Features

From insightful interviews to engaging essays, Jessica's work resonates with readers and critics alike.

July 2025

This Year, June 23, 2025: a living time capsule or a conversational archive or a collection of days

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.

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Big Table Press

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January 2025

Making Noise: On Learning to Play Drums The Year I Turned Sixty

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.

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Another Chicago Magazine

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November 2024

The Little Things

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?

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Brevity

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September 2024

Excerpt from The World To See

Excerpt from "The World to See" forthcoming from Regal House

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December 2023

The Muscle For Escape

This is one of those stories you bring out near last call so you’ll never have to go home.

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Short Reads

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March 2023

Marshall Crenshaw's Someday Someway

Stop what you’re doing right now and cue this baby up. It will only take about three minutes of your time, the length of a standard radio pop hit. Because that’s what it is. A power-pop hit.

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March Fadness

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May 2022

Notice

“Notice,” my yoga teacher coos. I open one eye to notice that on the Zoom screen, he’s sitting upright. Sukhasana. I settle myself in the same posture on my yoga mat in my living room, legs crossed, spine straight.

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Brevity Magazine

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May 2022

Owning My Worth

When I was 8 years old, my father, who turned out to be terrible with money, worked on a colleague’s campaign for U.S. Senate. One day I walked into my parents’ bedroom to find my father sitting on the bed, surrounded by an ocean of cash.

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Oldster

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January 2022

Permanent Record

Last semester, one of my students asked me to change his grade on a quiz. The way I’d phrased a particular question wasn’t clear, he said, which is why he earned a 95 instead of a 100.

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Full Grown People

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March 2021

Searching for Memory

My mother and I played a secret game in art museums. What, we would ask the other, is the single piece we would take for our own if such a thing were possible?

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After The Art

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April 2019

Large Hearted Boy: Playlist for The Magnetic Girl

In the Book Notes series, authors create and discuss a music playlist that relates in some way to their recently published book.

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Large Hearted Boy

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April 2019

7 Honest Books About Hoaxes

I’ve long wondered what makes a person believe something improbable — either really believe, or convince themselves to err on the side of a questionable opinion, even if on some level they suspect they’re being taken for a ride.

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Electric Literature

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January 2018

Siberia, Atlanta

When I tell you that my mother’s father was born in a Siberian prison, I’ll remind you that was because his parents were perhaps exiled as retribution for political acts. Or simply because they were Jews. He, however, was a baby.

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Brevity Mag

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August 2017

On the Aftermath of a Home Made Bomb

When I was in my twenties, the house I shared with roommates in Arlington, Massachusetts was vandalized with a Molotov cocktail. This was the mid-1980s.

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The Manifestation

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March 2017

Seance City, Florida

Most of my family is dead. I see them all the time, although it’s more accurate to say I feel them. Sometimes I think if I could turn my head quickly enough I’d catch them just behind my shoulders, but I never do.

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Bitter Southerner

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Award Winning!

The Magnetic Girl

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.

Events

Join Jessica Handler for writing workshops, book signings, and engaging conversations with award-winning authors!

Aug 16, 2025

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Aug 16, 2025

The Little Things: Exploring Sensory Detail to Bring Writing to Life

Your everyday life is filled with details: everything from the sound of a loved one’s laugh to the logo on a faded band t-shirt. The strategic use of specifics like these are how authors create characters and situations that readers can’t forget. In this prompt-driven generative webinar, we will explore how writing about sight, sound, touch, taste, and smell are key to bringing writing to life. We’ll look at examples from published work and try some of our own. This generative webinar is open to prose and poetry writers of all levels.

Link Register here >

Jan 22, 2026

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Jan 25, 2026

John C. Campbell Folk School: Where the Story Begins: Turning Inspiration Into Prose

Do you have an idea for a novel or memoir but aren’t sure how to get started? Turn inspiration into written pages using practical techniques for developing plot, scene, character, and dialogue. We will write together with guided prompts, enjoy read-alouds of our work, and discuss published examples. An overview of the publishing landscape and tips to keep you writing will close out our time together. Join me and Mickey Dubrow for a weekend of writing inspiration!

Link Register here >