JP Reese earned a BS in psychology and an AA in Health Sciences from The University of Bridgeport in 1979 and 1980 before she was swallowed by the gaping maw of the restaurant business. From Nashville, to Miami, to Dallas, she twirled bottles, pouring ounce and a quarter shots behind her back,
upside down, and with four bottles clenched in her dynamic grasp until she flipped her way into a management position or two with forgettable restaurant corporations. Eventually, she retired from the biz to become a wife and mother.
For ten years, Reese fulfilled the requirements of the carpool SUV crowd and even achieved soccer mom status before she struck out to earn certification as a Master Gardener with the University of Tennessee Agricultural Extension Service. Reese went on to teach organic gardening classes and composting seminars throughout the southwestern portion of Tennessee. She even won her fifteen minutes of fame in an interview about her "compost queen" status in Memphis' Commercial Appeal which went country-wide.
Still not completely satisfied, Reese began writing poetry as a shore against her ruin. After a year or two, she realized what she did not know about the language of literature could fill a compost bin. After winning second place in the fledgling IBPC for her poem "A Letter From Your Sisters," Reese applied for and was accepted to The University of Memphis' MFA program in 2000, from which she graduated in 2002. While a student at U of M, Reese won the 2002 Creative Writing Award and was published in The Pinch. She's been writing her little fingertips off ever since. Her work has won awards online and been published in earthbound lit. mags. over the years.
Reese currently lives in Plano, Texas and teaches at Collin College where she is an Associate Professor of English. She recently won an award for Associate Professor of the Year. Her favorite gig is teaching an undergraduate poetry workshop, and she has recently taken the leap into flash fiction and creative nonfiction.
It is Reese's fervent hope that she never finishes becoming herself.
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