Letters
I have a lifelong passion for helping others write, find connections, tell stories. It’s easy to find me with books, journals or immersed in manuscripts, usually outdoors.
I am a writing coach, editor and ghost writer with independent authors and for Traverse City-based publisher Mission Point Press.
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Before moving to northern Michigan, I worked at three Michigan newspapers in reporting, writing, coaching and top editing/management roles including as managing editor of the Detroit News and Lansing State Journal. I also served as executive editor for The Burlington (VT) Free Press. I moved to Washington, D.C. as a vice president, top digital content editor and coach with a leading media network of newspapers and TV stations for Gannett Co., Inc.
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I marvel at learning the extraordinary moments and tales of ordinary people. And I truly enjoy helping others write their own extraordinary stories.
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Works & Publications
"To Jennifer Carroll, thanks for your listening, for your discernment, for your dedication. Thank you for your gift of finding the essence and making me a better storyteller, for teaching me that the whole story is not always the best story."
~Craig Mitchell Smith
Glass art gave Craig Mitchell Smith his voice.
His work is a celebration of artistry, fluidity in glass, vivid imagination. Glass art has been his passion and voice to the world since a chance glass class changed his life when he was forty-four. He encourages all who create and dream.
In Heart of Glass, Craig’s voice tells the stories from his Lansing, Michigan childhood to his accomplishments as a distinguished glass artist exhibiting in botanical gardens, museums and creating commissions in the United States including Disney’s Epcot Center, United Kingdom, and Sri Lanka.
Highlights include his mesmerizing teaching abilities and eagerness to share what he loves, background in theater, as a set designer, lifelong gardener, florist, and landscape designer. Craig’s voice tells his courage in skirting science, dream-inspired techniques, patience for utility, innovating, persevering, and figuring it all out.
And always, he shares his joy.
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"I owe my deepest gratitude to the team at Mission Point Press for your invaluable expertise in creating and publishing this work. A special thank you goes to Jennifer Carroll, my guiding editor, writer, and gentle coach. Your thoughtful advice and handholding at each step gave voice to my story, allowing me to share my journey in helping special needs families and be the storyteller I wanted to be."
- Minoti Rajput
Michigan Notable Book Winner, 2021
"Utilizing both vintage photos and contemporary color shots, this biography showcases the legacy of the renowned builder in stone as well as the growing appreciation for his visionary boulder homes and structures visited by people around the globe."
"Jennifer Harsha Carroll made an enormous contribution to Boulders with her credentials as an editor. She is fair, savvy and extremely insightful on how words best fit together. To have her on the editorial team was inspiring, including her skill for relating stories, her interest in history, and her Harsha/Young family ties.”
-David L. Miles
Mushroom House Man:
The Story of Earl A. Young
and His Cottages of Stone
Alice McGinty’s children’s book on visionary builder Earl A. Young enchants as he dreams and designs as nature would. Earl’s fascination with boulders and landscape is captured magically as he creates cottages from stone with wavy, playful roofs. Beautifully illustrated by Sharon Smithem, the story of Young’s mushroom-like creations over five decades is a delight for the young and young at heart.
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"Our sincere thanks to Jennifer Carroll, Earl and Irene’s grandniece and consulting editor for this project, for her generous help and expertise as we researched.”
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"To my editor, Jennifer Carroll, you listened to the details of my tragic journey with addiction without criticism and offered only compassion. You taught me to be forthright and fearless with my writing while urging me to be gentle and forgiving of myself. You gave an aspiring author with little confidence in her abilities the courage to write a book filled with intense emotion and honesty. You have all my gratitude; this book could not have been written without you."
-Patricia Steele
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Book launch with author Patricia Steele,
The Gift of Second Chances
“Jen’s edits and recommendations were essential to bringing Mother Goose into the world.”
-Mary Stewart Adams
"Mary Stewart Adams is a Star Lore Historian and host of the weekly public radio segment and podcast “The Storyteller’s Night Sky,” designed to restore the mythic grandeur of knowing the stars. Mary leads audiences in the delightful connection between the night sky and the cultural arts such as rhymes, fairy tales and mythologies."
Michigan Notable Book Winner 2023
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“Jen always responded “You can,” when I’d question whether I could turn my story into a book. It turns out, I could!! So grateful.”
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-Sharon Emery
Sharon Emery struggled with the losses and limits she faced but couldn’t change - no matter how hard she tried.
And she did try. First, with her incurable severe stutter, then with the death of her daughter, Jessica, and the too-early deaths of her own younger siblings.
Emery wrote this memoir to help guide her children on their own life journeys, stressing the resilience of human beings. Exhibit A: herself.
“Finally, here is a story about disability told by a person with a disability. Emery doesn’t sugarcoat the losses and limits, but also gives us rare insights into real life with a disability.”
-Theresa Metzmaker, CE0 Michigan Disability Rights Coalition
Leslie Lee’s Celtic Traveling Trilogy
“How did we come to be who we are? The universal question is investigated in this deep exploration of Ireland—its ancient history, DNA, and culture through the adventurous search of four sisters for their Irish ancestry.”
"A whirlwind of positive energy and expertise, Jennifer helped transform my writing from the realm of the personal to a world in which readers could share and professionals would respect."
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- Leslie Lee
“To my editor Jennifer Carroll, all my gratitude. You helped move this project ever forward, you were the heart….I didn’t give Jennifer just one travel journal, I gave her all thirty of them. Only she could read the journals from the standpoint of the unknown reader. Jennifer commented, sorted, pruned, asked for more content while encouraging me to complete one book at a time.”
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- Leslie Lee
“The author weaves insights on ancient Celtic history, clans, DNA, territories and whisky distilleries with a visual feast of illustrations and hand-drawn maps from her charming and humorous travel book series called Leslie’s Travel Companions.”
"This project would not have been possible without the support of many including Contributing Editor Jennifer Carroll. Special thanks to Jennifer for her editing expertise.”
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- Steve and Kathie Libert
“In 1679, the French ship Le Griffon owned by explorer Robert La Salle mysteriously vanished in the Great Lakes. The historical significance of this flagship and her mysterious disappearance ignited a larger than life legend. Now after centuries of mystery and misinformation, Steve and Kathie Libert reveal where she likely met her final fate.”
“I am indebted to Jennifer Carroll, distinguished editor for Mission Point Press. She not only did a great job of editing, but made many suggestions that improved my ability to bring Alexander Henry’s exploits to life."
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-Charles Cleland
"Great Lakes explorer and fur trader Alexander Henry provided one of the very few first-hand descriptions of Ojibwe, Odawa, Cree and Assiniboine culture at the time when native people were still living from the land, speaking their own languages and practicing their age-old cultural traditions."
The Water's Edge
Craftsman Bookmaking by Hand
Letterpress book written and created with hand-set type on vintage press. Custom-designed paper, ink and binding.
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Written by Jennifer Harsha Carroll
Illustrated by Sharon Smithem
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Created at Deep Wood Press with Chad Pastonik
“For Jennifer, a true professional who I couldn’t have done the book without."
- Bob Jones
"The backyards of beautiful Leelanau County, Michigan, hold a world of wonder as seasons pass, animals and insects pause, plants thrive, bloom, go dormant. All are there to nurture the natural environment and display their unseen wonders. Bob Jones’ passion and insights are captured in rarely seen photographs of Leelanau’s natural world."
"Jennifer Carroll copy edited the manuscript and made it sparkle."
- John Wemlinger
"John Wemlinger has written a powerful novel about a veteran suffering from PTSD and the unlikely path that leads to his salvation. Winter’s Bloom is a poignant tale of loss, love and redemption that will keep you turning the pages."
