Jan Steckel
Encyclopedia
Jan Steckel, M.D. is a San Francisco Bay Area
-based writer of poetry, fiction and creative nonfiction, who is also known as an activist in the bisexual community
and an advocate on behalf of the disabled and the underprivileged.
One of the most prolific writers/poets today, Steckel has published over a hundred of her short stories, poems and nonfiction pieces in print and in online publications such as Scholastic Magazine, Yale Medicine, Red Rock Review, So to Speak, Redwood Coast Review, and Bellevue Literary Review
. Beyond the prodigious numbers of awards she has received, her work has been widely reprinted and anthologized. Steckel's writing has been nominated twice for Pushcart Prize
s: once for her nonfiction, and once for her poetry.
A strong bilingual background (Steckel is fluent in Spanish
as well as English
), extensive medical training, and work in underserved communities allow Steckel to tackle subjects that other writers (particularly those from more conventional middle-class backgrounds) aren't always able to cover adequately, and her work in different media (poetry, short stories, creative nonfiction) facilitates a great deal of creative cross-pollination.
Her poetry chapbook
The Underwater Hospital is available from Zeitgeist Press. She is currently working on a book-length collection of interrelated short stories and on a collection of short humorous first-person essays. Most of the stories and essays have already appeared in print.
She is also a founding member of Woman-Stirred, a queer
women's writing collective, along with Nicki Hastie, Julie R. Enszer, and Merry Gangemi.
-Radcliffe
University, where she earned her B.A. summa cum laude in English literature with an emphasis on creative writing in 1983. Later she studied Golden Age Spanish Literature at Oxford University
on a Henry Fellowship through 1984. In 1989 she either fell in with the wrong crowd or started listening to her parents (depending upon whose version of the story one listens to) and took a few premedical courses while conducting research in the neuroscience laboratory. One thing led to another, and Steckel attended Yale University
School of Medicine
, where she picked up her M.D. in May 1994. Steckel's speciality was in pediatrics
, in which she completed her residency at Children's Hospital Boston
in July 1997.
Board-Certified in Pediatrics by the American Board of Pediatrics in 1997, Steckel obtained her Physician and Surgeon License from the Medical Board of California in 1997; she became a Fellow of the American Academy of Pediatrics
in 2000.
Steckel served for a time in the Peace Corps
as a volunteer in the Dominican Republic
; upon her return to the States, she cared for Spanish-speaking families in California at a county hospital and at a large HMO. After she left medicine permanently in 2001, her experiences as a pediatrician continued to inform her work.
, where she attended Lincoln Junior High School (now Lincoln Middle School
), studying journalism under Carol Jago. She went to Santa Monica High School
, where she once confided that she enjoyed a "love/hate" relationship with the world of mathematics—a sentiment that might have been prescient of her later toggling between science/medicine and the world of letters.
In high school Steckel was known for her vocal range, and sang briefly with a band, Industrial Waist—which brought her on for live performances of Grace Slick
's part in Jefferson Airplane
's "Somebody to Love
". Her associates during her high school and college years included the Westsiders in Los Angeles who called themselves the "Olive Starlight Orchestra" (but had nothing to do with music; it was just a social circle, like the Bloomsbury Group
).
Steckel associated at that time with such luminaries as computer graphics researcher Greg Turk
; neurobiologist David Linden
; Academy Award-winner and scanning/computer graphics expert David Coons
; entrepreneur/pornographer Christophe Pettus, founder of the sex-toy company Blowfish
, columnist, one-woman show creator, writer, and radio personality Sandra Tsing Loh
; mathematician and co-founder of Rhythm and Hues Studios
Keith Goldfarb, internet activist and law professor Susan P. Crawford
; producer/computer-graphics innovator Eric Enderton, politician/attorney Sandra Levin, and conservative blogger Joy W. McCann.
Steckel, openly
bisexual, lives in Northern California with her husband Hew Wolff, who has collaborated on some of her poetry.
San Francisco Bay Area
The San Francisco Bay Area, commonly known as the Bay Area, is a populated region that surrounds the San Francisco and San Pablo estuaries in Northern California. The region encompasses metropolitan areas of San Francisco, Oakland, and San Jose, along with smaller urban and rural areas...
-based writer of poetry, fiction and creative nonfiction, who is also known as an activist in the bisexual community
Bisexual community
Bisexual community is a term used to describe members of the LGBT community who identify as bisexual, pansexual, "fluid", and queer-identified, as well as their allies...
and an advocate on behalf of the disabled and the underprivileged.
