JESSICA LEE MCMILLAN

Jessica Lee McMillan (she/her) is a writer, poet, and teacher with an English MA and Creative Writing Certificate from Simon Fraser University. Jessica's poetry explores place, science, pop culture, music, film, social justice, the body, perception, and scale. She also writes essays and music articles.

 

Her work has appeared/is appearing in over 50 journals across Turtle Island, including The Malahat Review, Canadian Literature, QWERTY, The New Quarterly, CV2, The Humber Literary Review, Funicular Magazine, Pinhole Poetry, and Crab Creek Review. Jessica won the 2025 Muriel’s Journey Poetry Prize, the 2024 League of Canadian Poets’ National Broadsheet Contest, and the 2025 and 2022 RCLAS Write On! Contest for poetry. She also placed third in ROOM Magazine’s 2024 Poetry Contest and was a finalist for The Fiddlehead's 2023 Ralph Gustafson Poetry Contest. Her poems have been nominated for the Pushcart Prize and Best of the Net. Jessica’s chapbook Shine Like a Dime in the Dirt under the Moon will be available via Pinhole Poetry in April 2026.

 

A first-generation Canadian settler, Jessica lives with gratitude on the lands of the Halq’eméylem-speaking peoples (colonially known as New Westminster, BC) with her little family and large dog. She expects to be buried under her shelves of books and records.