Jessi Cole Jackson

Jessi Cole Jackson grew up in rural Michigan surrounded by lakes, cornfields, and hard-working pragmatists who would never call themselves artists, despite woodworking, sewing, baking, flower arranging, building, drawing, and crafting. Thus, it took her twenty long years to accept that she was, in fact, creative, just like everyone had been telling her all along. But she wasn’t quite ready to admit her true dream (writing!) so she studied and pursued a backup career: theatre.    It wasn’t the most practical of day jobs, but every time she tried to leave the industry, she was offered a more interesting position at a more prestigious theatre.    Thus, Jessi spent twelve years building costumes for various award-winning theatres in Cincinnati, DC, Philadelphia, Princeton, and the north shore of Boston. After getting an MFA in writing at Hollins University–where she honed her craft and found her people–she left theatre and moved back to rural Michigan where she lives with her family, has a very practical day job, and rarely calls herself an artist despite sewing, amateur sculpting, embroidering, and, of course, writing.