Jax Peters Lowell
Novelist, poet, short story writer, memoirist, gluten-free author and activist, Jax is driven by the idea that a single voice is a powerful catalyst for social healing and change. She believes that in caring for characters – whether real or imagined – and being moved, shocked, or outraged by their fates, we widen our views and move in new directions not possible in the stridency of political argument. Jax is the author of several books, including Against The Grain, The Gluten-Free Bible; an illustrated children’s book, No More Cupcakes & Tummy Aches, and a novel, Mothers, the story of two women struggling to raise a child in a culture that frowns upon same sex parents. She is currently working on a memoir, An Early Winter, a moving, harrowing and mordantly funny story about brain injury, mental illness and medical betrayal in which she chronicles her experiences as a caregiver, working artist, and chief provider for her family in the aftermath of her husband’s brain surgery. In 2009, two of her stories, Parachute Girl and The Two Amigos, were Finalists in Glimmer Train Fiction Opens. Her poems have appeared in many literary journals and anthologies and have been honored with a citation from the New York State Assembly and the East End Arts Council. A collection is forthcoming. Jax’s best-selling books about celiac disease and gluten intolerance, from which she suffers, have greatly contributed to the awareness of this dietary condition and that it affects more people today than when she was diagnosed in the late l980’s. Her poems and stories put pain firmly into the mouth of language, striking a balance between personal impulse and cultural context, reaching one reader at a time, encouraging them to imagine a more just and progressive society. Global warming, memory, aging, September 11th, the value of all families, corporate shenanigans, the plight of illegal immigrants, the disappearance of bees, institutional betrayal, the stigma of mental illness and blunt force of brain injury and love in the winter of life, are among the many matters she cares deeply about.
Awarded Grants
2009
Leeway Transformation Award (LTA)
Related grantees
Overview
Novelist, poet, short story writer, memoirist, gluten-free author and activist, Jax is driven by the idea that a single voice is a powerful catalyst for social healing and change. She believes that in caring for characters – whether real or imagined – and being moved, shocked, or outraged by their fates, we widen our views and move in new directions not possible in the stridency of political argument. Jax is the author of several books, including Against The Grain, The Gluten-Free Bible; an illustrated children’s book, No More Cupcakes & Tummy Aches, and a novel, Mothers, the story of two women struggling to raise a child in a culture that frowns upon same sex parents. She is currently working on a memoir, An Early Winter, a moving, harrowing and mordantly funny story about brain injury, mental illness and medical betrayal in which she chronicles her experiences as a caregiver, working artist, and chief provider for her family in the aftermath of her husband’s brain surgery. In 2009, two of her stories, Parachute Girl and The Two Amigos, were Finalists in Glimmer Train Fiction Opens. Her poems have appeared in many literary journals and anthologies and have been honored with a citation from the New York State Assembly and the East End Arts Council. A collection is forthcoming. Jax’s best-selling books about celiac disease and gluten intolerance, from which she suffers, have greatly contributed to the awareness of this dietary condition and that it affects more people today than when she was diagnosed in the late l980’s. Her poems and stories put pain firmly into the mouth of language, striking a balance between personal impulse and cultural context, reaching one reader at a time, encouraging them to imagine a more just and progressive society. Global warming, memory, aging, September 11th, the value of all families, corporate shenanigans, the plight of illegal immigrants, the disappearance of bees, institutional betrayal, the stigma of mental illness and blunt force of brain injury and love in the winter of life, are among the many matters she cares deeply about.
