I’m an Author.
Writing
Hit by lightning. Tourette’s Syndrome. A close encounter with a UFO. We all have our obstacles that are unique to us. But redemption and beauty is universal. It may not always be easy to find but that’s why I write— to remind myself of the hope and joy that exists in my own life but more so, in the world.
Inklings
Inklings, a memoir (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt)
Magazines
Graphic nonfiction in Ecotone, fiction in Parcel
Essays
Contributor for ABC News, Daily Beast, Huffington Post
Journalism
“Ink and Ash” nonfiction series, second place in Great Plains Journalism Awards.
Inklings
As a kid, Jeff began drawing cartoons as an escape from the pandemonium surrounding him—a house filled with broken TVs his dad fixed and sold for extra money. A jazz drummer whose big dreams never panned out, his dad displayed tics—symptoms of Tourette’s Syndrome, a condition Jeff inherited. From the canyons of electronics and discouragement great and small, emerged a young man determined to follow his creative spirit to grand heights. He found himself on a journey back to the father he once longed to escape. Inklings is an exuberant, heart-felt memoir infused with a uniquely irresistible optimism.
What people are saying about Inklings…
“A powerful and moving portrait of an artist.” (A–)
—Entertainment Weekly
“Honest…Koterba renders scenes of family dysfunction with an artist’s feeling for nuance and detail.”
—Publisher’s Weekly
“Koterba renders an absorbing and candid look at the creative process and the struggle to overcome adversity.”
—Booklist
A favorite nonfiction book for 2009
—Chicago Tribune
Storytelling
I write for those who may have forgotten to gaze at the night sky in awe, to stop them in their tracks and take pause with my stories—real and imagined—to remind them of the magic that exists as close as the atoms in their fingertips.