Jay Walljasper

Jay Walljasper has been writing and editing at leading publications for more than 20 years. Before joining Ode Magazine, he served as Editor of Utne Reader magazine for many years, where he directed magazine, book, and on-line publishing efforts. Utne Reader won numerous awards during his tenure, including being named a finalist three times for the National Magazine Award in the General Excellence category. He is author of the recently published The Great Neighborhood Book and co-author of Visionaries: People and Ideas to Change Your Life. Walljasper has also served as Associate Travel Editor at Better Homes and Gardens, Contributing Editor at Chicago Magazine, Cultural Editor at In These Times, and as a columnist for the British magazine Resurgence, the Canadian magazine Shambhala Sun and the Belgian magazine Enjeux Internationaux. His freelance articles have appeared in Mother Jones, The Nation The New Statesman (UK), L.A. Weekly, Tikkun, The Toronto Star, The Philadelphia Inquirer magazine, The Sunday Independent (South Africa), Courrier (Paris), The Australian Financial Review, and Planeta Humano (Madrid). He is Senior Fellow at the New York-based Project for Public Spaces, a Fellow at OnTheCommons.org and writes about sustainable tourism for National Geographic Traveler magazine. He lives with his wife and son in Minneapolis, Minnesota.