Jeanie Thompson
Jeanie Thompson
About Jeanie
Jeanie Thompson is the author of The Myth of Water: Poems from the Life of Helen Keller, The Seasons Bear Us, White for Harvest: New and Selected Poems, Witness, Litany for a Vanishing Landscape, How to Enter the River, and Lotus and Psalm. Her poems have been published widely in journals and anthologies for many years, including in Whatever Remembers Us, High Horse, Working the Dirt, The Best of Crazyhorse, and recently The Southern Poetry Anthology: Volume X: Alabama from Texas Review Press.
From 1993 to 2023, Jeanie directed The Alabama Writers' Forum, a partnership program of the Alabama State Council on the Arts. The Forum promotes writers and writing and is a strong supporter of literary arts education. Its award-winning Writing Our Stories program for juvenile offenders takes place on three Department of Youth Services campuses.
New Honors for Jeanie’s Work
This spring Jeanie was honored with the Albert B. Head Legacy Award that recognizes public officials, arts patrons, or arts educators who have empowered arts to thrive in their community, creating lasting importance for future generations in Alabama and beyond.
Jeanie received the Albert B. Head Legacy Award on June 19, 2024 for her work as a literary arts advocate and award-winning poet.
The Award – Alabama hot glass artist Cal Breed of Fort Payne, Alabama, designed the 2024 Celebration of the Arts Awards.
Jeanie Thompson (right) and Pinky Bass (left) have collaborated on poetry and visual arts projects several times. Bass was also recognized with an Arts Award in 2024. They met again at the Arts Council’s display about the 2024 Celebration of the Arts awardees.
Recent Projects
Old Enough: Essays on poetry, craft, and collaboration
Portraits of contributors by Birmingham photographer Carolyn Sherer.
Jeanie contributed an essay called “The Generous Becoming” to a recently published collection of essays by Southern Women Writers and Artists called Old Enough: Southern Women Artists and Writers on Creativity and Again
Atlanta Arts reviewed the book and the Atlanta Journal Constitution picked it up. Jeanie is touring with the editors and some contributors through fall ‘24. Check the events page at https://www.oldenough.org/ for upcoming events near you.
https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/81cgucqhq06qbwmuuo15h/6.-Jeanie-Thompson.Recordingmp3.mp3
TEACHING & LEARNING
Jeanie has taught part-time in the Naslund-Mann Creative and Professional Writing Program of Spalding University since 2002 where she mentored poetry writing students, taught workshops, and lectured on contemporary poets and poetics. She recently contributed an expanded essay called “The Journey and Responsibility of Historical Persona Poetry” to an anthology of craft lessons. For information about the Naslund-Mann Creative and Professional Writing Program at Spalding University: https://spalding.edu/school-creative-professional-writing/master-of-fine-arts-in-writing/