Jane Harrington

Harrington teaches British Literature, creative writing and children’s literature. She has researched the Great Hunger of Ireland (folk narratives and history), 19th Century poet/activist Lady Wilde, fairy tales by 17th Century French salon women and issues in contemporary children’s literature.

Jane Harrington

Visiting Assistant Professor of English

Website

Education

  • MFA Fiction from Carlow University, 2015
  • MA Teaching of Writing and Literature, George Mason University, 2010
  • PostBacc Cert, Environmental Management, George Mason University, 1997
  • BS Business/Decision Sciences, George Mason University, 1989

Research

  • The Great Hunger of Ireland (folk narratives and history)
  • 19th Century poet/activist Lady Wilde
  • Fairy tales by 17th Century French salon women
  • Issues in contemporary children’s literature

Teaching

  • Creative Writing Workshops: Intro to CW; Intro to Fiction; Writing for Children
  • Children’s Literature: The Fairy Tale
  • Controversies in Children’s Literature

Selected Publications

Literary fiction, lyric prose, and essay

  • Women of the Fairy Tale Resistance, nonfiction book, Black Dog and Leventhal (Hachette), to be published in 2025

  • In Circling Flight, winner of the Brighthorse Prize for the Novel (Brighthorse Books 2022) and longlisted for the Crooks Corner Book Prize (2023)

  • In Circling Flight: A Craft Talk, Agee Online Reading Series, Pellissippi State (Winter 2022-23)

  • "Nudging a Novel from its Nest: What I’ve Learned," an essay in the Triskelion, Carlow University (Winter 2022)

  • "To Lady Wilde (Amongst the Trial Men of Reading Gaol)"in New Square, Spring 2021 (Vol 3, Issue 2)

  • "Béarra" in BIG FICTION, Winter 2020

  • "Settling” in Mountains Piled Upon Mountains: Appalachian Nature Writing in the Anthropocene, ed. Jessica S. Cory (West Virginia U P 2019); short-listed for the 2016 Colm Tóibín International Short Story Award, Wexford Literary Festival, Ireland

  • "We Are All in the Gutter, But Some of Us Are Looking at ‘The Star-Child,’ a Fairy Tale By Oscar Wilde" in New Square, Fall 2019 (Vol 2, Issue 1)

  • "The Elf Lord,"Port Yonder Press, fiction feature, Nov. 2017; Eastern Iowa Review, Best Lyric Prose Plus, Issue 7, 2018

  • "You. There. Now." in Feminine Collective, June 2017

  • “Ossein Pith” in Eastern Iowa Review, Issue 3, 2017

  • “The Die is Cast” and “An Apology Tour” in Who Want the World Like It Is? A 2016 Election Anthology, Birds Piled Loosely Press, January 2017

  • “Unanswered” in Copperfield Review, February 2016

  • “All God’s Children Gonna Take a Ride” in the Anthology of Appalachian Writers, Volume 7, 2015 (also nominated for a Pushcart Prize and short-listed for Ireland’s 2014 Sean O’Faolain International Short Story Prize)

  • “The Waiting Room” in Mom Egg Review, Volume 13, 2015

  • “Watching—the Fall” in Portland Review, 2015

  • “Sirius” in Chautauqua, Volume 11, 2014

Fiction and nonfiction for the youth market

  • My Best Friend, the Atlantic Ocean, and Other Great Bodies Standing Between Me and My Life With Giulio (Lerner 2008), a Junior Library Guild selection

  • Four Things My Geeky-Jock-of-a-Best-Friend Must Do In Europe (Lerner/Scholastic 2006), a Junior Library Guild selection

  • Extreme Pets! (Scholastic 2006), a selection by the Children’s Book Council and International Reading Association; an American Library Association/YALSA “Quick Pick for Reluctant Young Adult Readers”

  • Lucy’s (Completely Cool & Totally True) E-Journal (Scholastic paperback 2001), a Scholastic Book Fairs national bestseller