Jill Kolongowski is a nonfiction writer, professor, and the author of the collection of essays Life Lessons Harry Potter Taught Me (Ulysses Press, 2017). She received her MFA from Saint Mary’s College of California, and has received fellowships residencies at the Artist Artsmith Residency, Lit Camp, the Squaw Valley Community of Writers, and Vermont Studio Center. Her essays have won Sundog Lit’s First Annual Contest series and the Diana Woods Memorial Prize in Creative Nonfiction at Lunch Ticket magazine. Other essays are published in Sweet, Essaying Daily, Southern Indiana Review, and elsewhere. She is a Hufflepuff who grew up in Michigan.