Jess is an educator, librarian and writer with 20 years’ experience. She founded a library of 20,000 volumes for Bard High School Early College Queens. Her writing has appeared in the New York Times, Literary Hub, Insider, School Library Journal, Ms., Newsweek, and literary journals such as Quarterly West and monkeybicycle. A Pushcart Prize nominee, she also won first prize in the Pen Parentis Writing Fellowship. Jess has taught literature and coordinated popular author talks for her high school/early college and graduate students, and at her local bookstore, Kew & Willow. Her English doctoral studies will focus on visual texts, graphic novels and the topic of mental health and trauma in children’s and YA literature.