About
Jessie Scrimager Galloway is an adopted, queer poet with mommy issues. She is a graduate of Pacific University’s MFA program and author of the chapbook Liminal: A Life of Cleavage, Lost Horse Press. She loves her wife’s fried chicken and enjoys riveting conversations with her best editor: Snacks, a wily, polydactyl, orange cat. not my daughter (Etched Press, 2024) is her first full-length collection.
not my daughter
“With crisp lyricism and narration, not my daughter slices dogma and illuminates the power of resiliency. This book is a must-have for living in this world and claiming your sexuality, your name, your life no matter what. Jessie’s poems redefine daughterhood and embrace what we humans long for, always, love.”
–Thea Matthews, author of Unearth [The Flowers]
“The queer-adopted-kid-poet-who-teaches-creative-writing in me swoons over the brilliant craft and the precise play with language. I’ll return to this collection again and again. I want to use every poem as an example of “this is how you truth.” These poems give us somewhere to belong and make us feel less alone.”
–Su Flatt, Columbus-based Writer & Educator
“This debut collection presents a brilliant examination of three languages: heritage, erasure, and wonder. Here, you’ll see a poet in the crossfire of the human experience. This work cuts with precision crafting a map that resonates with raw authenticity. Jessie weaves a narrative that is both haunting and deeply moving. This book is a must-read.”
–Antony Fangary, author of Haram
“Jessie's lines of poetry are glass castles; ready to shatter over you again and again. She elicits a yearning, that is delicate and eternal, from tender moments that can make—or break—a life: a ripped saccharine packet lying prostrate on a table, a fork scraping the rim of a plate, the pluck of fishnet threads marking a thigh.”
–Andrea Passwater, Oakland-based Writer
Media
Watch the not my daughter playlist above and read a few sample poems below
Contact