Jay Dixit – Resume

Highlights

Founder and lead instructor at the New York Writers’ Intensive, a Manhattan-based creative writing school.
Teach narrative writing as a guest lecturer at Columbia University.
Award-winning writer for The New York Times, The Washington Post, Rolling Stone, Wired, Slate, and Psychology Today.
Senior Editor of Psychology Today Magazine for four years.
Studied psychology at Yale University; graduated cum laude with distinction in the major.
Winner of The Moth, a live storytelling competition. My story “Fathers” appears on The Moth Radio Hour.
Conducted George Carlin’s last interview, which George Carlin called “the most complete” interview he’d ever done.
Covered comedy for The New York Times (samples here and here).
My work appears in the anthology The Best of Technology Writing.

The New York Writers’ Intensive. New York NY (2010 – present)

Founder and lead instructor.
Teach storytelling and writing to aspiring writers, journalists, bloggers, and startup entrepreneurs.
See course information and student testimonials at newyorkwritersintensive.com.

Signal Flare. Las Vegas, NV (2013 – present)

Founder and CEO of Signal Flare, a Downtown Project portfolio company tentatively scheduled to launch in 2015.
Designed a writers’ retreat style creative writing program for Downtown Project, an artistic community in Las Vegas funded by Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh.
Developed business plan, including products and services, sales and marketing strategy, and financial plan.
Developed curriculum for nonfiction writing, fiction writing, and storytelling; designed pedagogical strategy for training writing instructors.

Psychology Today Magazine New York, NY (2006 – 2010)

Senior editor: generated, reported, and wrote feature articles, including 14 cover stories.
Wrote articles about the psychology of happiness, personality, love, dating, and procrastination.
Generated article ideas, recruited writers, and edited articles from first draft to final page proofs.
Interviewed research psychologists about experimental research and covered breaking news in psychology and neuroscience.
My cover story “The Art of Now” was the most e-mailed article of the last two years.
My cover story “Scents and Sensibility” generated the highest newsstand sales in the magazine’s history.
Interviewed celebrities such as Jerry Seinfeld, Tim Roth, Willem Dafoe, Tony Robbins, Will Shortz, Donald Trump, and Spike Lee.

PLJ Educational New York NY (2001 – 2006)

Tutored writing, English, history, math, science, and SAT.
Helped students brainstorm, write, and edit application essays for college, law school, medical school, business school, and dental school.
Helped students get into Yale, Princeton, and Cornell.
My students saw remarkable score improvements, including one student who went from a 1260 to a 1540 on the SAT.

The Princeton Review (2000 – 2001)

The New York Times, The Washington Post, Rolling Stone, Wired, Slate, etc. New York NY (2000 – 2014)

Writer/reporter: Wrote feature articles for The New York Times, The Washington Post, Rolling Stone, Wired, Slate, Salon, Psychology Today, and The Village Voice.
Wrote front-page stories for The New York Times City Section, including “Take My Life, Please,” and “Saving a Comedy Club.”
My article “Cats with Ten Lives” appears in the anthology Best of Technology Writing 2006.

eHelp Corporation San Diego, CA (1999 – 2000)

Marketing strategy: represented the company at software trade shows and industry events nationally and internationally; gave presentations and product demonstrations to groups of 500.
Analyzed market trends and competitive landscape; formulated strategy; established product positioning.

Philadelphia Magazine Philadelphia, PA (1998)

Research editor: led the seven-person, magazine-wide research department. Verified all factual information.
Generated story leads, conducted research, interviewed sources, and wrote articles.

Yale University New Haven, CT (1994 – 1998)

B.A. cum laude in psychology with distinction in the major, 1998.
Won the Anti-Defamation League’s Bess Myerson Journalism Award.
Wrote two articles, “www.nazi.com” and “Gangbuster,” that are still required reading in Yale classes.