About Jennie

Jennie Orvino has been writing since she got a diary with a lock and key at age 14. Her poems have been published at cleansheets.com, slowtrains.com, in Redwood Coast Review, Present at the Creation, Petaluma Poetry Walk 10-Year Anthology, West County Reader, Squaw Valley Writers Anthology, Cloud View Poets, North Bay Progressive, Eclipse, The Dickens, Poets Against War, Burning Bush Publications, Marin Poetry Center Anthology, Sacramento News and Review, From Porn to Poetry, and Good Vibrations’ Sex Toy Tales.

Her spoken word CD, Make Love Not War explores the body erotic and the body politic in collaboration with some of San Francisco Bay Area’s most accomplished musicians. This CD was on the Grammy ballot (Category 74) for Best Spoken Word Album in 2002. In 2003, Clamshell Press of Santa Rosa published Jennie Orvino: A Sampler of Her Poems, 12^th in a series of hand-set, letterpress limited editions.

She is also a feature writer who has been published in The Bohemian and other Sonoma County newspapers. Her radio credentials include a two-year stint at KRCB FM 91 as a producer and on-air interviewer for the literary salon, “Word by Word” and the poetry programs “Come, Said the Muse” and “Poetic License.” Awards include: 1^st prize poetry – Copperfield’s The Dickens; second prize in Java Jive contest (North Bay Bohemian); and  The Don L. Emblen Award from Santa Rosa Junior College for achievement and promise in creative writing.

Her spoken word performances as a featured reader include: Live Wire Literary Salon, Harbin Hot Springs, Petaluma Poetry Walk, Sonoma County Book Festival, Health and Harmony Festival, Coffee Catz (CD release party in 2002; “Nothin’ to Hide” 3-woman show with Cat Austin and Fran Carbonaro in 1999), Copperfield’s Books, Northlight Books, River Reader, Healdsburg Literary Arts Council Third Sunday, Center Literary Café, Snake River Poetry Circle, Synergy Café & Lounge (Culver City), “Women’s Work” Venue 9 (San Francisco). She has also participated in various group readings. among the locations are: Levin & Co. Books, Sebastopol Center for the Arts, Marin Poetry Center Traveling Show, Russian River Writers Guild and numerous poetry slams.

Jennie Orvino was born and raised in the suburbs of Chicago, lived in Milwaukee for 10 years after college and then moved to Sonoma County California in 1978.