Real-life Stories of Those Fickle, Irrational, Urgent, Tiny People We Love Edited by Jennifer Margulis, Ph.D.

Jennifer earned a B.A. from Cornell University in English literature and Russian language, an M.A. from the University of California at Berkeley in Comparative Literature, and a Ph.D. from Emory University in American literature.  A 19th-century Americanist with a sub-specialty in African-American literature,  she has taught classes in American literature,  African-American literature, writing, and English as a Second Language on three different continents.  In the United States she has had the privilege of working with students at the University of California at Berkeley, Brenau University, Bradford College, Emory University, and Mount Holyoke College.  Her dissertation, “Swarthy Pirates and White Slaves,” reveals the importance of white American slavery in North Africa on the literature of 19th-century America.

While raising two small children and pregnant with her third, Jennifer turned her attention to writing.  She has published in Ms. Magazine, World Pulse Magazine, Parenting, Newsday, Mothering, Brain, Child, and dozens of other national magazines.  In addition, she is a regular contributor to two local niche publications—Healthy Life and Valley Kids—and she writes a weekly column, "Tales From the Crib," for the Ashland Daily Tidings.  In addition to publishing journalistic articles, creative non-fiction, scholarly writing, and book reviews, she has co-edited (with Karen Poremski) one other book: a classroom edition of Susanna Haswell Rowson’s 1794 play, Slaves in Algiers; or a Struggle for Freedom (Copley Publishers, 2000).  Her son Etani was born in a little red farm house in western Massachusetts but she and her family now live in Ashland, Oregon.