Jessica Ashley (born January 29, 1987), better known by her pen name Jessica Burkhart, is an American

author In legal discourse, an author is the creator of an original work that has been published, whether that work exists in written, graphic, visual, or recorded form. The act of creating such a work is referred to as authorship. Therefore, a sculpt ...

. Burkhart works primarily in the

tween Preadolescence is a stage of human development following middle childhood and preceding adolescence.New Oxford American Dictionary. 2nd Edition. 2005. Oxford University Press. It commonly ends with the beginning of puberty. Preadolescence is c ...

fiction genre, and is the writer of the '' Canterwood Crest'' series of novels.

Personal life and education

During her childhood, Jessica Burkhart took an interest in

equestrianism Equestrianism (from Latin , , , 'horseman', 'horse'), commonly known as horse riding ( Commonwealth English) or horseback riding (American English), includes the disciplines of riding, driving, and vaulting. This broad description includes the ...

, and later developed a fondness for writing. Her freelance work was eventually featured in a number of magazines, including ''

The Writer ''The Writer'' is a United States magazine for writers, published monthly by Madavor Media. History ''The Writer'' was first established by William H. Hills and Robert Luce, two ''Boston Globe'' reporters, as "a monthly magazine to interest an ...

''. She began college at age 16 and graduated in 2007 with a BA in English from

Florida State University Florida State University (FSU or Florida State) is a Public university, public research university in Tallahassee, Florida, United States. It is a senior member of the State University System of Florida and a preeminent university in the s ...

. In 2006, she completed a manuscript as part of

National Novel Writing Month National Novel Writing Month, often shortened to NaNoWriMo ( ), was a U.S.-based nonprofit organization that promoted creative writing around the world. Its flagship program was an annual, international creative writing event in which participa ...

. While browsing Burkhart's blog, a literary agent learned of the novel and offered to read it, which eventually led her to sign the author. Afterward, Burkhart's novel, ''Take the Reins'', went through a series of revisions before being put on submission. In May 2007, she signed a four-book deal with

Simon & Schuster Simon & Schuster LLC (, ) is an American publishing house owned by Kohlberg Kravis Roberts since 2023. It was founded in New York City in 1924, by Richard L. Simon and M. Lincoln Schuster. Along with Penguin Random House, Hachette Book Group US ...

. As a result, ''Take the Reins'' became the first novel in the ''Canterwood Crest'' series—a story about disparate schoolgirls engaged in equestrian competitions at an academy. Throughout 2008, Burkhart worked on additional books in the series while helping to promote the first one online, largely through

blog A blog (a Clipping (morphology), truncation of "weblog") is an informational website consisting of discrete, often informal diary-style text entries also known as posts. Posts are typically displayed in Reverse chronology, reverse chronologic ...

ging and

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. The ''Canterwood Crest'' series was later extended. In 2010, she announced plans to write in the

young adult In medicine and the social sciences, a young adult is generally a person in the years following adolescence, sometimes with some overlap. Definitions and opinions on what qualifies as a young adult vary, with works such as Erik Erikson's stages ...

genre under her own surname, while maintaining her work in middle-grade fiction. It was announced in late 2013, Burkhart would be writing another middle-grade series, ''West Coast Prep''. The series follows another set of characters at a riding school in California, and was self-published as eBooks. Burkhart announced plans to continue the ''Canterwood Crest'' series with approximately 20 e-novellas.

Bibliography

''Canterwood Crest''

#''Take the Reins'' (January 2009) #''Chasing Blue'' (March 2009) #''Behind the Bit'' (May 2009) #''Triple Fault'' (August 2009) #''Best Enemies'' (October 2009) #''Little White Lies'' (December 2009) #''Rival Revenge'' (January 2010) #''Home Sweet Drama'' (April 2010) #''City Secrets'' (July 2010) #''Elite Ambition'' (September 2010) #''Scandals, Rumors, Lies'' (November 2010) #''Unfriendly Competition'' (January 2011) #''Initiation'' (January 2, 2012) #''Popular'' (May 1, 2012) #''Comeback'' (August 7, 2012) #''Masquerade'' (September 11, 2012) #''Jealousy'' (February 19, 2013) #''Famous'' ( June 2013)

''Canterwood Crest'' specials

*''Chosen'' (May 2011) *''Home for Christmas'' (November 2013)

Notes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Burkhart, Jessica 1987 births Living people 21st-century American novelists Florida State University alumni American women novelists American children's writers American women children's writers 21st-century American women writers People from Goodlettsville, Tennessee