Jenny Zhang (writer)

Jenny Zhang is an American writer and poet based in Brooklyn, New York. She has two published collections of poetry, Dear Jenny, We Are All Find and HAGS.

Life

Zhang was born in Shanghai. She graduated from Stanford University and the Iowa Writers' Workshop.

She is a regular contributor to the online magazine for teen girls, Rookie, for which she has written both fiction and nonfiction. Zhang has also written for features on the Rookie site such as “Oh! You Pretty Things,” which answers readers’ questions about beauty, and “Saturday Links,” which, when it was still running, published a weekly-roundup of current events with links to news articles, websites, and photos. Her website is www.jennybagel.com.^[1]

One of Zhang's stories was included in the first issue of Lena Dunham's Lenny newsletter.^[2]

Publications

Poetry books

• Dear Jenny, We are All Find, Octopus Books, 2012, ISBN 978-0-9851182-0-4 ^[3][4]
• HAGS (Guillotine #7, 2014, 24pp) ^[5][6]

Non-fiction

• "How It Feels," Poetry.
• "Far Away From Me," Rookie.
• "Empathy, In Excess." Rookie.
• February 14, 2015, Enormous Eye.
• Excerpt from Hags in Dazed & Confused Magazine.
• "Hello, Darkness," Rookie.
• "Odd Girl In," Rookie.
• "The Importance of Angsty Art," Rookie.
• "Mad Love," Rookie.
• "Only in My Dreams," Rookie.
• "The Great Pretender," Rookie.
• "Literally the Best Thing Ever: M.I.A.," Rookie.
• "It Takes a Lot to Laugh," Rookie.
• "Saving Yourself," Rookie.
• "Eat, Memory," Rookie.
• "Liberating Things," Rookie.
• "Sneaking Around," Rookie.
• "The Parent Trap," Rookie.
• "Outsider/Insider," Rookie.
• "‘Tiger Mothers’ Aren’t the Whole Story," Jezebel.
• "The Truth," Glimmertrain.

Fiction

• "Hold On, Sour Grape," Rookie.
• "The Evolution of My Brother," Rookie.
• "There Was No Creek and I’m Still Alive," Rookie.
• "The Empty The Empty The Empty" Diagram.
• "Untitled," Altered Scale.
• "We Love You Crispina," Glimmertrain.
• "You Fell Into The River and I Saved You!" Iowa Review.

Poetry

• "I would have no pubes if I were truly in love," "I’m a 30 year old White non racist male, with some of my closest friends being Black. With that being said," "Is There A Way To Drain A Lake You Are Afraid You Will One Day Drown In?" The Hairpin.
• "uncle boo," "It was a period when cunt was in the air," "shamepuff," "My baby first birthday," Adult.
• "The Universal Energy is About To Intervene in Your Life," & "MY BABY FIRST BIRTHDAY," Bomb.^[7]
• "My baby first birthday," & "You are the poorest person here," Pinwheel.^[8]
• "Seppuku" & "Goo goo water," Sink Review.
• "Don't fucking text your friends when I'm reading a poem it took two years to write," Dear Jenny, We Are All Find^[9]
• "Flush in the spirals of black holes," Coconut.
• "Everyone’s Girlfriend," Clock.
• "The Last Five Centuries Were Uneventful," HTMLGIANT.

Video

• "The Last Five Centuries Were Uneventful"
• "Comefarts"

Photography

• "Right to Idle," Vilnius travel photo diary, Rookie.

References

1. "Jenny Zhang". www.jennybagel.com. Retrieved 2015-09-07.
2. Thompson, Eliza (August 31, 2015). "Read Lena Dunham's First Published Short Story". Cosmopolitan.
3. Roberto Montesreviewer (April 24, 2014). "Dear Jenny, We Are All Find". Sink Review. Retrieved 10 September 2015. Rarely have I had the opportunity to read a book that so expertly instantiates the terribly beautiful affect of identity as Jenny Zhang’s Dear Jenny, We Are All Find.
4. "Jenny Zhang’s Dear Jenny, We are all Find". The Volta Blog. January 24, 2014. Retrieved 10 September 2015.
5. Tobias Carroll (August 4, 2014). "The Zinophile: Reading Jenny Zhang’s "Hags"". Vol 1 Brooklyn. It’s best described as a long essay, blending candid observations from life with references to literature and folklore, and working it way towards a denouement that finds a political expression for all that’s come before.
6. Claire Marie Healy. "Jenny Zhang's sisterhood is stranger than yours". Dazed. Retrieved 10 September 2015.
7. "Two Poems by Jenny Zhang". BOMB Magazine. April 26, 2013.
8. "Jenny Zhang – Pinwheel". Pinwheel. Retrieved 14 September 2015.
9. Zhang, Jenny (2015). "Don't fucking text your friends when I'm reading a poem it took two years to write". Please Excuse This Poem: 100 New Poets for the Next Generation. Penguin. ISBN 1-101-61538-9.

External links

• "Poet of the Week Jenny Zhang". Brooklyn Poets. March 18–24, 2013.