Jeri Parker grew up scrambling along riverbanks and forest paths at her grandparents' sawmill near West Yellowstone. Her days there were spent spinning logs on the millpond and fly fishing on the Henry’s Fork. If it rained, she and her twin sister and cousins went to the cookhouse and made up stories about their future.

Jeri never lost the habit of telling stories. They are now as likely to deal with the past as the future. Her recently published memoir, A Thousand Voices, is an account of the friendship between her and the deaf boy she taught as he struggled to find a place in the world. As in much of her work, it is a consideration of the beauty and the mystery of language and of learning. Other publications include Uneasy Survivors: Five Women Writers and short stories and poems in literary journals. She recently completed a novel, Unmoored, which is being considered for publication.

For many years Jeri stayed in the mountains until winter when she returned to her home in Utah to teach high school and university students. In recent years she served on the board of the Friends of the Mariott Library at the University of Utah.

Awards for her writing include first place prizes from the Utah Arts Council and from the Henry’s Fork Foundation in Idaho. A Thousand Voices was nominated for the Utah Book Award and Jeri was recently featured in Kirkus Magazine’s “Profiles and Interviews” (see Recognition).

Jeri is presently co-owner of Wildflowers Bed and Breakfast in Salt Lake City where she has the opportunity to mix with people of all walks of life from all over the world. An artist as well as writer, she has over sixty of her paintings at the Bed and Breakfast, which has become her main gallery. Her paintings hang in public and private collections in London, Paris, Athens, Istanbul, Frankfurt, and Sydney as well as half the states.

Her own domain nearby is presided over by numerous animals and chickens.

Listen to Jeri Parker talk about A Thousand Voices:

KCPW: CityViews (Segment 2)
KUER, RadioWest with Doug Fabrizio (9/19/12)
UPR, Utah Public Radio's Access Utah (8/17/12)

Read more about Jeri Parker on her website, jeriparker.com