Janine Annett

Janine Annett is a humor writer whose essays and short pieces have appeared in The New Yorker, The Wall Street Journal, McSweeney's Internet Tendency, Real Simple, and other publications. In I Am “Why Do I Need Venmo?” Years Old: Adventures in Aging, she turns the dislocations of middle age into concise observations on technology, clothes, exercise, parenting, pop culture, and changing habits. Illustrator and humorist Ali Solomon collaborated on the book, adding drawings that extend its jokes and shape its visual pacing. The volume appeared from Running Press in 2021. Annett has also taught creative writing at Sarah Lawrence College and elsewhere, experience reflected in her economical setups and carefully timed shifts of perspective. Across brief entries, ordinary frustrations become miniature character studies, while the prose and illustrations keep the tone conversational. Her approach treats generational change as daily experience, finding humor in small negotiations without losing the self-awareness that gives those moments their point.