JS Gariety was born in California. At age 7, she moved to the Washington State and still feels most at home in the Pacific Northwest. Now residing in Utah, Gariety is a Professor of Writing at Salt Lake Community College and a Learning Support Specialist at Southern New Hampshire University. She started her college education at a traditional university before dropping out for personal reasons. After a few years hiatus, Gariety enrolled in an online program to finish her degree in English and Creative Writing. While finishing her degree, she started working on her debut novel, The Weight of Gold. She balanced kids, the COVID shutdown, fostering an additional child, ongoing health issues including medically-induced menopause and a hysterectomy, and a move across the country before finally graduating. After graduation, her hunger for more led her to an online MFA program for English and Creative Writing. She published The Weight of Gold while writing her MFA thesis novel, Raven in the Mirror. 

The obstacles Gariety faced in completing her degrees led her to pursue working in higher ed. It became her life’s goal to help nontraditional students achieve their dreams through accessible education. Her first time in the college classroom was a realization that teaching was always her calling. Along with her mission to deliver accessible education, Gariety has developed an expertise in Generative AI literacy for college students. She sits on the GenAI committee for the English department at SLCC and represents the Academic Support Center (ASC) on GenAI strategy teams at SNHU. She also started and leads the AI Think Tank at SNHU’s ASC and has been involved with AI literacy research. Her goal is to teach students how to navigate an AI world with informed consent and critical thinking. 

Gariety has taken a break from her personal publishing projects while she builds her teaching and academic publishing career, but she continues to write. Currently, she is working on a nonfiction project and hopes to begin building back her nonfiction audience and eventually query agents in the next few years. 

Gariety is married to her partner and they have two children, a dog, and three cats. Her family enjoys camping, movie nights, reading, historical musicals, Shakespeare, and other nerdy things. Her and her partner enjoy culinary adventures, mixology, and really good coffee. Gariety’s other hobbies include leather work, leather bag restoration, baking pastries from all over the world, singing, nail art, fashion, thrifting, and tarot. Her favorite place in the world is the Redwood National Forest in California, particularly the Avenue of the Giants and Patrick’s Point beach.