Bio

Jennifer Steele is an east-coast girl at heart, born and raised in Middletown, CT, and has lived and worked in Chicago for over 10 years. She received her BM in Music Business from Howard University in 2006 and her MFA in Poetry from Columbia College Chicago in 2008, While at Columbia College she served as co-editor of Columbia Poetry Review #21 where she developed her love of and for the publishing arts. She is the Founder of Revolving Door Arts, a nonprofit organization building creative community in support of young and emerging writers.

She has worked extensively in the Chicago nonprofits and education sector teaching and designing creative arts and digital medium curriculum across various organizations. She is an active member of the Chicago Learning Exchange (formerly Hive Chicago),

Currently, she is the Partnerships Coordinator for Teen Services at Chicago Public Library where she supports organizations, institutions, professionals in providing teen-centered program at the library.

she teaches digital media literacy for Digital Youth Network and YOUmedia, working extensively to create and develop workshops and curriculum for media arts programming catered toward middle and high school students.  In addition to working with Digital Youth Network, she has taught poetry and creative writing for Chicago based arts and youth organizations including Camp of Dreams, Young Chicago Authors, and Hands on Stanzas. She has also served as managing editor for Polyphony H.S., a national high school literary magazine. One of her greatest passions is introducing youth to the possibility of art and creative writing, their own imagination, and recognizing the power of their inherent creative potential.

Amongst other random acts of chasing butterflies, she is the co-curator of the Revolving Door Reading Series, a monthly series of open mic and featured poetry, music, writing, and art; and is a poetry whore for the Chicago Poetry Brothel.

Her poetry and writing has appeared in Caduceus, Warpland Journal, Beltway Quarterly, Columbia Poetry Review, Another Chicago Magazine, So to Speak, Hush Chicago Magazine, and Reverie.