Jessica Wilson was born to second-generation Jamaican parents in North London and trained at University College London and Cambridge University.
Jessica was 1 of 50 chosen to participate in Penguin Random House's WriteNow event, held in collaboration with the BBC and Spread the Word to promote diversity in new British writing. In 2017 she was shortlisted for an The Aesthetica Creative Writing Award for her poem ‘Reclamation’.
Her first children’s book ‘Sofia the Dreamer and her Magical Afro’ was endorsed by Benjamin Zephaniah and Afua Hirsch, received a GoFundMe award and is a 2021 National Poetry Day Recommended Read. To purchase a copy, please visit Amazon.
Jessica has enjoyed a range of speaking, consultancy and coaching roles alongside school visits! She has worked in conjunction with several organisations, including:
PanMacmillan for their internal Black History Month event
As a writing coach for actor David Ajala
BookTrust Represents: an arm of the UK's largest children's reading charity, teaching adult authors the business of self-publishing
The School Library Association’s Meet the Creator event
The London Fire Brigade Union for a Black History Month reading event alongside Alex Wheatle MBE
The Race Council for ‘Being Human: A Festival of the Humanities’ on the impact of the Jamaican language within poetry
The 34th Annual Conference on West Indian Literature: presentation of paper 'Colonization in Reverse: Writing Caribbean London' which focussed upon Zadie Smith, Hanif Kureishi and Sam Selvon's re-appropriation of the post-colonial capital.
The Exodus Collective, an organisation which facilitates members of the Caribbean diaspora in their moves back home.
Recognising the need for voices like her own to be heard, Jessica founded Tallawah Publishing in 2019.
She is represented by literary agents Bell Lomax Moreton and has a two book publishing deal with Two Hoots, MacMillan (2024).
