About the Author

For a high resolution download of a press photo, please click HERE. Use your back button to return to this page. Photo Credit: Gary Adams.

Brucie Jacobs, born in Baltimore, Maryland, graduated from Cornell University where she studied Mandarin Chinese. After working for the National Council for US-China Trade in Washington, D.C., she went on to receive a law degree from Columbia University, practiced law for several years, then turned to writing full-time. Her essays and articles have appeared in Redbook, Baltimore Magazine, the Baltimore Sun, three of the books in the Chicken Soup for the Soul series, and other publications. Her short stories have been published in numerous literary journals, including The Crescent Review, Moxie Magazine, Rosebud, Potpourri, The Baltimore Review, and Potomac Review, as well as in Great Writers, Great Stories: Writers from Maryland, Virginia, and Washington, D.C. (IM Press, 1999).

A collection of five of her short stories won the literary competition in Baltimore’s 1998 Artscape Festival. The judge of that competition, Edward P. Jones, author of the Pulitzer Prize winning The Known World, had this to say about Jacobs’ writing: “The author writes effortless prose. She is confident of the worlds—whether it is a suburban backyard at night or the confusion of Hong Kong—being created; and that confidence and a clarity of vision pull the reader in and make all the stories believable and poignant. One of the things that amazed me was the beauty of many of the images. And those images come with a precise dissection of the characters’ lives…This is wonderful work.” That short story collection is available in a chapbook entitled Small Burials (Artscape, 1998) and may be purchased from the author. Please click HERE for more information.

Secret Girl evolved from the author’s essay, A Letter to Annie (Baltimore Magazine, 1996), which won (i) a public service award from the Baltimore Association for Retarded Citizens, (ii) an award from the Maryland Chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists for excellence in journalism in the category of Magazine Writing—Human Interest, and (iii) first place in the nonfiction category of the Mid-Atlantic Writers’ Guild literary competition (1996). The book proposal for Secret Girl won first place in the nonfiction book category of the Southwest Writers 2002 Literary Contest. Click HERE for information about Secret Girl's release.

Brucie is also a painter. She works with encaustics—that is, painting made from molten, pigmented beeswax. Her technique involves applying layer after layer of wax on rigid, wood panels, and fusing each layer with heat from a blow torch. Jacobs’ paintings are on display at Cose d’Argilla (Lenox, Massachusetts) and Coastal Frameshop and Gallery (Rehoboth Beach, Delaware).

Brucie divides her time between western Massachusetts and Rehoboth Beach, Delaware.