Jacobs & Swender

Children's Book Writers

Paul DuBois Jacobs and Jennifer Swender are a husband and wife writing team specializing in children’s books and educational materials. They are the authors of My Subway Ride, Children’s Songbag, Putting on a Play, My Taxi Ride, NASCAR ABCs, and the forthcoming NASCAR 1-2-3 and Fire Drill!

Mr. Jacobs has co-authored four other books with musician Pete Seeger: Deaf Musicians (winner of the ALA Schneider Family Book Award) Some Friends to Feed: The Story of Stone Soup, Abiyoyo Returns, and Pete Seeger's Storytelling Book (winner of the Anne Izard Storytelling Award).

Born in Brooklyn, Mr. Jacobs grew up in the Hudson River Valley. He received his BA in history from Binghamton University, and an MFA in poetry from the University of Virginia where he was a Henry Hoyns Fellow. His poetry has appeared in Poetry, Black Warrior Review, Third Coast, The Southeast Review, and Tikkun among other journals. He has been a finalist in The National Poetry Series, The Yale Series of Younger Poets Competition, and the Beatrice Hawley Award, and twice served as poet-in-residence at Fort Juniper, home of the late poet, Robert Francis.

Jennifer Swender is a veteran elementary school teacher and curriculum developer. She has taught in both the New York City and Houston public school systems. Most recently, she taught at Brooklyn College’s Lab School where she also lectured in the Department of Early Childhood Education.

Born and raised in Syracuse, New York, Ms. Swender received her BA in English from Yale University, and a Masters in Arts Administration from Teachers College, Columbia University. Her fiction writing has earned awards from Glimmer Train Press and a work-in-progress grant from the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators.

Ms. Swender and Mr. Jacobs currently live in Massachusetts, where they run Jacobs & Swender, Inc., an educational writing and consulting company. They continue to be active participants in the Brooklyn Public Library's "Meet the Author" program, and the Author's Read Aloud program of Learning Leaders, New York City Public School's largest volunteer literacy organization. In addition, they make appearances all around the country to speak about the writing process, bookmaking, and storytelling.

For more information about having them come visit your school or library, please click on the "contact" link at the top of this page.