Jenna Scatena is an international journalist, author, and editor based in Istanbul and San Francisco. Jenna spent the first five years of her career as a staff writer and editor at San Francisco magazine, where she covered culture, tech, and travel. In 2014, she pivoted to freelance writing, reporting from 19 countries in the Middle East, Asia, Europe, and North America. Her work focuses on the intersection of place and culture. She is an international correspondent for Conde Nast Traveler and her articles have appeared in The Atlantic, BBC, San Francisco Chronicle, AFAR, O the Oprah magazine, Travel + Leisure, Marie Claire, Vogue, Lonely Planet, Sunset, SELF, and others.

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Jenna's essays are anthologized in The Best American Science & Nature Writing (notable pick), The Best Women's Travel Writing Vol. 9 and Vol. 11 (Travelers' Tales) and An Innocent Abroad (Lonely Planet). She has won two Solas Travel Writing Awards and the Lowell Thomas Award. Magazine projects she contributed to as an editor have won National Magazine and Webby Awards.

 

Jenna has taught journalism workshops at UCLA, Stanford, and UC Berkeley through The Center for American Progress, served on faculty at The Book Passage Travel Writers Conference, and been a guest speaker on radio and news shows and at conferences such as the Women's Travel Fest and the Global Wellness Summit.