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 completed writing residencies at The Greywood Arts Centre (2025), Arvon: The Hurst (2024), and Tyrone Guthrie Centre (2023), alongside the Stinging Fly Summer School (2022), Seamus Heaney Centre Poetry Summer School (2021), Cúirt Young Writer Delegate Programme (2019), and
John Hewitt Society Summer School (2018).

In 2025 she was selected for the Greene Door Project, shortlisted for the Paul McVeigh Award, and has received several bursaries and awards to support her work to date, including the Society of Authors’ Foundation Award, Irish Chair of Poetry Bursary Award, Donegal County Council Artist Bursary, Arts Council Agility Award and Literature Bursary.