and by NPR as one of the five best YA books of the year. It made the Horn Book Fanfare, the BCCB and the Bank Street best of the year lists, among others, and was short and long-listed for prizes around the world including Le Prix des Sorcieres in France and the Carnegie Medal in the UK. Sky will be published in thirteen languages this year. I'm currently working on my second novel, The History of Luck/The Invisible Museum, which will also be published by Dial in the US and Walker in the UK.  

Come visit my website: www.jandynelson.com