Jen Selk is a mixed-race poc writer living on the unceded territory of the Wolastoqiyik people known as Fredericton, New Brunswick, where she intends to stay, ideally for the rest of her life (particularly after experiencing stints in the USA, Toronto, and Vancouver and the horrors of long-distance relocation).

She is a recovering journalist who now writes poetry, children’s, personal essay, memoir, and fiction, and creates digital art often distributed on Instagram (@selkmade). She is the face of Will & Bequeath (a vintage store, currently on hiatus), and and accidental “influencer” and content creator under the handle @willandbequeath on IG and TikTok.

She is the primary organizer behind the Agency Press Collective, and her debut poetry collection, Landmarks & Beacons was published in 2022, and re-released in print in Canada in 2023. Jen is currently working on future works, while also mentoring and promoting New Brunswick indie authors whose genre writing limits their reach and access in the established publishing sphere.

She is committed to the democratization of the artistic process, to removing traditional publishing barriers, and to championing true independence in art under capitalism while disrupting the gatekeeping in which even small presses participate.

~

Hi. Are you confused by all that fancy talk? 

It’s me. I’m the problem, it’s me. I’m sorry. I’m confusing. (And confused!)

I’m Jen Selk! This is my goofy website! I’ve had it since the beginning of time! (Established 2005! That’s like, 1001 in internet years.)

Along the way I’ve been a professional journalist, a copywriter, an editor, a marketing manager, and a social media specialist. I’ve been a blogger, a maker, a DIYer, a reviewer, a decorator/designer, and a content creator. I’ve done some television hosting and appeared as a pop culture pundit. When I was in my early 20s, I was a truly awful catalogue-and-newspaper model. I write (and sometimes professionally publish), and I launched and ran my own digital litmag for a while in the mid-aughts. I have a masters in English Literature, but I also have a Gen Alpha kid, so I know about skibbity toilet. I am cringe and have no rizz, but my GYAT is chat.

At the time of this writing, I am still in the midst of a ongoing site redesign and am slowly re-uploading and reformatting old content, so this place is a bit of a mess, and for that I’m sorry. Eventually I’ll be finished, and perhaps more of the text you see on this page will link you to other areas of the site, and it’ll all be beautiful and fun and you’ll like it. You’ll see.

I’ve been online since about 1995, and used to think that keeping all my interests and projects separate made a lot of sense. I’ve changed my mind, and this site is the result. It’s nearly everything. Or it will eventually be everything. All in one place. Maybe. Feel free to just bop around and do your thing. There’s some really hilarious and terrible baby journalism up, if you feel like diving back into the horrors of 1999, etc.

As I said on the homepage of the very first incarnation of jenselk.com: This is a website. You’ve probably seen one before. And even if you haven’t, I’m sure you’ll figure it out.

I [still] believe in you.