[1] Her first book, The Mouths of Grazing Things (published under the name Jennifer Boyden) was selected by Robert Pinsky to receive the Brittingham Prize in Poetry in 2010 (University of Wisconsin Press).
Oakes’ novel, The Chief of Rally Tree (published under Jennifer Boyden), was selected by author Ann Pancake for the Siskiyou Prize for New Environmental Literature.
Author Pancake commented in her selection notes, “Inventive, smart, and often hilariously funny, The Chief of Rally Tree delivers a social critique both searing and sly.”[2] In 1999, Oakes was awarded the PEN Northwest / Margery Davis Boyden Wilderness Writing residency and lived in an isolated, remote wilderness region near the Rogue River in southern Oregon.
Projects that feature her text include work with Buster Simpson[4] and her ex-husband, visual artist Ian Boyden,[5] as well as creative nonfiction responding to work by artists such as Pacific Northwest photographer Peter deLory.
Oakes lives in Seattle, WA, where she teaches at Eastside Preparatory School[8] and is a contributing editor for Solstice Magazine.