JesseMinkert

Jesse Minkert has made picture frames, painted signs, cut patterns for a foundry, carved wood, installed hot tubs, and fabricated disco dance floors. His carvings, paintings and sculptures have been displayed in galleries in Texas, California, and Washington State. He has won prizes for his stage plays and radio plays. Minkert was born in Texas where he learned to draw and paint from his father, one of the few practicing artists in his home town. He studied art in college, receiving a BFA as a painter and an MA as a sculptor. A few weeks after he finished his MA he faced a serious threat to his vision. He reconsidered his career and turned to writing. He lives in Seattle where he founded and serves as the executive director of the non-profit corporation Arts and Visually Impaired Audiences. Minkert writes novels, short stories, microfiction, and poetry. His writing has appeared on literary websites, in magazines, anthologies, dance performances, and recordings on radio and CDs. He is developing a series of profiles of Twenty Blues Artists. In 2008, Wood Works Press published a collection of Minkert's microstories and poems titled Shortness of Breath & Other Symptoms. Each summer for fifteen years Minkert has taught radio theater techniques to visually impaired teenagers. He is working on a graphics-and-poetry chapbook.