Holiday Book Bazaar Author Spotlight... Jeana Jorgensen!

author black friday sale book bazaar fairy tales folk lore jeane jorgensen Nov 23, 2022

Come meet Jeana and browse the Book Bazaar November 1st-30th 2022 right here!

Tell us about your books! What do you love to write about?

I love writing about folklore, obviously! During my undergraduate education at UC Berkeley, as soon as I learned you could study folklore, I was like, YES I'M IN!!! So I went and got a PhD in it. I specialize in fairy tales but I really just adore folklore from all cultures and time periods.

What inspired you to get started as an author?

I enjoy doing research and publishing my findings for my colleagues to read, but I got sick of my work living behind paywalls in academic journals. So I decided to start publishing resources about folklore aimed at the general public. There's been a pretty good reception thus far so I think I'll keep it up, plus my brain likes to chew on multiple projects at any given time. It's also fun for me to have writing to look forward to, as a motivator for when I'm feeling stuck in piles of grading.

What are your favorite books to read?

I read pretty widely! When I'm not reading academic books on everything from folklore to feminist theory to trauma studies, I read fantasy, science fiction, and romance. I'm a fan of fairy-tale retellings specifically, and I'm always delighted by the variety of new interpretations I see authors creating. Some recent faves include The Magic Fish by Trung le Nguyen, Cinderella Is Dead by Kalynn Bayron, and Cinder Ella by S.T. Lynn.

For shoppers holiday shopping for their loved ones, tell us who are your book(s) for?

My books are for anyone who's ever wanted to know more about what folklore really means. It goes so much deeper than "just" myths and legends and fairy tales, as much as I love all those things too. If you want to better understand your family's stories and holiday traditions, for instance, these books are definitely for you! Or if you're an author or artist inspired by folklore and wanting to learn more, these books will give you a ton of information that you can then rework creatively in your own way.

What’s the message you want to get out to people this Holiday Season?

Everybody has folklore, and folklore is social glue. By tuning into it, we learn about our identities, our communities, and our values. I truly believe that learning about folklore turns on our brains AND our empathy, so I'm hoping that we can all engage with it, even if it's just in tiny ways like talking to family members about their life stories or helping in the kitchen when traditional holiday recipes make their annual appearance.

Where can we find you online?

I'm on Twitter all the time: @foxyfolklorist so feel free to say hi there. You can look at my CV as well as my non-academic publications (like creative writing) on my website: jeanajorgensen.com. There's a newsletter sign-up there too, but I'm pretty sporadic with it because it turns out teaching a full load of college courses keeps one pretty busy!

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Holiday Book Bazaar Author Spotlight... Jeana Jorgensen!

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