About Jessi Lewis
Jessi Lewis grew up on a blueberry farm in rural Virginia. Influenced by a childhood in the mountains, the women in her family, and evidence of environmental changes. Jessi focuses on the surreal and the too real.
Her essays, short stories and poems have been published or are forthcoming in Alaska Quarterly Review, Massachusetts Review, Oxford American, Carve, Sonora Review, The Pinch, Yemassee, and Appalachian Heritage, among others. Jessi's novel manuscript, She Spoke Wire, was a finalist for the PEN/Bellwether Prize for Socially Engaged Fiction. Oxford American chose her short story, "False Morels," as the 2018 Debut Fiction Winner. Her short story, “Daria’s Knives” received an honorable mention in Best American Short Stories, 2020.
Her work has been supported by the Tin House Summer Workshop and Bread Loaf Environmental.
Jessi has her MFA from West Virginia University. She now teaches writing in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia and is in the final edits of a novel. She serves on the board of 1455 Lit Arts, assisting in the production of the 1455 Summer Festival.