Jen will be returning to Harvard next year to lead a writing workshop through Harvard’s women’s studies program.
With a focus on fiction writing and hybrid form, she says she plans to mold the seminar to her students’ work, contributing to what she now sees as a “much more nurturing environment” at Harvard.
“Basically,” Jen says, “I’m offering the sort of class I wish I had taken when I was here.”
Jen’s most recent creation is a collection of stories entitled Who’s Irish?.
Her upcoming novel, about a Chinese-American family with both adopted and biological children, will likely come out in a few years.
Jen says that, despite years of experience, the writing process can often be arduous.
“It’s hard to hear your own voice and concerns, find which of those are interesting to the world, and tell a story with meaning,” she says. “In the end, you have to find that voice yourself, and there’s not one way to do it. Maybe, just put your hands on the keyboard, leave them there, make your hands move and stay there for many hours.”
—Staff writer Ishani Ganguli can be reached at ganguli@fas.harvard.edu.