Jill Christman is the author of two memoirs, Darkroom: A Family Exposure (AWP Award Series in Creative Nonfiction winner) and Borrowed Babies: Apprenticing for Motherhood (Shebooks & Audible.com). Her essays have appeared in many journals, magazines, and anthologies. Three recent essays have been listed as Notable Essays in Best American Essays, and “Spinning: Against the Rules of Angels” was longlisted for the Notting Hill Essay Prize in 2017. In addition to teaching a range of undergraduate and graduate creative nonfiction writing classes at Ball State University, she is a regular presenter at the River Teeth Nonfiction Conference. In 2013, she was elected to the Board of Trustees of The Association of Writers & Writing Programs (AWP) where she served for five years, chairing the Midwest Council, the Professional Standards Committee, and the 2017 50th Anniversary Conference Committee.
Professional Experience
Board of Trustees, Association of Writers & Writing Programs (AWP)
2013-2017
Assistant Chair of Undergraduate & Graduate Programs in English
2010-2013
Director, Creative Writing Program
2009-2010
Developer & Director, In Print Festival of First Books
2004-2010
Curriculum Vitae
Download CV (PDF)
Education
M.F.A. in Creative Writing
University of Alabama, 1999
B.A. in English
University of Oregon (Phi Beta Kappa), 1992
Research and Publications
“Slaughterhouse Island.” In Not That Bad: Dispatches from a Rape Culture. Ed. Roxane Gay. New York, NY: HarperPerennial, 2018.
“Spinning: Against the Rules of Angels.” True Story (from Creative Nonfiction). September 2017: 1-40. [single longform essay issue] *Pushcart Prize nominee
“The Alligator and the Baby.” TriQuarterly. 151(Jan 2017): online
“Three Takes on a Jump” and interview in Kept Secret: The Half-Truth in Nonfiction. Eds. Jen Hirt and Tina Mitchell. East Lansing, MI: Michigan State University Press, 2017. 63-68.