Jessica D. Thompson’s full-length poetry collection, Daybreak and Deep (Kelsay Books), was shortlisted for the 2024 Eugene and Marilyn Glick Indiana Authors Awards. Daybreak and Deep was also a finalist in the American Book Fest Best Books of 2022 for narrative poetry and was nominated for the Eric Hoffer Award. In addition, she co-authored the 2024 children’s book, When Animals Miss the Sun (Brick Street Poetry).
Her poetry has appeared on Verse Daily and has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize. Her poems have been published in numerous journals and anthologies, among them: Appalachian Review, Atlanta Review, Common Ground Review, Eclectica Magazine, Gyroscope Review, Lakeshore Review, ONE ART, a journal of poetry, Still: The Journal, The Midwest Quarterly, the Southern Review, Tipton Poetry Journal, Thimble, Tiferet Journal, Women Speak, Women of Appalachia Project (Sheila-Na-Gig Editions), and Next Indiana Campfires: a Trail Companion (Indiana Humanities). Her awards include the James Baker Hall Memorial Prize in Poetry (New Southerner).
For many years, Jessica served as a crisis office volunteer, as well as a hospital and legal advocate for a battered women’s shelter. She currently writes in a 1918 log cabin in the middle of a hardwood forest.
Paperback: 57 pages
Publisher: Kelsay Books (January 27, 2025)