Jen Breach

Born and raised in rural Australia, Jen Breach (they/them) now lives and writes in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Jen is the author of fiction and nonfiction for children, including the Riley Riley Reynolds series, Solstice, Clem Hetherington and The Ironwood Race and Something’s Amiss at the Zoo.

They are a candidate for an MFA in Writing for Children and Young Adults from the Vermont College of Fine Arts. Jen studied archaeology in college and excavated, among others, a colonial whaling station and an Indigenous Australian ritual site. Writing for children involves less whale bones, but more children, so it’s a fair trade.

Jen won the 2021 Katherine Paterson Prize for a nonfiction picture book manuscript, and has been recognized by Australian arts councils seven times, including a 2010 Australia Council for the Arts’ Emerging Writer Fellow.

Jen is invested in the next generation of writers, serving as a mentor or Girls Write Now and The Association of Writers and Writing Programs (AWP). They are thrilled to be a founding imagination investor in 100 Story Building, supporting creativity and literacy in the young people of Melbourne’s West.

Jen believes that stories about social justice, inclusion and empathy make us and the world better…along with a good dash of mischief.

Jen identifies as queer and nonbinary.