Jennifer Baker was named the 2019 Publishers Weekly Star Watch “SuperStar” because her “varied work championing diversity in publishing has made her an indispensable fixture in the book business.” Her YA novel Forgive Me Not (Nancy Paulsen Books/PRH) is a 2023 Los Angeles Times Book Prize finalist and was included in New York Public Library’s “Best Books of 2023,” Electric Literature’s “Best Novels of 2023,” the Texas Library Associations 2024 TAYSHAS Reading List, and the Black Caucus American Library Association’s Best of the Best 2023 List. Jennifer is also the editor of Everyday People: The Color of Life—A Short Story Anthology (Atria Books/S&S). She is the recipient of a 2017 NYSCA/NYFA Artist Fellowship and a 2017 Queens Council on the Arts New Work Grant (as well as the QCA Jr. Board Artistic Excellence Award) in Nonfiction. Her essay “What We Aren’t” was also listed as a Notable Essay in The Best American Essays 2018. Her short story “The Pursuit of Happiness” was nominated for a Pushcart Prize for 2017 by Newtown Literary Journal and is featured in the anthology What God Is Honored Here?

Jennifer has over 20 years’ experience in book publishing in a range of roles (editorial, production, media) and is an instructor for Bay Path University’s Creative Nonfiction MFA, as well as the creator/host of the podcast Minorities in Publishing (a 2018, 2019, 2020 finalist for the Digital Book World Best Use of Podcasting in Book Marketing). She previously served as a contributing editor to Electric Literature. She occasionally freelances as a proofreader, copyeditor, and/or development editor across genres and has written for various publications in print and online.

From 2014-2017, Jennifer was panel organizer and social media manager for We Need Diverse Books, a non-profit organization that sprang to life from the #WeNeedDiverseBooks media campaign to increase minority representation in literature. She was the social media director and a writing instructor for Sackett Street Writers' Workshop. Previously she volunteered with I, Too Arts Collective.

CONTACT:

You can email Jennifer at: jbakernyc at yahoo dot com.

Jennifer is represented by Jenni Ferrari-Adler at Verve Talent & Literary Agency.