Jessica Mc Kinney is a writer and editor from Inishowen, Donegal, based in London. Her work spans fiction, poetry and essays, and she is currently developing her first novel. Her writing has been published in The Stinging Fly, Poetry Ireland Review, Winter Papers, The Four Faced Liar, Banshee Magazine, The Moth, Bath Magg, Poetry Jukebox, Abridged, SAND Journal, The Cormorant, Mirror Lamp Press and Belfield Literary Review, as well as anthologies by Pan Macmillan, New Island Press, Poetry Ireland and Le Castor Astral.

She holds an MA in Poetry from Queen’s University Belfast, where she received the Irish Chair of Poetry Student Award. Her pamphlet Weeding was published by Hazel Press and nominated for both Patrick Kavanagh and Saboteur pamphlet awards.

Jessica has been awarded residencies at the Greywood Arts Centre, Arvon: The Hurst and the Tyrone Guthrie Centre. She has also taken part in development programmes including the Stinging Fly Summer School, Seamus Heaney Centre Poetry Summer School, Cúirt Young Writer Delegate Programme, and the John Hewitt Society Summer School.

Her work has been supported by the Society of Authors, Irish Chair of Poetry, Donegal County Council, and the Arts Council of Ireland. In 2025, she was shortlisted for the Paul McVeigh Award, selected for the Greene Door Project, and received the Developing Your Creative Practice Award.

She is employed with an academic publisher and facilitates writing workshops with the Ministry of Stories and Inkhead. She has led writing sessions with Fighting Words Dublin, as well as zine-making and book-binding workshops with the National College of Art & Design Dublin, Tara Studios and A4 Sounds Studios. She has partnered with cultural organisations and literary festivals including Ledbury Poetry, StAnza Poetry Festival, Cúirt International Festival of Literature, Listowel Writers Week, The Butler Gallery and Chelsea Physic Garden, to deliver bespoke literary events.