Law, Literature & Voices of Protest & Reconciliation
Poetry: She has won numerous writing awards, most recently First Place in 2015 free verse category of the 2021 contest of Columbine Poets of Colorado. Among her poetry awards: Denver Press Club, Colorado Council on the Arts fellowship; William Battrick Award in Poetry at University of Colorado; fellowship with Rocky Mountain Women’s Institute, and writer in residence at Wildacres, North Carolina. Her poetry has been published in periodicals such as Ms., The Denver Quarterly, SageGreen Journal, Montelibre and Colorado Women News. Until its closure in 2020, she was the News Poetry Editor for The Colorado Independent.
Fiction: Her first novel, My Sisters Made of Light (Press 53) was a finalist for the 2010 Colorado Book Award in Literary Fiction, and was a book of the month selection for the American Association of University Women. Through sales and donations, she raised $25,000 for the creation of a shelter for women and children in Punjab, Pakistan. She has recently completed a second novel, Inside the Shawl of Midnight, also set in South Asia. Her most recent fiction publication is the online short story, “If It’s True, It Must Also Be Beautiful,” in The Missouri Review, which the editors have nominated for the online anthology, Best of the Net. She recently won the Black Sheep award for her story, “Cough Drop Joe,” by the Colorado Genealogical Society, using a form of historical fiction she calls “family fiction.”
Non-fiction: Her nonfiction ranges from memoir to op-eds to legal scholarship, book reviews, travel writing, and social justice essays and rants. Several pieces have won awards, for example, “Meeting the Dalai Lama in Tibet,” Silver, Women’s Solas Travel Writing Award and the Rocky Mountain Modern Language Association Award for Best Feminist Essay. She has published in the Harvard Women's Law Journal, Empire Magazine, and others.
Anthologies: She co-edited the anthology, Beyond Portia: Women, Law & Literature in the U.S. (Northeastern UP) and her writings have appeared in numerous anthologies, such as Tumblewords: Writers Reading the West;Disturbing the Peace:Writings by Colorado Attorneys, Chokecherries Anthology, Kaleidoscope: Lenses on Reality, The Legal Studies Forum, and Fungi Anthology, and Thinking Women:Introduction to Women's Studies, Poems from the Back Forty, Mycoepithalamia: Mushroom Wedding Poems.
Browse her writings by theme:
Women & The Law
Violence against women, feminism.
History & The West
The American West, cities & families.
Racial Justice
Racism, injustice
Dharma & South Asia
Buddhism, liminal spaces, spirituals.
Culture & Nature
Canada geese, gardens, summer.
Family & Children
Mothers, bravery & loss.
About Jacqueline
Jacqueline St. Joan is an award-winning poet, memoirist, essayist, writer of fiction and feminist legal scholarship. Her writing intersects the fields of law and literature with the voices of contemporary protest and reconciliation. She writes about history and family fictions; the abuse of women and inheritance of racism; the minds of children, teaching and learning; law and justice and literature; South Asia, gardens, birds. She has a law degree and a Master’s in creative writing. A lifelong feminist, she is a mother, grandmother, and a social justice activist with a voice.
Learn more about Jacqueline.