Jessica Hudson
EXPLORING WOMEN & MOVIES
through poetry & creative nonfiction
I believe in creative writing as a mechanism of ingenuity
& empathy. My early writing explored the landscape of the child's imagination, upbringing, & psyche. My graduate thesis interweaves the history of American mermaid spectacles, Esther Williams' movies, and my grandmother's experiences.
Currently, I am gathering work for future chapbooks,
a novella, & a collection of creative nonfiction essays.
Forthcoming Chapbook: Bough Break
Nightingale & Sparrow Press
release date: June 4, 2024
Accumulating moments that force the speaker to reconsider her childhood expectations, Bough Break attempts to maintain a sense of kindness toward the delirious grown-up world and the strange, sharp people who stay long after they make their impressions. Through the confluence of memory, media, and the meticulous eye of the speaker, each poem disturbs a moment of calm in a young girl’s world—a disturbance that creates a sudden overwhelming awareness of the delineation between self and other, care and apathy, dependence and separation. These are the moments right before the cradle falls, when the baby realizes she’s in a tree and the branch beneath her is cracking.
Published Pieces
The Princess of Winterland narrates. Begins with her mother who died when
she was six. Her father’s favoritism. Her sisters’ jealousy. Her take on all three: unnecessary
yet inescapable.
"Deleted Scenes from The Polar Bear King"
CHEAP POP
(nominated for
a Pushcart Prize)
Imagine a small town
in the Cordillera
Mountains in 1920.
No running water.
No ocean...
"What’s the difference between a Disney
mermaid & the last
Kalinga tattoo artist?"
Pithead Chapel
