Jen Bryant

Jen Bryant (née Jennifer Fisher) was born in Easton, Pennsylvania, but grew up in Flemington, New Jersey. Bryant grew up next to a funeral home, where her father and grandfather were undertakers. She was fascinated by the manual typewriter her father used and would “try and copy whatever material happened to be lying around: drafts of obituaries. And what are obituaries, really, but one’s life summed up in a paragraph or two? Good ones leave an impression of the person as an individual. I suppose as I practiced typing them, I must have absorbed some of the craft behind the writing of these little ‘biographies'.”

Selected children’s books by Jen Bryant have been translated into Spanish, Korean, Chinese, Japanese and Hebrew. Six Dots, her biography of inventor Louis Braille is available in a print/ braille edition.

“Working with an Editor,” Nonfictionary, Bookology magazine, February 8, 2018, accessed Oct. 29, 2018

"It's Not Pretty," Jen Bryant, Bookology magazine, Knock Knock, Apr. 25, 2015, accessed Oct. 29, 2018

"The Writing Apprenticeship," Jen Bryant, Bookology magazine, Knock Knock, Nov. 11, 2015, accessed Oct. 29, 2018

After moving with her family to Chester County, Pennsylvania, Jen Bryant began to write poetry, to study independently with poet Tina Barr, and to host poetry readings in local independent bookstores. Encouraged and mentored by Eileen Spinelli and Jerry Spinelli, authors, she began to write picture books and novels in verse and to submit them to publishers. She continued to teach and to write while obtaining an master of arts in English (1999) from Arcadia University, mentored by poet David Keplinger.

Beginning in 1999, Bryant taught writing and children's literature at West Chester University and delivered lectures and workshops for schools and colleges. She continued to write poetry for adults as well as novels and picture books for children, eventually focusing on the latter as her publications list grew. Bryant's writing for children has been recognized with several awards and honors, including the Robert F. Sibert International Book Medal, the NCTE Orbis Pictus Award, the Charlotte Zolotow Honor Award and the Schneider Family Book Award. In May 2013, along with Julia Chang Bloch and David Gergen, Bryant received an honorary doctorate degree from Gettysburg College. She currently serves on the Board of Trustees for Gettysburg College.

She attended Hunterdon Central High School and Gettysburg College, where she received her bachelor's degree in French (1982) and minored in German and secondary education. She then taught French and German at Paul VI High School in Fairfax, Virginia, where she coached their cross-country teams.

Jen Bryant (born 1960) is an American poet, novelist and children's author. She has won several awards for her work, most notably the Robert F. Sibert International Book Medal for The Right Word: Roget and His Thesaurus, the NCTE Orbis Pictus Award and the Charlotte Zolotow Honor Award for A River of Words: The Story of William Carlos Williams, and the Schneider Family Book Award for Six Dots: A Story of Young Louis Braille. Her books The Right Word: Roget and His Thesaurus and A River of Words: The Story of William Carlos Williams have both been distinguished with Caldecott Honors for Melissa Sweet's artwork.