One of the most prolific writers/poets today, Steckel has published over a hundred of her short stories, poems and nonfiction pieces in print and in online publications such as Scholastic Magazine, Yale Medicine, Red Rock Review, So to Speak, Redwood Coast Review, and Bellevue Literary Review
Bellevue literary review
Bellevue Literary Review is a literary journal that publishes fiction, nonfiction and poetry about the human body, illness, health and healing. The Bellevue Literary Review is based in Bellevue Hospital, the oldest public hospital in the United States, and has been published by the Department of...
. Beyond the prodigious numbers of awards she has received, her work has been widely reprinted and anthologized. Steckel's writing has been nominated twice for Pushcart Prize
Pushcart Prize
The Pushcart Prize is an American literary prize by Pushcart Press that honors the best "poetry, short fiction, essays or literary whatnot" published in the small presses over the previous year. Magazine and small book press editors are invited to nominate up to 6 works they have featured....
s: once for her nonfiction, and once for her poetry.
A strong bilingual background (Steckel is fluent in Spanish
Spanish language
Spanish , also known as Castilian , is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that evolved from several languages and dialects in central-northern Iberia around the 9th century and gradually spread with the expansion of the Kingdom of Castile into central and southern Iberia during the...
as well as English
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
), extensive medical training, and work in underserved communities allow Steckel to tackle subjects that other writers (particularly those from more conventional middle-class backgrounds) aren't always able to cover adequately, and her work in different media (poetry, short stories, creative nonfiction) facilitates a great deal of creative cross-pollination.
Her poetry chapbook
Chapbook
A chapbook is a pocket-sized booklet. The term chap-book was formalized by bibliophiles of the 19th century, as a variety of ephemera , popular or folk literature. It includes many kinds of printed material such as pamphlets, political and religious tracts, nursery rhymes, poetry, folk tales,...
The Underwater Hospital is available from Zeitgeist Press. She is currently working on a book-length collection of interrelated short stories and on a collection of short humorous first-person essays. Most of the stories and essays have already appeared in print.
She is also a founding member of Woman-Stirred, a queer
Queer
Queer is an umbrella term for sexual minorities that are not heterosexual, heteronormative, or gender-binary. In the context of Western identity politics the term also acts as a label setting queer-identifying people apart from discourse, ideologies, and lifestyles that typify mainstream LGBT ...
women's writing collective, along with Nicki Hastie, Julie R. Enszer, and Merry Gangemi.
Education and medical career
Steckel's undergraduate work was at HarvardHarvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...
-Radcliffe
Radcliffe College
Radcliffe College was a women's liberal arts college in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and was the coordinate college for Harvard University. It was also one of the Seven Sisters colleges. Radcliffe College conferred joint Harvard-Radcliffe diplomas beginning in 1963 and a formal merger agreement with...
University, where she earned her B.A. summa cum laude in English literature with an emphasis on creative writing in 1983. Later she studied Golden Age Spanish Literature at Oxford University
University of Oxford
The University of Oxford is a university located in Oxford, United Kingdom. It is the second-oldest surviving university in the world and the oldest in the English-speaking world. Although its exact date of foundation is unclear, there is evidence of teaching as far back as 1096...
on a Henry Fellowship through 1984. In 1989 she either fell in with the wrong crowd or started listening to her parents (depending upon whose version of the story one listens to) and took a few premedical courses while conducting research in the neuroscience laboratory. One thing led to another, and Steckel attended Yale University
Yale University
Yale University is a private, Ivy League university located in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701 in the Colony of Connecticut, the university is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States...
School of Medicine
Yale School of Medicine
The Yale School of Medicine at Yale University is a private medical school located in New Haven, Connecticut, U.S. It was founded in 1810 as The Medical Institution of Yale College, and formally opened its doors in 1813....
, where she picked up her M.D. in May 1994. Steckel's speciality was in pediatrics
Pediatrics
Pediatrics or paediatrics is the branch of medicine that deals with the medical care of infants, children, and adolescents. A medical practitioner who specializes in this area is known as a pediatrician or paediatrician...
, in which she completed her residency at Children's Hospital Boston
Children's Hospital Boston
Children's Hospital Boston is a 396-licensed bed children's hospital in the Longwood Medical and Academic Area of Boston, Massachusetts.At 300 Longwood Avenue, Children's is adjacent both to its teaching affiliate, Harvard Medical School, and to Dana-Farber Cancer Institute...
in July 1997.
