Jacqueline Berkman is a fiction writer. She is currently working on her first novel. Jackie graduated from the University of California, Berkeley, and earned an MFA from Lesley University.
The short film “Panofsky’s Complaint” based on her short story “Picking Locks” was screened at the Cannes Short Film Corner, the Brooklyn Short Film Festival, and LA Shorts Fest, and her short fiction has been published or is forthcoming in Made in L.A. Volume 6, The Coachella Review, and The Write Launch, among other publications.
She resides in Los Angeles with her husband Jak, daughter Jillian, and dog Jasper, otherwise known as the “J-Crew.”
The idea for "WagWorld" came about after I read a number of news articles suggesting the founder of a beloved LA-based animal rescue was not who he appeared to be.
Simultaneously, I was thinking about the culture of reality TV and beginning to form a character sketch about a young woman who was desperate to make it in the entertainment world after a lifetime of feeling anonymous.
From there, I discovered unexpected connections and intersections between the worlds of animal rescue nonprofits and reality TV, and that's when the story truly began to emerge.
I'm grateful to Made in LA Writers for including the piece in their sixth anthology. With the theme of "Hollywood Adjacent," the collection shines a spotlight on the dreamers, hustlers, and outliers navigating the gravitational pull of the entertainment capital of the world. I couldn't have asked for a better home for my story.