Jennifer a. Payne

Connecticut writer and poet Jen Payne is inspired by those life moments that move us most — love and loss, joy and disappointment, milestones and turning points. When she is not exploring our connections with one another, she enjoys writing about our relationships with nature, creativity, and spirituality, and how these offer the clearest path to finding balance in our frenetic, spinning world.

Under the imprint Three Chairs Publishing, Jen has published five books: LOOK UP! Musings on the Nature of Mindfulness, Evidence of Flossing: What We Leave Behind, Waiting Out the Storm, Water Under the Bridge: A Sort-of Love Story, and her new book Sleeping with Ghosts: Poems & Musings.

She is the creator/editor of MANIFEST (zine), and writes regularly on her blog, Random Acts of Writing. Her work has been featured in numerous publications including the international anthology Coffee Poems: Reflections on Life with Coffee; the Guilford Poets Guild 20th Anniversary Anthology; Waking Up to the Earth: Connecticut Poets in a Time of Global Climate Crisis, the 2024 Connecticut Literary Anthology; and The Perch, a publication by the Yale Program for Recovery and Community Health.

Jen is the owner is Words by Jen, a graphic design and creative services company founded in 1993, based in Branford, Connecticut. She is a member of the Arts Council of Greater New Haven, Guilford Art Center, and the New England Poetry Club.