Featured Essays
Essays in Anthologies
Editors Dan Lehman and Joe Mackall chose “Going Back to Plum Island,” about returning to a place of trauma to reclaim beauty and safety, for River Teeth: Twenty Years of Creative Nonfiction (University of New Mexico Press, 2020).
Editors Zoë Bossiere and Dinty W. Moore chose “The Sloth,” about grief and the temperature of blood, for The Best of Brevity: Twenty Groundbreaking Years of Flash Nonfiction (Rose Metal Press, 2020).
Editor Roxane Gay chose “Slaughterhouse Island,” about a long-ago houseboat rape and the continuing epidemic of campus sexual assault, for Not That Bad: Dispatches from a Rape Culture (HarperPerennial, 2018).
Editor Erin Wood chose “Burned Images,” an excerpt from Darkroom: A Family Exposure about a childhood accident, for Scars: An Anthology (Et Alia Press, 2015).
Editor Lee Gutkind chose “The Eleven-Minute Crib Nap,” about a baby who wants to be held and a mother who wants to write, for Oh Baby!: True Stories About Tiny Humans (In Fact Books, 2015).
Editor Joy Castro chose “Chewing Band-Aids: One Memoirist’s Take on Telling the Truth,” about the dangers of a kept secret, for Family Trouble: Memoirists on the Hazards and Rewards of Revealing Family (University of Nebraska Press, 2013).
Editor Kate Hopper chose “Three Takes on a Jump” and “The Allergy Diaries,” about memory and fear, respectively, for Use Your Words: A Writing Guide for Mothers (Viva Editions, 2012).
Editors Dana Sullivan and Maureen Connelly chose “Weaning Ella,” about—you guessed it—weaning Ella and the changing shape of intimacy, for Unbuttoned: Women tell the truth about the pains, pleasures and politics of breastfeeding (Harvard Common Press, 2009).
Selected Essays
Jill began writing personal essays twenty years ago and since then she’s had the opportunity to work with some of the best editors in literary nonfiction, publishing essays in places like Brevity, Creative Nonfiction, Fourth Genre, Iron Horse Literary Review, River Teeth: A Journal of Narrative Nonfiction (a magazine where she now serves as a senior editor), TriQuarterly, and many others. She’s also written for glossy magazines like Wondertime, Scholastic’s Parent & Child Magazine, and O, The Oprah Magazine. Jill’s first full collection of essays, If This Were Fiction: A Love Story in Essays will be released in the American Lives series from the University of Nebraska Press on September 1, 2022. In the meantime, here’s a sampling of some essays you can find online:
- “The Baby and the Alligator.” TriQuarterly. January 2017.
- “This Story.” Phoebe: A Journal of Literature & Art Since 1971. December 2016.
- “Mother’s Day Kindness.” Brain, Child: The Magazine for Thinking Mothers. May 2016.
- “Do I See Myself as Others See Me?” O, The Oprah Magazine. February 2015.
- “The River Cave.” River Teeth: A Journal of Nonfiction Narrative. Fall 2009. *All River Teeth essays are available for free download to Project Muse subscribers (if you are associated with a college or university library, this might be you!)
- “The Sloth.” Brevity. Winter 2008. *with teaching notes from Brenda Miller on Essay Daily
- “Paddling the Middle Fork: A Love Story in Low Water.” River Teeth: A Journal of Nonfiction Narrative. Spring 2007.
- “Weaning Ella.” Brain, Child: The Magazine for Thinking Mothers. Spring 2007.
- “Bringing on Baby.” Literary Mama. Spring 2007.
- “Three Takes on a Jump.” Mississippi Review. Summer 2006.
If you’re in the mood to have Jill read or talk to you …
- “Mr. Cosmos.” New Ohio Review. December 2021.
- “Falling” with the good people at Kenyon Review—and husband/poet Mark Neely. November 2021.
- “Going Long: Challenges and Opportunities of Moving from the Essay to the Memoir” with friends Steve Harvey (aka The Humble Essayist) and Sonya Huber at the River Teeth Conference. May 2014.
- “Weaning Ella.” On the radio with Mom Enough and friends Kate Hopper and Sonya Huber: Jill starts talking about breasts around minute 42:00. November 2011.
- “The Margarita Game” way back in the day with Vouched Books in the Big Car Gallery. May 2011. (Jill looks very young and if you listen carefully you can hear Ashley Ford hollering in the background.)
