I’m Jess
b. East York, Toronto. 1986. Youth, small-town Southern Ontario. Favourite Colour: chartreuse. (she/her/hers)
I’m a writer, poet, editor, and interdisciplinary artist currently at work on a book. With an MFA in Creative Nonfiction from the University of King’s College, I write narrative nonfiction, essays, short stories and poetry. My creative practice explores themes of: identity, wildness, domesticity, selfhood, love, art, grief, and the natural world. I’m fascinated by the ineffable found in ordinary life, the spaces between people and how common things astonish.
In the spring of 2023, I was elected President/Chair of the Creative Nonfiction Collective Society (CNFC). I advise on their Development and Stewardship Committee and I’m a member of the Writers’ Union of Canada. In 2019, I was the recipient of a Hamilton Short Works Prize for literary nonfiction with HA&L magazine. My poetry has been featured in the Unsalted Great Lakes podcast and in Wayzgoose Anthology 2022. My poem F I R E W E E D appeared in the 2023 exhibit Alchemical Afternoon for Contact Photography Festival and I have a forthcoming essay on creativity in the anthology BAD ARTIST.
Previously, I was the founder and creative director of an ecological design studio called A FINE MEDLEY. I used floristry and the botanical arts to study our relationship to beauty, wonder, production and our exploited natural world. I collaborated, gardened and farmed flowers in Southern Ontario with Sweet Gale Gardens, championing regenerative agricultural practices. My designs and interviews were published in Green Living Magazine, Flower House Detroit, The Hamilton Spectator, Slow Flowers, Urbanicity, KOTN journal and elsewhere. My botanical art was recognized throughout Canada, the U.S. and Mexico.
In a past life, I worked in hospitality while I received a Bachelor of Arts through York and Schulich University, specializing in gender, environment, professional writing and non-profit management. I spent half a decade working with art nonprofits, advocating for independent and emerging artists through community organizing, content creation, partnerships, campaigns and workshops. My secret was—I wanted to be a working artist too.
When I’m not with a stack of books, in my garden or cold dipping, I dabble with film photography and enjoy cooking, the kind with deep care, simple ingredients and a messy kitchen. All my artistic mediums influence each other and my creative practice is more like a garden, less like a machine. There are fallow and fruitful seasons.
I live in Toronto with my partner and rescue cat. Although I think she rescued me.
For inquiries or commissions email: jessicaheatherpayne@gmail.com
“I ACKNOWLEDGE THE LAND I LIVE ON IS THE TRADITIONAL TERRITORY OF MANY NATIONS INCLUDING THE MISSISSAUGAS OF THE CREDIT, THE ANISHNABEG, THE CHIPPEWA, THE HAUDENOSAUNEE AND THE WENDAT PEOPLES AND IS NOW HOME TO MANY DIVERSE FIRST NATIONS, INUIT AND MÉTIS. I ALSO ACKNOWLEDGE THAT T’KARONTO IS COVERED BY TREATY 13 WITH THE MISSISSAUGAS OF THE CREDIT.”