Jenna

Blum

Bestselling Novelist & Memoirist

Oprah’s Top Thirty Women Writers

Travels from: Boston, MA

“She has a way of presenting her ideas in living color. Jenna is warm, engaging, humorous, and always professional…and I’d like to add adorable!” — Palm Beach Gardens

Jenna Blum is the New York Times and internationally bestselling author of novels Those Who Save Us, The Stormchasers, and The Lost Family; memoir Woodrow on the Bench, about her senior black Lab and what his last seven months taught her; novella “The Lucky One” in the collection Grand Central; audio course The Author At Work: The Art of Writing Fiction; and World War II audio drama The Key Of Love, available on all major streaming platforms.

Jenna is one of Oprah’s Top Thirty Women Writers, with her work published in over 20 countries, and cofounder/CEO of literary social media marketing company A Mighty Blaze. Jenna’s New York Times and internationally bestselling first novel, Those Who Save Us, won the Ribalow Prize, awarded by Hadassah Magazine and adjudged by Elie Wiesel; Jenna interviewed Holocaust survivors for the Steven Spielberg Survivors of the Shoah Foundation for five years. Those Who Save Us was also a Borders pick and the number one bestselling book in Holland. The Stormchasers was a Target pick and featured in French Elle; the bestselling The Lost Family was an Indienext pick and received starred reviews from Booklist, Kirkus, Publishers Weekly, and Library Journal. Woodrow on the Bench was an Indienext pick and Midwestern Booksellers’ Association bestseller.

Jenna is a public speaker, traveling nationally and internationally; for her 1st novel, she visited over 800 book clubs in the Boston area alone.

Jenna is based in Boston, where she earned her M.A. in Creative Writing from Boston University and taught fiction and journalism while being the fiction editor for AGNI Literary Magazine. She has taught fiction, novel, and marketing for writers at Boston’s Grub Street Writers and various national conferences and institutions for over 20 years, in Boston and nationally. For more information about Jenna and to share her real-time adventures, please follow her on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

Jenna's Featured Titles

Woodrow on the Bench: Life Lessons from a Wise Old Dog

Harper |

November 9, 2021

Memoir

“When I say Jenna Blum’s upcoming Woodrow on the Bench wrecked me and that I’m now sobbing eating all the chocolate, I mean it in the best way possible.”—Jodi Picoult

“Jenna Blum’s wonderful moving memoir, is a “girl and her dog” story for the ages!”—Garth Stein, author of The Art of Racing in the Rain

The New York Times and internationally bestselling author of Those Who Save Us pays tribute to her beloved black Lab, Woodrow, in this beautiful memoir that recalls the last six months of his life and the ways in which he taught her to live.

“For anyone who’s ever loved an old dog.”

Since she adopted him as a puppy fifteen years earlier, Jenna Blum and Woodrow have been inseparable. Known to many as “the George Clooney of dogs” for his good looks and charm, Woodrow and his “Mommoo” are fixtures in their Boston neighborhood.

But Woodrow is aging. As he begins to fail, the true nature of his extraordinary relationship with Jenna is revealed. Jenna may be the dog parent, but it is Woodrow, with his amazing personality and trusting nature, who has much to teach her. A divorcée who has experienced her share of sadness and loss, Jenna discovers, over the months she spends caring for her ailing dog, what it is to be present in the moment, and what it truly means to love.

Aided by an amazing group of friends and buoyed by the support of strangers, Jenna and Woodrow navigate these precious final days together with kindness, humor, and grace. Their unforgettable love story will reaffirm your belief in kindness, break your heart, and leave your spirit soaring.

Animals & Wildlife, Grief & Loss, Memoir & Personal Journeys, Mental Health & Overcoming Trauma

The Lost Family

Harper |

June 4, 2019

Novel

The Lost Family is an extraordinary read, the kind of book that makes you sob and smile, the kind that gives you hope…. It is compassionate, masterful and disturbingly contemporary.”—Tatiana de Rosnay, bestselling author of Sarah’s Key

The New York Times bestselling author of Those Who Save Us creates a vivid portrait of marriage, family, and the haunting grief of World War II in this emotionally charged, beautifully rendered story that spans a generation, from the 1960s to the 1980s.

In 1965 Manhattan, patrons flock to Masha’s to savor its brisket bourguignon and impeccable service and to admire its dashing owner and head chef Peter Rashkin. With his movie-star good looks and tragic past, Peter, a survivor of Auschwitz, is the most eligible bachelor in town. But Peter does not care for the parade of eligible women who come to the restaurant hoping to catch his eye. He has resigned himself to a solitary life. Running Masha’s consumes him, as does his terrible guilt over surviving the horrors of the Nazi death camp while his wife, Masha—the restaurant’s namesake—and two young daughters perished.

Then exquisitely beautiful June Bouquet, an up-and-coming young model, appears at the restaurant, piercing Peter’s guard. Though she is twenty years his junior, the two begin a passionate, whirlwind courtship. When June unexpectedly becomes pregnant, Peter proposes, believing that beginning a new family with the woman he loves will allow him to let go of the horror of the past. But over the next twenty years, the indelible sadness of those memories will overshadow Peter, June, and their daughter Elsbeth, transforming them in shocking, heartbreaking, and unexpected ways.