Board-Certified in Pediatrics by the American Board of Pediatrics in 1997, Steckel obtained her Physician and Surgeon License from the Medical Board of California in 1997; she became a Fellow of the American Academy of Pediatrics
American Academy of Pediatrics
The American Academy of Pediatrics is the major professional association of pediatricians in the United States. The AAP was founded in 1930 by 35 pediatricians to address pediatric healthcare standards. It currently has 60,000 members in primary care and sub-specialist areas...
in 2000.
Steckel served for a time in the Peace Corps
Peace Corps
The Peace Corps is an American volunteer program run by the United States Government, as well as a government agency of the same name. The mission of the Peace Corps includes three goals: providing technical assistance, helping people outside the United States to understand US culture, and helping...
as a volunteer in the Dominican Republic
Dominican Republic
The Dominican Republic is a nation on the island of La Hispaniola, part of the Greater Antilles archipelago in the Caribbean region. The western third of the island is occupied by the nation of Haiti, making Hispaniola one of two Caribbean islands that are shared by two countries...
; upon her return to the States, she cared for Spanish-speaking families in California at a county hospital and at a large HMO. After she left medicine permanently in 2001, her experiences as a pediatrician continued to inform her work.
Personal life
Steckel grew up in Santa MonicaSanta Monica, California
Santa Monica is a beachfront city in western Los Angeles County, California, US. Situated on Santa Monica Bay, it is surrounded on three sides by the city of Los Angeles — Pacific Palisades on the northwest, Brentwood on the north, West Los Angeles on the northeast, Mar Vista on the east, and...
, where she attended Lincoln Junior High School (now Lincoln Middle School
Lincoln Middle School (Santa Monica, California)
Lincoln Middle School, located in Santa Monica, California, currently serves around 1150-1200 students in grades sixth through eighth with 3 administrators, tens of certificated teachers and twenty-five classified staff members. Most of the students come from three feeder schools in the area...
), studying journalism under Carol Jago. She went to Santa Monica High School
Santa Monica High School
Santa Monica High School, informally known as SAMOHI, is located in Santa Monica, California. Founded in 1884, it is one of the oldest high schools in the state....
, where she once confided that she enjoyed a "love/hate" relationship with the world of mathematics—a sentiment that might have been prescient of her later toggling between science/medicine and the world of letters.
In high school Steckel was known for her vocal range, and sang briefly with a band, Industrial Waist—which brought her on for live performances of Grace Slick
Grace Slick
Grace Slick is an American singer and songwriter, who was one of the lead singers of the rock groups The Great Society, Jefferson Airplane, Jefferson Starship, and Starship, and was a solo artist, for nearly three decades, from the mid-1960s to the mid-1990s...
's part in Jefferson Airplane
Jefferson Airplane
Jefferson Airplane was an American rock band formed in San Francisco in 1965. A pioneer of the psychedelic rock movement, Jefferson Airplane was the first band from the San Francisco scene to achieve mainstream commercial and critical success....
's "Somebody to Love
Somebody to Love (Jefferson Airplane song)
"Somebody to Love" is a rock song that was written by Darby Slick and originally recorded by 1960s folk rock band The Great Society and later by the psychedelic rock band Jefferson Airplane...
". Her associates during her high school and college years included the Westsiders in Los Angeles who called themselves the "Olive Starlight Orchestra" (but had nothing to do with music; it was just a social circle, like the Bloomsbury Group
Bloomsbury Group
The Bloomsbury Group or Bloomsbury Set was a group of writers, intellectuals, philosophers and artists who held informal discussions in Bloomsbury throughout the 20th century. This English collective of friends and relatives lived, worked or studied near Bloomsbury in London during the first half...
).
Steckel associated at that time with such luminaries as computer graphics researcher Greg Turk
Greg Turk
Greg Turk is an American-born researcher in the field of computer graphics and a Professor at the School of Interactive Computing in the College of Computing at the Georgia Institute of Technology...
; neurobiologist David Linden
David Linden
David J. Linden is an American professor of neuroscience at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland, and the author of The Accidental Mind: How Brain Evolution Has Given Us Love, Memory, Dreams, and God....
; Academy Award-winner and scanning/computer graphics expert David Coons
David Coons
David B. Coons is an Academy Award-winning computer graphics professional who is perhaps best known as the inspiration for the title of Po Bronson's The Nudist on the Late Shift, but is also a longtime CGI expert of near-"Pioneer" status.-Biogrphy:...
