Jessie Van EerdenA West Virginia native, Jessie van Eerden holds a B.A. in English from West Virginia University and an M.F.A. in nonfiction writing from the University of Iowa. Her work has appeared in The Oxford American, River Teeth, Image>, Bellingham Review, Rock & Sling and other publications. Her essays have been selected for inclusion in Red Holler: An Anthology of Contemporary Appalachian Literature (Sarabande Books, 2012); Dreams and Inward Journeys: A Rhetoric and Reader for Writers, Seventh Edition (Longman, 2010); Jesus Girls: True Tales of Growing Up Female and Evangelical (Cascade Books of Wipf and Stock, 2009); and Best American Spiritual Writing 2006 (Houghton Mifflin, 2006). She was selected as the 2007-2008 Milton Fellow with Image and Seattle Pacific University for work on GLORYBOUND, which is her first novel. Van Eerden has taught for ten years in college classrooms and in adult literacy programs. She lives in West Virginia where she directs the low-residency M.F.A. writing program of West Virginia Wesleyan College. Read More Read Less