Jennifer Lynn Soule has been a community organizer, scholar, and clinical worker. She is professor emerita in social work at Shepherd University in Shepherdstown, West Virginia. A South Dakota native with pioneer roots, she graduated from the University of South Dakota. She now lives in her hometown of Sioux Falls, a winter wonderland, with her dog Eliot. Her passion for place and language are well nurtured in South Dakota.
Soule’s poems have appeared in several journals, including South Dakota Review, Modern Haiku, The Sow’s Ear Poetry Review, and various anthologies. She’s published two books: Hiawatha Asylum (Finishing Line Press, 2015) and Postcard Days (Cherry Grove Collections, 2019). With her late husband, Brad Soule, she edited an anthology, Without Fear of Infamy, which features the works of poets with ties to South Dakota (Scurfpea Press, 2019).
Soule received her MFA in creative writing from the University of Nebraska at age sixty-one—a degree that she pursued out of her passion for poetry. The MFA followed a successful career teaching social work—also a passion. Thus, she’s an older, whole-grain woman from a land often dismissed—South Dakota—and she truly likes winter. Snow enthralls her. She loves the land, sky, people, and animals who have graced her long, eclectic life. All her roles—including being a caregiver for her hundred-year-old mom—enhance a sense of community with an appreciation of poetry as a touchpoint. She considers herself a well-seasoned woman deeply rooted in a nurturing locale, yet she’s also eager to venture out to appreciate the whole range of humanity in its dignity and rich diversity.
Paperback: 102 pages
Publisher: Kelsay Books (June 21, 2024)