I’m a journalist, author and professor based in Geneva, Switzerland, where I cover European culture, politics, and climate movements.
My reporting on European affairs appears regularly in Foreign Policy and The Dial. I also contribute criticism, fiction, and essays to The New York Times, Harper’s, The New Yorker online, The Nation, The Paris Review, New York Magazine, Bookforum, 4Columns, and elsewhere. My work has received awards from the German-American Fulbright Commission, the Robert B. Silvers Foundation, the Remarque Institute at NYU, The Story Award, and the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference.
I’m also the author of novels The Exhibition of Persephone Q (a New York Times Book Review Editors’ Choice) and the The Visitors, as well as the short story collection Ghost Pains, named a finalist for the 2025 Story Prize and chosen as a Best Book of 2025 by Kirkus Reviews, Bookshop.org, and LitHub.
I currently teach at the University of Zürich and the Schweizerisches Literaturinstitut.
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Contact: jjezewskastevens [at] gmail
Instagram: @jessi.jstevens
Twitter: @JezewskaJ
The Latest:
A podcast on the 100th anniversary of Thomas Mann’s The Magic Mountain for The Point.
“Safe Spaces: Why does Switzerland have so many bunkers?” On Switzerland’s bunker policy and Europe’s efforts to expand civilian protection programs in uncertain times. The Dial.
Ghost Pains is a finalist for the 2025 Story Prize.
“The Dirty Business That’s Stopping Climate Change.” On commodity trading houses’ entry into carbon markets. Foreign Policy.
“Left-Wing Irony.” A post-mortem of the American elections for The Point.
Awarded fellowship as a Visiting Scholar at the Remarque Institute for European Studies at New York University.
An interview in The Dial about my reporting on the enduring appeal of Vienna’s gilded-age balls.
“If Europe Is Lost, Why Not Party?. Vienna’s famous balls are more inclusive than ever, but nostalgia hits different with the far right on the ascent. Foreign Policy.
“The Relentless Growth of Degrowth Economics.” On the European push to abandon capitalism as a solution to climate change for Foreign Policy
Named a 2023 Robert B. Silvers Grant Recipient for journalism.
“Das Literaturhaus.” How German “literature houses” are responding to uncertain times for The Dial
“Security in the Void.” An introduction to a new translation of Ernst Jünger’s On the Marble Cliffs (New York Review of Books Classics).