Welcome to my newsletters and essays!

“Jeni is a true poet and born storyteller – many of her songs contain whole novels.” –New York Times bestselling author Lee Smith

Hi friends! Jeni Hankins here. I’m an American performing artist, writer, and maker living in London and Lancashire. Since 2008, I’ve toured extensively throughout the USA, Canada, and the UK.

For twenty years and through fourteen albums, I’ve fashioned songs from my Southwest Virginia childhood. I listened while the women chatted around the church quilting frame about moonshining, mining, and the quiet dignity of lives forged in the Appalachian wilderness.

I also learned to sew around that quilting frame and I often write about my sewing and knitting adventures alongside stories about my family and the songs they inspire.

You can find me performing with my hand-cranked sewing machine or traveling to some local museum to see what kind of knitting or patchwork waits in an old glass case.

In 2024, my paid subscribers are my New Song Club and will receive a new or previously unreleased story and song each month.

You can find my music on Bandcamp – which also the best way to buy my music because I actually get paid and I send out your order myself. So, you can ask me if you’d like your CD signed or gift-wrapped.

You can also buy me a coffee (or, in my case, a cup of tea or a spool of thread or a new set of guitar strings) if you’d like to show your support for my musical, written, or sewn work. I am a full-time artist. This is my work. Your support is my wage and I thank you.

If you’ve ended up here and you don’t know who I am, travel on over to my website to find out about me and my music. Or you can read a potted history of me right here.

Many smiles from me to you,

Jeni Hankins