About Jennifer


Jennifer Ackerman-Haywood is a journalist and self-taught printmaker who has been hosting the CraftSanity podcast and blogging about art and craft at CraftSanity.com since 2006. She is the editor and publisher of CraftSanity Magazine.

She worked as a print journalist for nearly 16 years, and wrote a weekly art and craft column for The Grand Rapids Press in West Michigan. In addition to freelance writing, she also has experience doing craft TV segments and had a weekly craft segment on a local morning show in Grand Rapids, Michigan for a couple years. Since 2012 Jennifer has been training the next generation of journalists as student media adviser and adjunct professor of journalism at Grand Rapids Community College. 

About seven years ago, Jennifer tried printmaking for the second time in her life and it went better than the first time and she got hooked. Now she frequently has ink on her hands and prints hanging up to dry in her studio.

She loves dreaming up fun t-shirt ideas with her husband, stitching her prints, crafting with her kids, chatting with other makers, wearing aprons in public, fiber art, running, swimming and all things handmade. She lives in a rural community just outside Grand Rapids with her husband and two daughters.