About
Poet
Jeanne turned to poetry writing in 2011 when her Loft-sponsored writing group, Open Voices, was given the opportunity to explore poetry with writer Marion Gomez. This opportunity included learning how to create broadsides and chapbooks at the Minnesota Center for Book Arts. She was hooked.
In 2015, she won the 2015-2016 Loft Mentor Series for poetry, selected by Sherry Quan Lee and Sean Hill. In this program, writers are selected through a highly competitive judging process to work intensively with six nationally acclaimed writers of prose and poetry. This year-long experience changed her life.
From 2016-2019, Jeanne served as Vice-President on the board of Cracked Walnut, a traveling LitFest and a chapter of the League of Minnesota Poets. She hosted readings in traditional and non-traditional spaces, procuring a love for literature, community, and creativity. Here, Jeanne also initiated the annual Cracked Walnut Anthology, which includes writing from participants’ LitFest readings.
Writers’ residencies on Mallard Island from the Oberholtzer Foundation were awarded three years years in a row: 2017, 2018, 2019
Jeanne makes a habit of writing daily. DAILY. She also participates in readings wherever and whenever she can: from San Francisco’s Litquake Fest to Italy’s Festivaletteratura in Mantura, Italy to Adrian Todd Zuniga’s world-renowned Literary Deathmatch.
Farmer
Jeanne grew up on a 91-acre farm in southern Minnesota comprised of fields, forest, slough, pasture, vegetable gardens, and animals of every denomination. Today, she realizes that being raised on a farm and running one as an adult are vastly different. Organic farming, like traveling, is a dream, a curse, and it sometimes breaks the heart. And although she travels the world as a life-long learner, her sense of home and belonging to a place remains with the land she grew up on.
Docent
As a member of the Minneapolis Institute of Art’s Docent Class of 2015, Jeanne relished the rigorous two-year training program and became an official Mia tour guide in 2017. Her goal as a guide is to inspire wonder through the power of art. Her hope is that she can help visitors make connections between the museum experience and visitors’ lives beyond the galleries, while emboldening them to explore art on their own. “Looking at a work of art comes down to three questions,” she says. “What do I see? What do I think? What do I still wonder? Spend ten minutes with each question, and then you’ll begin to understand why I love art and being a docent.”
Being That Neighbor
Jeanne remains dedicated to creating and maintaining community, a word that can mean a variety of things. But variety is what makes a community great. It doesn’t need to be defined by physical barriers or lines on a map. Currently, Jeanne serves as a MN State Arts Board Grants review panel member and, along with Stanley Kusunoki, is co-host of Literary Bridges, a monthly reading series at Next Chapter Booksellers in St. Paul, MN. She also gives time, food, and/or funds to
American Heart Association
Conservation Fund
Cracked Walnut
Dream of Wild Health
Groveland Food Shelf
Humane Farming Association
Italian Cultural Center of MN
Lift Garage
Loft Literary Center
Minneapolis Institute of Art
MN Prison Writing Workshop
People Serving People
Save the Boundary Waters
Second Harvest Heartland
Twin Cities Book Festival
Wordplay