Faculty Profile
Jess Fenn
Instructor
242 Marshall Hall
About
JR Fenn is a writer from the Central Appalachians. Her work has appeared or is forthcoming in many places, including Boston Review, Gulf Coast, DIAGRAM, the Bath Flash Fiction Award Anthology, and the Bristol Short Story Prize Anthology. She holds an MFA from Syracuse University, where she was awarded the Joyce Carol Oates Prize in Fiction, and her writing has been supported by fellowships from Orion, Writing by Writers, and the Key West Literary Seminar, along with funded residencies at Hewnoaks and the Writers’ Colony at Dairy Hollow, among others. Her chapbook, Tiny Vessels, was chosen by Rita Bullwinkel as the winner of The Masters Review Chapbook Open and will be published by Red Mare Press in February 2026.
At ESF, Fenn teaches environmental writing, research and writing in the humanities, and fiction. In addition to her MFA, she holds a PhD in English and Comparative Literature from Columbia University and a Master's in Teaching from Hollins University. Before coming to ESF, she taught at SUNY Geneseo and Birkbeck College, University of London. Her teaching and research interests include multimedia storytelling, digital storytelling, critical pedagogy, and AI in the writing classroom.
Publications
Fenn, JR. 2026 (forthcoming). Tiny Vessels. Red Mare Press.
Fenn, JR. 2025 (forthcoming). “Memory Box.” The Bristol Short Story Prize Anthology Volume 17.
Fenn, JR. 2025 (forthcoming). “Catch and Release.” Stone Canoe 19.
Fenn, JR. 2025 (forthcoming). “Cassandra.” Split Lip Magazine.
Fenn, JR. 2025. “The Happy Son” Gigantic Sequins 16.
Fenn, JR. 2025. “Wind Horse.” Centaur.
Fenn, JR. 2025. “Sockeye.” Complete Sentence.
Fenn, JR. 2024. “The Cherry Tree.” Bath Flash Fiction Award Anthology Volume 9.
Fenn, JR. 2024. “The Matchbox.” 100 Word Story.
Fenn, JR. 2024. “The Happy Son.” Sunspot Literary.
Fenn, JR. 2024. “Green Walls Lit in the Night.” Panorama: The Journal of Travel, Place, and Nature - Cities.
Fenn, JR. 2019. “All We Remember Will Be Forgotten.” Boston Review: Allies.
Fenn, JR. 2017. “Athena Dreams of a Hollow Body.” Boston Review: Global Dystopias.
Fenn, JR. 2016. “Public Schools Resolution No. 2153.” Flash Fiction Magazine, reprinted in Thirty Authors, Thirty Stories.
Fenn, JR. 2016. “The Interstate.” Stone Canoe Issue 10, reprinted in Short Reads (2025).
Fenn, JR. 2014. “Reasons for the Flood.” DIAGRAM.
Fenn, JR. 2014. “Fumigation Day.” SmokeLong Quarterly.
Fenn, JR. 2014. “Where We Went and What We Did There.” Gulf Coast Winter/Spring 2014.
Fenn, JR. 2013. “After the Natatorium.” Versal Literary & Arts Journal, reprinted at Sudden Prose.
Fenn, JR. "Terlingua." Camroc Press Review.
Fenn, JR. 2012. "Transfer." Eunoia Review.
Fenn, JR. 2012. “Altogether.” PANK.