Jessica Lipnack

I began my writing career at 16 as a reporter for The Pottstown (PA) Mercury where my first assignments were to transform wedding and obit forms—filled out by the families—into articles. I quickly progressed to “real” journalism—news, features, and “Dear Beatrice,” an advice column. Working for a daily newspaper (especially when at least a decade younger than everyone else) was humbling and instructive: it turned my desire to write into becoming a writer.

It worked. I’ve written six books (with Jeffrey Stamps), including Networking (Doubleday), The Networking Book (Viking Penguin), and The Age of the Network and Virtual Teams (both Wiley).

These books and their translations have led to consulting and speaking around the world (viz. the UN, Shell, Volvo, Apple, Cisco, Marriott, Toyota Foundation, the US Army, and The White House). Although not typically thought of as artist’s work, these engagements have been intrinsic to my creative process, providing superb material and characters for fiction and creative nonfiction.

My nonfiction work has appeared in The Boston Globe, The New York Times, Harvard Business Review, The Industry Standard, and on the WBUR site, Cognoscenti, along with many others. Along the way, I wrote a natural-foods breakfast cookbook.

As a creative writer, I’ve had work in Ars Medica, Global City Review, Mothering, The Futurist, Five Star Literary Stories, Melusine, and Six Word Stories. I’ve also written for The Brookings Institution, where I’ve lectured, and was an early contributor to Our Bodies, Ourselves.

My blog, Endless Knots, now in its tenth year, has led to teaching blogging in the Pine Manor MFA program, at the U.S. Army's Command and General Staff College, and at the Solstice Summer Writers' Conference.

When not writing, I’m knitting, cooking, doing yoga, gardening, and wasting time online—occasionally at the same time.