Janet Kay Jensen

This writer is looking for an agent.

Publication: Don’t You Marry the Mormon Boys (Bonneville Books, 2007); The Book Lover’s Cookbook, Recipes Inspired by Celebrated Works of Literature and the Passages that Feature Them (Wenger & Jensen, Ballantine, 2003.

Accepted for publication: Gabriel's Daughters, a novel, by Jolly Fish Publishers, to be released Fall, 2013.

Don't You Marry the Mormon Boys was awarded the gold medal in cultural fiction from the Readers Favorite International Book Award Contest (September 1, 2012).

A short story appears in Parables for Today (Cedar Fort, 2012); a short story also appears in Gruff Variations (e- book published by Writing for Charity, Anthology No. 1, all proceeds to go children's literacy charities).

March 2012, "Baking Day" awarded 2nd place in The Writer Magazine/Gotham Writers Workshop national memoir/essay contest.

Contributing author: Books: Writing Secrets, a Comprehensive Guide to Writing Fiction and Nonfiction for the LDS Market, (LDStorymakers 2005). Narrative Teaching Unit, The Magic of Stories (Strong & North, Thinking Publications, 1996). Poetry: Healing Ministry Journal, Heart to Heart (Intermountain Donor Services Newsletter). Articles: ByLine, Everton’s Family History Magazine, Meridian Magazine (online), South Valley Living, latterdayauthors.com, American Association for Home Based Early Intervention Newsletter, 1995. 2007-present: bi-monthly columns for yourldsneighborhood.com. Volunteer reader/reviewer, four Chicken Soup books.

Leadership: League of Utah Writers chapter president, state board member, contest chair. Teaching: Cache County Jail Creative Writing Course: poetry guest lecturer, 2004. Bridgerland Literacy: Literacy Tutor/ Instructor since 2003, Outstanding Tutor, 2009. Affiliations: Charter Member, LDStorymakers since 2004.

Membership: League of Utah Writers; Association for Mormon Letters; Authors Guild; Romance Writers of America, Romance Writers of Utah, Women Writing the West.

Find me on the web:

www.janetkayjensen.blogspot.com

www.https://www.facebook.com/JanetKayJensenAuthor

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Janet_Kay_Jensen

http://www.linkedin.com/pub/janet-kay-jensen/13/21a/717

http://www.randomhouse.com/book/188687/the-book-lovers-cookbook-by-shaunda-kennedy-wenger-and-janet-jensen

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Utah_writers

Gabriel's Daughters, a novel,acquired by Jolly Fish Publishing, to be published in Fall, 2013

Don't You Marry the Mormon Boys (Bonneville Books 2007)

"The Parable of the Brothers" in Parables for Today (Cedar Fort 2011)

"Baking Day," 2nd place, national essay/memoir contest sponsored by Gotham Writers Workshops and The Writer Magazine, 2012

"The Troll at the Footbridge: A Study in Four Parts," Gruff Variations (Writers for Charity, 2012)

Press Release: Gabriel's Daughters
For Immediate Release
Contact: Kirk Cunningham, Head Publicist: (801) 380-4503 | kirk@jollyfishpress.com
Jolly Fish Press Acquires Janet Kay Jensen's Gabriel's Daughters
PROVO, UT—Jolly Fish Press (JFP) has successfully acquired Gabriel's Daughters, a heart-wrenching literary fiction from award-winning author Janet Kay Jensen.

Gabriel's Daughters wrestles with issues of polygamy, homosexuality, and modernity through the lives of the large, loving, and polygamous Martin family. The story is told primarily through the eyes of Zina Martin, a young girl who, upon discovering she is impregnated by her "sterile" teacher—and will soon be married off to a man three times her age—escapes the enclosed polygamous town of Gabriel's Landing, Utah. Zina then embarks on a journey full of self-discovery, yet she can never fully escape the longing she has for her family and even the controversial and outdated lifestyle she once lived. Through both tears and triumph, Gabriel's Daughters reveals a moving story that not only acts as insightful social commentary, but also prompts readers to reevaluate their lives.

Janet Kay Jensen is the co-author of The Book Lover's Cookbook (Ballantine, 2005) and the author of Don't You Marry the Mormon Boys (Bonneville Books, 2007), which recently won a gold medal for Cultural Fiction in the Readers Favorite International Book Awards Contest. A long-time educator, Jensen now lives on Logan, Utah as a full-time writer and literacy tutor.

Gabriel's Daughters, Jensen's first book with JFP, is slated for release Fall 2013.

The Book Lover's Cookbook (Wenger & Jensen) Ballantine, 2003

Education: B.S. Utah State University, M.A. Northwestern University, Speech-Language Pathology. Activities: Intercollegiate Debate Team, Mortar Board.

Employment History: 8 years employment in public school systems; 10 years half-time faculty, Utah State University Department of Communicative Disorders and Deaf Education; 4 years with USU’s Center for Persons With Disabilities Interdisciplinary Training Program.

Present: Full-time writer

Present Employment: full time writer.

Awards: ByLine Magazine: 1 Special Honorable Mention, 3 Honorable Mentions. League of Utah Writers since 1999:-1st, Personal Essay, Short Story, Article, Featurette, Short-short Story, Humorous Poetry; 2nd- Essay, Full-Length Book; Short-short Story; 3rd- Short Story. An earlier version of Gabriel’s Daughters (entitled Zina) won 2nd place, Full–Length Book, 2007.
National awards: Don’t You Marry the Mormon Boys: Runner-up, Commercial Fiction, The Eric Hoffer Award; Bronze Award, Religious Fiction, ForeWord Magazine; Finalist in Religious Fiction, USA Best Books 2007; Semi-finalist, Religious Fiction, ReaderViews Literary Awards, Carolyn Howard Johnson’s Top Ten Reads of 2008.

Regional awards, Don’t You Marry the Mormon Boys: Honorable Mention, Marilyn Brown Novel Award 2007; Nominee: Whitney Award for LDS Fiction 2007. An excerpt from Don’t You Mary the Mormon Boys placed 3rd in the Association for Mormon Letters 2004 Fiction Contest and 2nd in the 2006 Rachel Ann Nunes Romance Writers Contest. A 7-page screenplay based on Don’t You Marry the Mormon Boys received Honorable Mention, BYU Film Contest 2007.

Don't You Marry the Mormon Boys received the Gold Medal in Cultural Fiction from the Readers Favorite International Book Award Contest in 2012.

Gabriel's Daughters - A novel, 100,000 words. Womens/literary fiction.

Picture Zina Martin: sixteen, with $13.84 and a few clothes in a duffel bag, pregnant by her high school teacher, and promised as a plural wife to a man twice her age with four wives—and children who are older than she is. Her only choice: to run. After a miscarriage, her travels take her to Chicago where she finds a job as a waitress and then assistant chef. She also attends college. When a jealous co-worker orchestrates an attack and Zina’s beautiful long hair (the last reminder of her upbringing) is hacked to short, shaggy locks, she moves to Minneapolis and is befriended by Simon, a gay man in need of a roommate. Simon takes her under his wing and takes her to museums, libraries, concerts, ballets, and opera. She begins to accompany him on trips to foreign countries, and grows in maturity and sophisticated. Under Simon's guidance, Zina develops style and polish.

Zina is stunned when an impulsive internet search reveals her mother’s obituary, from eight years ago. She longs to reconnect with her family. When at last she sees her father and asks for his forgiveness, she finds he’s been yearning for hers. Zina has become her own person: independent and confident, reunited with the family she loves without embracing their traditional way of life, and facing the future on her own terms.