BOOKS & POETRY

Jamie Zoe Givens grew up on her family’s ranch next to the Snake River in Owyhee County, Idaho. She won her first prize in poetry at the age of seven for her recital of I Know an Old Woman who Swallowed a Fly.

After attending Gonzaga University and Boise State University, she traveled throughout the western United States. Jamie taught in California, and was awarded for her commitment and dedication to the excellence of students. Jamie left teaching to attend the New Mexico Academy of Healing Arts in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

In 2011, Jamie Zoe Givens helped create the “Gentle to All Ears” poetry reading for the International Book Festival; December 2011 featured poet for Poetry in the Brew. In 2010, her film, What’s It All About, played in Don Evan’s installation for “Where are They Now” at the Vanderbilt Fine Arts Gallery; October 2010 guest poet for Line Breaks, a Literary Series. 2009 Jamie’s short story, Dusty’s Two-Story Bus appeared in Rambler Magazine. In 2008, she helped organize “The Last Great American Road Trip” which encouraged people to live life as art on a twenty-one day bus trip across the United States.

In 2004 she published Never Offer a Chair to a Dancing Girl and presented it at the Southern Festival of Books in 2005 and 2006. 2004-2005 Jamie served as a board member of Ruby Green Contemporary Gallery for Art, and in 2001, she had a mixed media poetry installation at Ruby Green. Her writing has garnered awards from the local to the international levels. She has performed her poetry on television and radio.

In the last decade, Jamie Zoe Givens has hosted several poetry readings in Nashville, Tennessee. Jamie also is a healing arts practitioner with a license in massage therapy. Currently, she is working on her next book, a memoir of a journey which leads to oneness.

Location: The Front Porch @ Scarritt-Bennett