Jane Vandenburgh

Who is Jane Vandenburgh?

Jane Vandenburgh is an American novelist and writer of memoir. A fifth-generation Californian, she was born in Berkeley and grew up in Redondo Beach and in the San Fernando Valley. She holds a Bachelor's Degree in English Literature from Long Beach State and a Master's Degree in English literature with a specialization in creative writing from San Francisco State University. The title story of her master's thesis, The Salisbury Court Reporter, won the Katherine Anne Porter Prize for fiction in 1981.

Vandenburgh is the author of two novels, Failure to Zig-Zag, The Physics of Sunset, and two books of memoir, A Pocket History of Sex in the Twentieth Century and The Wrong Dog Dream: A True Romance, which is an intense parallel narrative of dog ownership and her married while living in Washington, DC.

Vandenburgh's book on the craft of fiction, The Architecture of the Novel: A Writer's Handbook is a philosophical exploration of the structural elements of long-form fiction, with an introduction by writer Anne Lamott. She teaches a yearlong course in the book length narrative through the Djerassi Resident Artists Program in Woodside, California.