Writing fiction and nonfiction is how Jessica Handler explores the questions that haunt her, fascinate her, and won’t let her go. Writing is her doorway into empathy, celebration, and wonder. She hopes it’s the same for you.
Learn more >Explore Jessica Handler's thought-provoking themes and powerful narratives.
When teenager Nadine Harvey helps her best friend hide a disturbing secret, she’s also concealing her own deepest truth: she’ll do almost anything to be wanted.
Set in a time of emerging electricity and heightened Spiritualism, "The Magnetic Girl" is an inspired novel about women's quest for political, cultural, and sexual presence.
"Braving the Fire" is the first book to provide a road map for the journey of writing honestly about grief and loss.
One daughter’s moving account of illness, death, and the dissolution of her family.
Join Jessica Handler for writing workshops, book signings, and engaging conversations with award-winning authors!
A fifteen minute 1:1 conversation about your submitted manuscript pages, the publishing landscape, and the writers' life
When teenager Nadine Harvey helps her best friend hide a disturbing secret, she’s also concealing her own deepest truth: she’ll do almost anything to be wanted.
Learn more >From insightful interviews to engaging essays, see how Jessica's work continues to resonate with readers and critics alike.
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In this episode of Hear-tell, Pat Thomas—MFA Distinguished Professor of Practice at the University of Georgia—joins award-winning author Jessica Handler to talk about Pat’s essay for The Bitter Southerner, “The Answer Is Yes.” Their conversation moves through memory, hesitation, and what it takes to finally write the story you’ve been quietly avoiding. Together, they reflect on how grief shapes our work and how timing, courage, and curiosity can change what we’re able to say on the page. Here is a link to Pat’s essay: https://bittersoutherner.com/feature/2024/the-answer-is-yes And here are links to Jessica Handler’s website with links to all her books: https://www.jessicahandler.com/
Phone alarm 7:30 a.m., Glenn Gould storming his way through The Goldberg Variations. The music puts me in mind of my mother, who loved Bach.
Articulate. My husband has a twelve-inch-tall action figure of me — I’m serious — about the size of a Barbie doll. She is “fully articulated,” which in action-figure speak means that her arms and legs and head can swivel. When he had this made, he had one made of himself, too. It was a passing fad, a kind of a joke between us.
Stop what you’re doing, and pay attention to your senses. How your fingers feel on the keyboard, or your feet on the floor. What about sound? Is your playlist going (and what’s on it?) or is that a trash truck grinding away on the street?
Get to know Jessica Handler and explore the writing and teaching that defines her work.
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