About

Jessica D. Thompson is the author of the poetry collection “Daybreak and Deep,” Kelsay Books, (2022).

A native of Kentucky, she currently lives in a stone house on the edge of a classified forest in southern Indiana.  She is a retired Human Resource professional and for many years she served as a volunteer in a crisis office and as a hospital and legal advocate for a battered women’s shelter.

Her poetry has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize and has been published in numerous journals, including The Southern Review, Ruminate Magazine, and Tiferet Journal as well as in anthologies such as “Circe’s Lament:  Anthology of Wild Women Poetry” (Accents Publishing).  She was awarded the James Baker Hall Memorial Prize in Poetry (New Southerner, 2013), the Kudzu Poetry Prize (2014); and was a finalist in the Janet B. McCabe Poetry Prize (Ruminate Magazine, 2014) and the Betty Gabehart Prize in Poetry (2016). “Daybreak and Deep,” her first full-length poetry collection, was a Finalist in the American Book Fest Best Books of 2022 in Narrative Poetry and was nominated for the Eric Hoffer Award.

When not writing, she can be found exploring the woods and fields near her home with her husband, Phil, and their dog, Gloria.