Jessica Mc Kinney is an Arts Council supported writer from Inishowen, Donegal, specializing in poetry, fiction and essays. Her work has appeared in The Stinging Fly, Poetry Ireland Review, The Winter Papers, The Four Faced Liar, Banshee Magazine, The Moth, Bath Magg, Poetry Jukebox and Abridged, alongside anthologies by Pan Macmillan, New Island Press, Poetry Ireland, and Le Castor Astral.

She completed her MA in Poetry at Queen’s University Belfast, where she received the Irish Chair of Poetry Student Award. This was followed by the publication of her debut pamphlet ‘Weeding’ with Hazel Press, which was nominated for the Patrick Kavanagh and Saboteur pamphlet awards.

She has taken part in collaborative events with The British Library, Ledbury Poetry Festival, Belfast Book Festival, Listowel Writers Week, StAnza Poetry Festival, International Literature Festival Dublin, Cúirt International Festival of Literature, and the Museum of Literature Ireland. She has undertaken writing residencies at the Tyrone Guthrie Centre, Arvon: The Hurst, and Greywood Arts Centre, as well as development programmes including the Stinging Fly Summer School, Seamus Heaney Centre Poetry Summer School, Cúirt Young Writer Delegate Programme, and John Hewitt Society Summer School.

Earlier this year, she was selected for the Greene Door Project, and shortlisted for the Paul McVeigh Award. To date, she has received a range of bursaries and awards to support her work, including the Society of Authors’ Foundation Award, Irish Chair of Poetry Bursary Award, Donegal County Council Artist Bursary, and Arts Council Agility and Literature Bursary Awards.