Jay Ann Cox

I have never forgotten the first time I published a book. It was one magical day in first grade, when my teacher took my construction paper drawings with a few sentences and bound them with yarn to make a book. The book was about my dog Suzy. I was only six, but I was hooked. In the decades after that, books, reading and writing have been my best friends (aside from numerous dogs).

After that moment, I read every book in the library with "dog" or "horse" in the title, or on the cover. Then I branched out to mystery, westerns, romance, literature, anthropology... I became an English major and was on my way to becoming a professor after receiving a PhD in Cultural and Literary Studies. I taught college writing from 1988 to 2017 (with a couple of breaks). However, some curves in the academic road lead me to writing for magazines and then editing and publishing for nonprofit membership magazines and newspapers.

Born in Kansas to an Air Force family, I have also lived in Virginia, Nebraska, Texas, Arizona and New Mexico. I have traveled extensively to Namibia, South Africa, Belgium, Spain, Hungary, Serbia, Bosnia, Macedonia, Mexico, Canada and Ireland, plus nearly 40 of the United States. I speak a smattering of Spanish, French, German and Italian—enough to get around easily in my travels. I consider myself a Texan, and yes, the drawl comes out occasionally.

Today, I am combining all of that work and life experience to speak to audiences about the magic of writing, reading and books; about the role of storytelling in culture and history; some exciting research in neuroscience; and about how everyone has a story and should tell it, and take the chance to become immortal.

My role as a speaker is not to perform my routine, take a bow, and go home. I believe it is to reach out to the audience and inspire them; to offer them permission and an open invitation to write, whether it is fiction, memoir, non-fiction, corporate communications, or technical/scientific knowledge. Our brains are hungry for stories, and there is always room for more writers. 

For experienced writers, my talks serve as a "Roto-Rooter" for those with writer's block or imposter syndrome. But also my stories can help published writers ride over the speed bumps with ease.

So my talks are chock full of stories with a good serving of science and research. I also conduct workshops that provide exercises to teach how to put that inspiration and encouragement to good use as soon as possible. 

Just as my first grade teacher took a few moments to "make me" an author, I hope to touch listeners with the magical author wand and keep the stories coming.