Jenna Blum artfully brings to the page a husband devastated by a grief he cannot name, a frustrated wife struggling to compete with a ghost she cannot banish, and a daughter sensitive to the pain of both her own family and another lost before she was born. Spanning three cinematic decades, The Lost Family is a charming, funny, and elegantly bittersweet study of the repercussions of loss and love.

Bestseller, Community Reads, Fiction, Historical Fiction, Jewish Themes

Those Who Save Us

Harper Perennial |

May 2, 2005

Novel

A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER
An estranged mother and daughter reunite to confront their family’s role in World War II in this harrowing, unforgettable novel about lost love and inherited shame.

For fifty years, Anna Schlemmer refused to talk about her life in Germany during World War II. Her daughter, Trudy, was only three when she and her mother were liberated by an American soldier and went to live with him in Minnesota. Trudy’s sole evidence of the past is an old photograph: a family portrait showing Anna, Trudy, and a Nazi officer, the Obersturmfuhrer of Buchenwald. Driven by the guilt of her heritage, Trudy, now a professor of German history, begins investigating the past and finally unearths the dramatic and heartbreaking truth of her mother’s life.

Combining a passionate, doomed love story, a vivid evocation of life during the war, and a poignant mother-daughter drama, Jenna Blume’s Those Who Save Us is a profound exploration of what we endure to survive.

The winner of the 2005 Ribalow Prize, awarded by Hadassah Magazine and adjudged by Elie Wiesel.

Fiction, Grief & Loss, Historical Fiction, Immigrant & Refugee Perspectives, Jewish Themes, Mental Health & Overcoming Trauma

The Importance of Bearing Witness: Interviewing Holocaust Survivors and Its Impact

Surviving Trauma: the Effects of Extraordinary Circumstances & How People Rebuild

The Making of a Bestseller: A Writer’s Journey

Cooking the Books: Food in Fiction (complete with cooking demos!)

Extreme Research: Adventures in Stormchasing, Nazi Germany, & Professional Kitchens

A Creative Approach to Creative Writing

An Evening with Jenna Blum (can be a dinner party, cocktail hour, host’s choice!)

For The Love Of Dogs: When To Let Go, When To Let Back In.

“Jenna was great! She was very engaging and the audience loved her. One patron told me that she wished she spoke for 2 more hours. She had everyone captivated with her presentation. There is a LOT of interest in the Holocaust, and people found her discussion of her research process very interesting. I would highly recommend her as a guest author/speaker for any venue… I loved her whole presentation and how personable she was with everyone when she was signing books. She really felt like a member of our own community!” — Deb Sharpe, The Woodstock Academy 2023

“Dear Jenna, I enjoyed your presentation so very much yesterday that I was compelled to write to you and tell you. Your charm, humor, confidence & encouragement was felt by everyone. Your accomplishments are astounding, but what impressed me the most was you! You shared your stories and we all thank you for that. We had a great day! Hope you come back again.” — Lori, Valencia Reserve Women’s Club 2023

“At Adventures by the Book, our mission is to connect readers with authors and their books through interesting, unique, and adventurous events and travels, so it is like gold for us when we work with someone like Jenna Blum who can make our events and travels a smashing success. Jenna possesses that rare trifecta of not only being a talented writer but also of being an engaging speaker and one who knows how to intimately connect with her readers. In 2017, she honored us by participating as our featured author on a Germany Adventure by the Book, in which we traveled with sixteen of her reading fans to Bavaria, Germany, to recreate her inspiration, research, and the story behind Those Who Save Us. We had ten days to watch her in action, and not only did she charm the pants off of our group, but she delighted local bookshop owners, fellow tourists, and pretty much every local with whom we crossed paths. And she learned enough of the language in that short amount of time to delight all. She is smart, sassy, funny, brilliant, genuine, and engaging. I couldn’t recommend her highly enough to for public speaking opportunities.” — Adventures by the Book

“Jenna is knowledgeable, intelligent, and accessible as a speaker to any audience lucky enough to listen to her. I have been present on numerous occasions when she has spoken and you could hear a pin drop in the room as audiences were intent on enjoying her every word! She has a way of presenting her ideas in living color. Jenna is warm, engaging, humorous, and always professional…and I’d like to add adorable!” — Palm Beach Gardens

“Jenna Blum is an utter rockstar of an author. She commands a room with bursting humor, warmth, writerly wisdom, and an unforgettable fearlessness. When she spoke as our keynote in 2018, our audience jumped to their feet in applause, inspired by her vision and wit. Blum is consistently among our most popular and beloved speakers— a true treat for any audience that cares about writing, books, and urgent lessons of history. Any event is ridiculously lucky to have her.” — Grub Street Writers

“We were so incredibly fortunate here in Milwaukee to have Jenna Blum present to the Women’s Speaker Series not just once, but twice, over the years! Our audience was riveted both times a while Jenna spoke about her work, as she is such an eloquent, intelligent, and passionate speaker. We were all truly impressed with how dedicated she is to fascinating historical themes and to her craft. And then we all had so much fun chatting with her afterward, as she has such a warm personality to boot. We of course hope to host her yet again in the future!” — Women Speaker Series, Lynden Sculpture Garden

Woodrow’s Instagram