Will Jennings is a writer, photo-documentarian, musician, and community organizer advocating for equitable and accessible public commons. He is an Associate Professor of Instruction Emeritus in Writing, Reading, and Multi-Modal forms of the Essay, Creative Nonfiction, and Civic Advocacy. He has an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Iowa where he was named a Creative Institute Fellow and a certified Civic Reflection and Mediation Facilitator. He developed and taught a Strategic Sustainability Advocacy course as part of one Major and two Minor programs. His multidisciplinary approach to human-centered geography, design, and critical mapping/cartography has been central to his academic, narrative, and creative writing interests. His sequenced essay memoir, “How I Know Orion” is forthcoming on Ice Cube Press, mapping the indirect and intergenerational language of violent trauma and recovery.

Before teaching, he helped start and grow a cooperative natural food wholesale, helping underserved communities organize and sustain access to affordable and healthy foods. He has been a typesetter, designer, carpenter, farm worker, landscaper, line cook, labor organizer, heavy machinery operator, professional touring musician/songwriter, and certified Wilderness First Responder/Search and Rescue Volunteer. He lives in Iowa and mid-coast Maine with his partner, author Susan Futrell, and their stalwart, indefatigable rescue cat, Ned.

For the Summer 2024 issue, Will recommended Wayfinding: The Science and Mystery of How Humans Navigate the World, M.R. O’Connor, St. Martin’s Press, 2019, 368 pages