Welcome

Jennifer Gresham works as a chemist by day and a poet by night.  The collision of those two worlds produced this site, Litmus Poetry.  So make yourself at home.  Read some sample poems, check out the latest reading schedule, or purchase a copy of one of her two collections.  And check back frequently—new items are being added all the time.

Jennifer Gresham grew up on the outskirts of Tampa, FL. She attended the U.S. Air Force Academy, where she earned a B.S. in biochemistry and a commission as a second lieutenant. She's since lived in Oklahoma, California, Colorado, and now Maryland. She recently received her Ph.D. in biochemistry from the University of Maryland.

Her work has appeared in over a dozen poetry journals, including The Atlanta Review, Poet Lore, New York Quarterly, and The Ledge. Her chapbook, Explaining Relativity to the Cat, was published in 2004 by Pudding House Press. That same year, Diary of a Cell, a full-length collection of poems, won the 2004 Steel Toe Books Poetry Prize, judged by Charles Harper Webb. Her work was featured by Garrison Keillor in his NPR show, The Writer's Almanac, in October 2005 and February 2006.