Jay Stevens

Jay Stevens lives in Erie with his wife and two children.

Born and raised in the Berkshire Mountains of western Massachusetts, Jay has lived in Boston, Seattle, San Francisco, Germany, Russia, and Montana. He's traveled extensively and had wicked adventures.

He's waited tables, washed dishes, dug ditches, worked on a telephone bank, taught elementary education and college composition, painted a waste treatment plant, was a tall ship sailor, ski instructor, and a summer junior counselor at a nature camp, he worked as a proofreader, copy editor, technical writer, and software tester in the computer industry, and once spent six joyless weeks behind the counter at UPS during a Christmas rush. He worked as a political campaign manager, and was a delegate to the 2008 Democratic National Convention. He played baseball, soccer, and rugby, pole vaulted in high school, and was a downhill ski racer starting at age seven. He plays guitar badly and hikes when he can. He is an avid Red Sox fan.

But most of all, Jay is a writer. He earned an MFA from The University of Montana. His two Montana-based political blogs – 4&20 blackbirds and Left in the West – won a number of accolades. He's written political commentary for the American Prospect and UK Guardian, and book reviews and news articles for alt-weeklies and local papers. Jay currently writes his weekly "Soapbox" column for the Erie Reader, as well as occasional cover stories.