Biography
Vanessa Blakeslee spent the first eighteen years of her life in Brodheadsville, PA. Throughout her childhood, her parents owned the Chestnuthill Diner and from the age of six she read, wrote stories, plays and poems in the restaurant's murky basement office and upstairs corner booths. At the age of nine, she had her first experience creating her own books and giving readings for her fourth grade class, and from then on she knew she wanted to write fiction.
At Rollins College, Vanessa earned a B.A. in English and encouragement from her first writing professor, Philip F. Deaver. She continued her education at the University of Central Florida where she wrote the story collection "Bistro Girls" for her M.A. in English thesis. She worked a variety of jobs--as a waitress, bartender, model, tutor, co-author of a screenplay and university instructor. She also traveled extensively, mostly through school exchange programs which brought her to study at the University of Sydney, Australia, Birkbeck College, London, la Sorbonne, Paris, Slovenia, and at Charles University, Prague in the Prague Summer Program via Western Michigan University.
While teaching creative and expository writing classes at U.C.F. and Rollins College Vanessa earned her M.F.A. at the Vermont College of Fine Arts. At VCFA she spent intensive semesters studying craft one-on-one with authors Domenic Stansberry, Douglas Glover, Xu Xi and Robin Hemley. She is also a member of Amherst Writers & Artists, Pen America, AWP, and has attended the AWP, Grub Street, Sewanee and Bread Loaf Writers' Conferences.
Vanessa Blakeslee resides in Maitland, Florida. She is finishing her first novel, marketing two short story collections while writing new ones, dashing off poems in between stories, and facilitating Orlando Writers' Workshops and Maitland Poets & Writers. When she is not writing, traveling or teaching, she practices yoga, enjoys foreign languages (especially French, Spanish and Italian), and before bed, laughs at great comedy. She is also a Master-level bellydancer at Suspira's Orlando Bellydance: School of Middle-Eastern Dance.
Writer, Poet, Teacher
