Photo Credit: Parker J. Pfister

Jessica Jacobs

b. 1980

Current City, State, Country

Asheville, North Carolina, USA

Birth City, State, Country

Longwood, Florida, USA

Biography

Jessica Jacobs is the author of unalone, poems in conversation with the Book of Genesis (Four Way Books, March 2024); Take Me with You, Wherever You’re Going (Four Way Books, 2019), named one of Library Journal‘s Best Poetry Books of the year, winner of the Devil’s Kitchen Reading Award from Southern Illinois University and the Goldie Award from the Golden Crown Literary Society, and a finalist for the Brockman-Campbell, American Fiction, Eric Hoffer, and Julie Suk Book Awards. Her debut collection, Pelvis with Distance (White Pine Press), a biography-in-poems of Georgia O’Keeffe, won the New Mexico Book Award in Poetry, was an Over the Rainbow selection by the American Library Association and a finalist for the Lambda Literary and Julie Suk Awards. Her chapbook In Whatever Light Left to Us was published by Sibling Rivalry Press. She co-authored Write It!, a collection of writing prompts from Spruce Books, an imprint of Penguin/RandomHouse.

Jessica holds an M.F.A. from Purdue University, where she served as the Editor-in-Chief of Sycamore Review, and a B.A. from Smith College. Her poetry, essays, and fiction have appeared in publications including Orion, Ploughshares, Image, and New England Review. She leads workshops around the country, and has taught for programs including the Fine Arts Work Center, UNC-Wilmington’s MFA program, and Writing Workshops in Greece, and serves on the North Carolina Writers’ Network Board of Trustees.

She is the founder and executive director of Yetzirah: A Hearth for Jewish Poetry.

Published Works

Poetry
unalone (Four Way Books, forthcoming March 2024)
Take Me with You, Wherever You’re Going (Four Way Books, 2019)
In Whatever Light Left to Us (chapbook; Sibling Rivalry Press, 2016)
Pelvis with Distance (White Pine Press, 2015)

Writing Craft Book
Write It! 100 Poetry Prompts to Inspire, co-authored with Nickole Brown (Spruce Books/PenguinRandomHouse, 2020)

Author Site

Links to Sample Works

Video Reading

Current Title

Yetzirah/Founder, President, Executive Director; SunJune Literary Collaborative/Co-Founder & Teacher; Beloit Poetry Journal/Chapbook Editor & Editorial Board Member

Education

Smith College, B.A.
Purdue University, M.F.A in Poetry

Subject Matter

Genre