Links to stories, articles, etc.

Welcome



Greetings! Happy you're here. Please check out my links and other news. What I can tell you for starters is that I'm obsessed with unraveling interpersonal sagas and exploring how people reshape their histories in a hopeful, life-altering way. As I see it, we're all vessels of history, imagined or real. What drives people to make choices, good or bad? Writing is my way of delving into the complex nature of humanity.

I'm also fascinated by how people define their personal nesting grounds, how they create physical comfort and private space or fail at this. When I write home design articles, people really open up when talking about their living spaces.

Most of us harbor secrets, consciously or unconsciously. Fiction is a great way to shine light on these emotional caves we all have inside us.

Stop by my blog sometime: Confessions of A Hermit Crab, where you can check out archives and comments about home and related matters.

My long-standing interest in health comes out of my early experience with a life-threatening illness, and as a recipient of an experimental bone marrow transplant (I'm talking late '70s here). My story, Recovery, was inspired by this transformative event and won Redbook's second prize, fiction.

Send me your thoughts. I'd love to hear from you.

Best wishes,

Jessica
email me: jessicakeener1(at)gmail(dot)com


About Night Swim
The Boston Globe, Sunday, Jan. 15, 2012 (book review)
"Keener’s observations perfectly capture a certain kind of 1970s adolescence: the adults who tried too hard, the sudden appearance of a joint when in the presence of older cousins, the way a grownup party could spin from fun to disturbing in a blink. Most exhilaratingly, she taps into the thrilling moments when a girl of 16 can see her future, whether in music or books or a boy’s smile. Sarah watches her mother’s rose garden after her death. Like her children, some “bloomed haphazardly while some wilted,’’ a living symbol of what goes on, no matter what."
The New York Times (January 19, 2012, Newly Released Books)
"Like the adults in Rick Moody’s “Ice Storm,” the central couple in this novel of 1970s suburbia are remote alcoholics. “Love was something distant that retired to a room on the second floor,” Sarah, the 16-year-old narrator, says, referring to her stay-at-home yet absentee mother. This is a woman who makes a divot in the soil for her drink glass while tending her roses...This earnest debut centers on Sarah as she tunnels through new depths of loneliness...moving."
StyleSubtanceSoul, reviewed by Anna March
Keener is a big talent with a particular knack for detail and a finely tuned ear...she gives us a story that makes us cringe and lurch, laugh and, literally, weep. Her writing is never obvious, yet her lyrical prose will wow you. Even when describing the seemingly ordinary, Keener injects poetry. Sarah’s explorations allow readers to examine their own relationship with truth, sorrow, loss, longing and joy. Readers will be glad they dove into Night Swim.
Large-hearted Boy
"Jessica Keener's debut novel Night Swim is a masterfully told tale. Dysfunctional family dynamics are revealed in language evocative and honest, and her characters so well-drawn they could be our own kin. The emotional depth of this novel has me constantly recommending it to friends in book clubs."

"Set in 1970's Boston high-society, Night Swim tells the tale of the Kunitz family, who hide their deep tensions behind a shimmering facade of parties and affluence before tragedy breaks their stable dance." (Brookline Booksmith)

Feature articles
The Boston Globe
About a hundred feature articles published in The Boston Globe and other national magazines. Google my name as Jessica Keener or Jessica Brilliant Keener