Jan Steckel

Creative Nonfiction Writer, Fiction Writer, Poet, Spoken Word Artist

Oakland, CA
California US

Author's Bio

Jan Steckel is a former pediatrician who stopped practicing medicine because of chronic pain. Her latest poetry book is Like Flesh Covers Bone (Zeitgeist Press, December 2018). Her poetry book The Horizontal Poet (Zeitgeist Press, 2011) won a 2012 Lambda Literary Award. Her fiction chapbook Mixing Tracks (Gertrude Press, 2009) and poetry chapbook The Underwater Hospital (Zeitgeist Press, 2006) also won awards. Her fiction and poetry have appeared in Scholastic Magazine, Bellevue Literary Review, New Verse News, November 3 Club, Assaracus and elsewhere. Her work was nominated three times each for the Pushcart and Sundress Best of the Net anthologies, won the Goodreads Poetry Contest three times, and won various other awards. She works as a medical editor and lives in Oakland, California.

Publications & Prizes

Creative Nonfiction

Journals:
Bay Area Poets Seasonal Review
,
Connotation Press
, ,
SoMa Literary Review
,
Triplopia

Fiction

Book:
Mixing Tracks (Gertrude Press, 2009)
Journals:
Bay Area Poets Seasonal Review
,
Bi Tribune
,
biMagazine
, ,
Coffy Time Blues
,
flashquake
,
Harrington Lesbian Fiction Quarterly
,
Ink Pot
,
Literary Pot
,
Lodestar Quarterly
,
Margin
,
Margin: Exploring Magic Realism
,
New Works Review
, ,
Poetic Diversity
,
Queer Ramblings
,
Red Rock Review
,
Redwood Coast Review
, ,
SoMa Literary Review
,
Street Sheet
,
Street Spirit
,
Subtle Tea
,
Suspect Thoughts
,
The Bottom Line Magazine
,
The Fence
,
The November 3rd Club
,
The Potomac
,
Writers Monthly
,
Zygote in My Coffee

Poetry

Anthologies:
Favorite Poems Project (Just poets , 2011)
,
Writers Digest Poetry Awards Collection (Writers Digest Books, 2011)
,
Blood to Remember: American Poets on the Holocaust (Time Being Books, 2007)
,
HeArt's Desire: A Poetic Complement to the Adobe Art Gallery Exhibition (Lulu Press, 2007)
,
What I Want From You: Voices of East Bay Lesbian Poets (Raw Art Press, 2006)
,
I'm Home: What It's Like to Love a Woman (iUniverse, 2005)
,
Oakland's Neighborhoods (Mailman Press, 2005)
,
Literary Potpourri (Literary Pot Press, 2003)
,
WomanPrayers (Harper, 2003)
Books:
Like Flesh Covers Bone (Zeitgeist Press, 2018)
,
The Horizontal Poet (Zeitgeist Press, 2011)
,
The Underwater Hospital (Zeitgeist, 2006)
Journals:
Apparatus Magazine
,
Back Room Live
, , ,
Full of Crow
,
Jewish Women's Literary Annual
, ,
Sage Trail Poetry Magazine
,
Triplopia

Spoken Word

Performances:
Silk Road Lounge - Oakland, CA (2009)
,
Poetry Express, Priya Indian Restaurant - Berkeley, CA (2008)
,
Works in Progress, Montclair Women's Cultural Center - Montclair, CA (2008)
,
Laurel World Music Festival - Oakland, CA (2007)
,
Sweetie's - San Francisco, CA (2006)
,
Word Beat, Mediterraneum Caffe - Berkeley, CA (2006)
,
Poetry Diversified, World Ground Cafe - Oakland, CA (2005)
,
Rhythm and Muse, Berkeley Art Center - Berkeley, CA (2005)
Prizes won: 

Winner of the 2008 Gertrude Press Fiction Chapbook Award Finalist in the Spire Spring 2008 Poetry Chapbook Contest Nominated for Sundress's Best of the Net by poeticdiversity for my short story “Le Thé Dansant,” 2007 Winner of the 2007 Jewel by the Bay poetry competition sponsored by the Frank Bette Center for the Arts, judged by Susan Terris Third Place for Poetry in The Pedestal Magazine's 2006 Pedestal Readers' Awards for “The Underwater Hospital” Nominated for a Pushcart Prize by Triplopia for my poem “Tiresias,” November 2006 Winner of Triplopia's 2006 Best of the Best Competition (open only to winning poems from other contests) for “Tiresias” Second Runner-Up in poeticdiversity's Prose Contest 2006 for my very short story “Le Thé Dansant” Third Prize in Artists Embassy International's Dancing Poetry Contest for my poem entitled “Haditha”, 2006 Second Place for Poetry in The Pedestal Magazine's 2005 Pedestal Readers' Awards for “The Maiden Aunts” Third Prize in the Bay Area Poets Coalition Contest 26 for my poem “Miserere Missouri,” 2006 Nominated for a Pushcart Prize by So to Speak for my nonfiction story “The Wild Boar Baby,” December 2005 First Honorable Mention in the Bay Area Poets Coalition Contest 25 for a poem co-authored with Hew Wolff entitled “What Are Your Line Breaks Doing For You?”, 2005 Third Prize in Artists Embassy International's Dancing Poetry Contest for my poem entitled “Abuelita (Grandmother)”, 2004 Finalist in the Blue Light Poetry Prize and Chapbook Contest, 2004 The Marguerite Rush Lerner Award for outstanding creative writing by a Yale medical student, 1992, for a collection of short stories

Personal Favorites

What I'm reading now: 
The Boat People by Sharon Bala, Proof of Collusion by Seth Abramson, Revolution and Other Poems by Julia Vinograd

More Information

Gives readings: 
Yes
Travels for readings: 
Yes
Identifies as: 
White, Jewish
Prefers to work with: 
Any, LGBTQ, Disability
Fluent in: 
English, Spanish
Born in: 
Boston, MA
Massachusetts
Raised in: 
Santa Monica, CA
California
Please note: All information in the Directory is provided by the listed writers or their representatives.
Last update: Dec 28, 2018