Jenny Bitner

         jenny@jennyart.com

 

 

Profile

Teaching and writing professional with five years experience in online and print media. 

Passionate about teaching. Experienced freelance writer and magazine editor.

Strong history of publication including articles, poems, essays and short stories.

 

Education

 

M.F.A. Creative Writing, University of Virginia,1992

 Henry Hoyns Fellow in creative writing. Studied with Charles Wright, Gregory Orr and former poet laureate,

Rita Dove. Charlottesville, Virginia.

 

B.A. English/Philosophy, Morehead State University, 1990

National Merit Finalist, Morehead Distinguished Scholar, Graduated Magna Cum Laude. Morehead, Kentucky.

 

Professional Experience

 

Series Coordinator, The Basement Reading Series,

2002-present, San Francisco

Originator and organizer of a monthly literary reading series for Bay Area writers.

http://www.liminalzone.org/

 

Freelance Writer, January 2001-present

Freelance writer for publications including Men’s Health, the San Francisco Bay

Guardian and Utne Reader.

 

Volunteer Tutor, 826 Valencia Writing Center, 2002-present, San Francisco

Tutor students aged 8-18 in creative and expository writing.

 

Lifestyle Editor, Excite@Home,

November 1999-January 2001, Redwood City

Wrote daily content on work, parenting, travel and health for the 3 million subscribers to Excite@Home

and for Excite.com. Generated daily story ideas and worked with graphic designers to create finished web pages.

 

Editor, To-Do List magazine, 2000-present (part-time) San Francisco

Contributing editor and writer for To-Do List Magazine.

 

Web Content Writer, ROI Direct, 1999, San Francisco

Wrote short, snappy descriptions of e-commerce sites (selling everything from chocolate to Chihuahuas)

for directory of online stores. 

 

Tutoring Coordinator, Back on Track Tutoring,

August 1998-August 1999, San Francisco

Created a new after-school peer-tutoring program providing free after-school tutoring for high school

and middle school students at George Washington High School. Responsible for interviewing, training,

administrative duties, publicity and matching tutors.

 

Editor, Anything That Moves magazine,

1995-1999 (part-time) San Francisco

Editor and writer for a community based international bisexual magazine with a

circulation of 7,000.  Wrote stories, articles, and interviews, copyedited and proofread stories, planned public readings.

 

Radio Intern, KQED Forum, 1996, San Francisco

Co-produced public radio shows on the largest public radio station in the country.

 Researched stories by phone and internet, interviewed guests for shows on topics including

alternative childbirth, state and city ballot initiatives, health and international news stories.

 

Poetry Teacher, 1995-1997, San Francisco

Originated, publicized and taught my own poetry workshop at Grasshopper Theater in San Francisco.

 

Poetry Instructor, University of Virginia, 1990-1992, Charlottesville, VA

Created and taught beginning poetry course to undergraduates. Created syllabus,

taught all courses and evaluated students.

 

Awards

 

Best American Nonrequired Reading, 2002, short story “The Pamphleteer”

selected by Dave Eggers for inclusion for a new anthology in the “Best American” series.

 

Henry Hoyns Fellow in creative writing at University of Virginia.

 

Bucknell Seminar for Younger Poets, Bucknell University Summer 1989

Awarded fellowship to summer program. Ten students picked nationwide. 

 

 

Publications

 

Essay “About Poison: Writing an Experimental Novel,” Kitchen Sink,

Summer 2003.

 

Short story “My Sister, The Writer,” 6500, Summer 2003.

 

Article “Show Me Your Big….Ears,” Men’s Health, May 2003.

http://www.menshealth.com/sex2/she_wants_2.html

 

Poem “Dear Lover” Mid-American Review, Fall 2003.

 

Poems “Dear Spy” and “Dear Monkey,” Fourteen Hills, 2003.

 

Poems “Dear Yellow Dress” and “Dear Rose,” Bird Dog, Spring 2003.

 

Article30 Reasons to Live,” originally published in To-Do List magazine, reprinted in in Utne, Jan/Feb 2003.

 

Short story “The Pamphleteer,” anthology Best American Nonrequired Reading, Houghton Mifflin, 2002.

 

Article “Bars for Introverts” San Francisco Bay Guardian, June 19, 2002.

http://www.sfbg.com/36/38/bars_introverts.html

 

Poem “Dear America,” Watchword magazine, Spring 2002.

 

Short story “She Wants to Marry a Bear,” Comet magazine, 2002.

http://www.cometmagazine.com/fiction/bitner.html

 

Article “Best of the Bay 2001 Neighborhoods: Western Addition,” San Francisco Bay Guardian, July 2001. http://www.bestofthebay.com/2001/western.html

 

Article “It’s a Post-Com World: What do you want to be when you get laid off?” San Francisco Bay Guardian, April 2001. http://www.sfbg.com/Guides/education01/postcom.html

 

Article "I'm Typing As Fast As I Can,” San Francisco Bay Guardian literary section, January 2001.

http://www.sfbg.com/lit/feb01/index.html

 

Daily content in the lifestyle section of Excite@Home and the travel

section of Excite.com from November 2000-January 20001.

 

Essay "Middletown,” To-Do-List Magazine, Winter 2001.

 

Poems “Scarves” and “In The Middle of the Night,” Pleiades, 2000.

 

Essay "Adulthood Revisited," To-Do-List Magazine, Summer 2000.

 

Article "My Personals Family,” To-Do-List Magazine, Summer 2000.

 

Poems “Vultures,” “Flowers,” and “Xipolite Mexico,” The Temple, winter 1999.

 

Poems “Insomnia,” and “ Night of the Bear,” Anything That Moves, Issue #20, Fall 1999.

http://www.anythingthatmoves.com/poetry-fiction.html

 

Interview “Observations of a Spy on a Spy: An interview with bisexual filmmaker Sayer Frey,”

Anything That Moves, #18, fall 1998.

 

Interview “Bisexual Realities: Finding Our Voices,” Interview with Beth Firestein,

Anything That Moves, #14, summer 1997.

 

Article “I’ve Never Had a Bisexual Client: Can a Therapist Help You If She Believes

 You Don’t Exist?” Anything That Moves, #14, summer 1997.

 

Poem "Heaven," Anything That Moves, Issue 11, Summer 1996.

 

Poetry chapbook, Mother, Pine Press, Landisburg, PA, 1995.

 

Poem “Watching The Beaver,” More Than Animals, an anthology of animal poems, Red Tail Press, 1994.

 

Essay about women’s roles “Women Wasted” published in college textbook

Patterns and Themes in Composition, 1990.