Jenna Thompson, MFA

Education

• Master of Fine Arts, Pacific University, Forest Grove, Oregon
• Bachelor of Arts, Warner Pacific College, Portland, Oregon

Why I Write & Teach

When I was growing up my parents rented the extra rooms in our house to people who needed a home … and possibly even a family. Our house felt like a cross between a train station and a youth hostel. The only place to find quietness and privacy, at least for me, was on paper—either by reading stories other people had written or by writing my own. I discovered that writing had the magical ability to transform time and space: when life went too fast, I could slow it down by writing about it. When life was too loud, I could hear my thoughts better when I had a pen in my hand. If the house was too crowded, a blank page in my journal offered space to explore.

I never thought of myself as being “good at English” or “being a writer”. I just knew that I needed to read and write in order to find a steady place to stand in the world. Writing was a path into a different kind of living. It transformed the busy-ness of clocks and calendars into the quieter rhythm of moments and seasons.

I teach because I want to help students discover their own relationship with reading and writing, particularly if they’ve decided they’re not “good” at it. Reading and writing are ways of joining a conversation that started long before we got here and will continue long after we’re gone. Everyone is invited. Everyone is necessary.

When I'm not being "Professional"

When I’m not on campus, I’m usually with my family—hanging out with my sons, visiting my sister’s farm, trying out new bakeries, exploring the woods or beaches in the Northwest. You can also often find me reading and writing at neighborhood coffee shops. I concentrate better with all the background noise… it reminds me of the house where I grew up!

Current Projects

I’m currently revising a young adult novel about what happens to a family when an uncle comes home from serving in Afghanistan. I’m also working on a collection of essays about the boarders who stayed with my family between 1974-1994 and the particular gifts and burdens of communal living.