Sandra Jensen's Biography

I was born in South Africa and have lived all over the place including England, Germany, Canada and Greece. I have three passports...

I am presently based in Ireland, in West Cork, where I live with my partner, David Crean, and our foundling cat Ronan. I'm a late starter - I always thought I'd be a writer 'when I grew up' and growing up seems to have taken a long time. I was forty-six when when I had my first short story publication. But since then I finally buckled down to the hard work rather than the fantasy.

I have a degree in Classical Studies, half a degree in Photography and Semiotics (too much semiotics for me); I've had numerous jobs from bottle washer to martial arts instructor to guru-minder to mime artist to photoshop teacher to website project manager for a major bank ( a shock and surprise to everyone, espeically my marxist mother).

I have had an immune dysfuntion for 15 years which makes my life interesting.

In terms of my writing, I have written for the theatre in Toronto; my work has been published in a number of literary journals and magazines, including Word Riot, Sou'wester, Per Contra, Chautauqua and AGNI. Work is forthcoming in Carousel, Flash Fiction Magazine and the Unthology.

I am a finalist in the 2010 Bridport Prize, the 2007 SFWP Literary Awards Program, the  Writers at Work 2008 Fellowship Competition, Southwest Review's 2008 David Nathan Meyerson Fiction Prize and have received honourable mentions in Glimmer Train Press's Family Matters, Very Short Fiction and Open Fiction competitions. My short story manuscript, A SORT OF WALKING MIRACLE, was short-listed for The Scott Prize.

This year I was awarded a professional writer's grant from the Canada Council for the Arts to develop my novella, SERENDIP (working title), into a novel. I have done this, although it's only in first draft. Now for the editing process.... It's a literary adventure tale set in war-torn Sri Lanka.

I moderate the online writer's workshop called Diving Deeper