; entrepreneur/pornographer Christophe Pettus, founder of the sex-toy company Blowfish
Blowfish (company)
Blowfish is an online sex toy catalog offering erotic toys, books, supplies and videos.-History:Founded May 1, 1994 Blowfish was one of the first online sex toy catalogs. With the motto "Good Products for Great Sex", Blowfish is known for their honest, thorough and often humorous reviews of their...
, columnist, one-woman show creator, writer, and radio personality Sandra Tsing Loh
Sandra Tsing Loh
Sandra Tsing Loh is a Los Angeles, California-based writer, actress, performance-artist, pop-culture analyst, and radio commentator.-Biography:Loh is the daughter of a Chinese father and a German mother...
; mathematician and co-founder of Rhythm and Hues Studios
Rhythm and Hues Studios
Rhythm & Hues Studios is a visual effects studio serving the major film studios. It is known for its computer-generated 3D character animation. Recognized as one of the top facilities of its kind in the world, Rhythm & Hues has contributed to more than 150 feature films...
Keith Goldfarb, internet activist and law professor Susan P. Crawford
Susan P. Crawford
Susan P. Crawford was until December 2009 President Barack Obama's Special Assistant for Science, Technology, and Innovation Policy...
; producer/computer-graphics innovator Eric Enderton, politician/attorney Sandra Levin, and conservative blogger Joy W. McCann.
Steckel, openly
Coming out
Coming out is a figure of speech for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people's disclosure of their sexual orientation and/or gender identity....
bisexual, lives in Northern California with her husband Hew Wolff, who has collaborated on some of her poetry.
Other writing
- "Girl Lessons" in the online publication biMagazine, May 2007;
- "How to Have Great Sex When Your Back Hurts" in the Good Vibes Online Magazine (GV Weekly), February 7, 2007;
- "Getting It Rote: a Poetry Performance Practicum" in the Bay Area Poets Seasonal Review, Summer 2005. Reprinted online in Woman-Stirred, September 24, 2005;
- "Voyage to Planet California" in Bi Women, Vol. 15 No. 2, April/May 1997 (reprinted in the online journal Awakened Woman, February 5, 2004);
- "Telegram from Another Planet" and "Family Medicine" in the anthology Becoming Doctors, edited by Parminder Bolina, Student Doctors Press, 1995;
Poetry
- "The White Hospital" forthcoming in Bellevue Literary Review, Fall 2008;
- Al-Salaam Boccaccio" in the Redwood Coast Review, Winter 2007/2008;
- "Lake Bed" selected for the American Pain Foundation's Pain and Creativity Exhibit, October 2007;
- "The Maiden Aunts" in The Pedestal Magazine online, Issue 30, October/November 2005 (also forthcoming in Awakened Woman in 2006, and in the anthology Blood to Remember: American Poets on the Holocaust, 2nd edition, edited by Charles Fishman, Time Being Books, 2007);
- "Tiresias" in Diverticulum, Spring 1994 (reprinted in BiWomen, the newsletter of the Boston Bisexual Women's Network; awarded the Triplopia Magazine Best of the Best Award in 2006, and reprinted there along with an interview with Steckel by Tracy Koretsky, contributing editor to Triplopia and author of Ropeless. Reprinted in BiMagazine in December, 2006).
Fiction
- "Truth in Free-Will Advertising" in The Eloquent Atheist, February 2008;
- "Bi-Dyke Bonnie and the Sword of Snart" online in biMagazine, August 2007;
- "The Sea That Sometimes Frightened Us" in the online journal Lodestar Quarterly, Summer 2004;
- "A Dish Best Eaten Chilled in Aspic" in Collection 33, May 1995;
- "Chemé" in Yale Medicine, Fall/Winter 1992-1993;
- "California Dreamin'" in Scholastic Magazine, 1975.
Awards
- The 2007 Jewel Prize by the Bay poetry competition, sponsored by the Frank Bette Center for the Arts;
- Triplopia's 2006 Best-of-the-Best Competition (open only to winning poems from other contests) for "Tiresias";
- Second Place for Poetry in The Pedestal Magazines 2005 Pedestal Readers' Awards for "The Maiden Aunts";
- Finalist in the Blue Light Poetry Prize and Chapbook Contest, 2004;
- The Marguerite Rush Lerner Award for outstanding creative writing by a Yale medical student, 1992, for a collection of short stories.