Before college, Quist had always thought of writing as her big brother’s domain since he had been writing fiction since high school. It never occurred to her that there could be more than one writer in the family. Afraid of trespassing on his territory, she applied her creativity to art and declared a major in studio art when she was in college in Memphis, TN. She stumbled through her art major until dropping out at the end of her sophomore year to explore life roaming cross country and assuming the identity of a "hippy" wannabe. 

 

It wasn’t until a few years later that she resumed her education by transferring to New York University (NYU) while working full time in the publishing industry. At that point she started to take her own writing seriously, mainly focusing on writing short stories. Quist graduated from NYU with a double major in psychology and creative writing. 

 

During her publishing career, she relocated from New York to San Diego, CA and to London, England where she met and married her husband, and they had their daughter, Sophie. Quist eventually returned to the US, moving to New Jersey with her family, and finally to northern Florida. She continues to hone her craft by studying writing one-on-one with a variety of teachers, taking craft courses, and focusing on her own work. She has recently completed her memoir, provisionally titled My Father’s Closet, and is currently searching for a home for this work. 

 

Jill has published several excerpts from her memoir as personal essays in Her Stry (a literary blog for Babes Who Write), Minerva Rising Press, Mud Season Review and Chicago Story Press Literary Journal. Her story The First Lie was published in the anthology Storytellers True Stories About Family, published by Chicago Story Press. 

 

To read some of Jill’s work, check out the page titled Published Work. In addition, she is the host of the podcast Voice Lessons: Uncovering and Claiming Your Unique, Creative Voice. You can listen on Spotify, Apple Podcasts and more.