Mary Jo Jerome’s poems have recently been published in The Stillwater Review and US1 Worksheets. Her fiction has been published in Little Patuxent Review, Short Story, and Center magazines. She has written for the New York Times, Scholastic Publications, and numerous other magazines. "Tokyo Underground Prayer” won first place in the 2015 Main Street Voices competition. She holds an MFA from Vermont College.

She shared, "The seeds for ‘Tokyo Underground Prayer’ were planted when we were living in Japan. My young daughter and her tall, loud American friends  were garnering attention on the metro.They were not impolite — they were alive and young and filled with joy. No one could take their eyes off them."