Wes Jamison, personal essay author

wes jamison

I’m a queer Chicago writer. I don’t use question marks. My work is generally lyric with touches of vulgarity and autotheory. I explore themes such as the body, the internet, identity, and language (semiotics, desire).

Explore my essays and other writing @ Selected Writings.

Find my meatier work @ Books.

I’m also a teacher. My students and I shine when we workshop creative writing or we discuss psychoanalysis or texts like Rankine’s Citizen or Carson’s Plainwater. I delight in introducing students to lyric essays and graphic narratives.

Peruse my Media page for my thoughts on being a writer and a few good write-ups about me and my work.

Cover of book titled 'My Corpse Inside' by Wes Jamison, featuring a blurred abstract black and white image.

pre-order MY CORPSE INSIDE now

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“Of course, now we know, we do—we know how easy it is to be exactly someone else.”

C.V.

  • 2022: PhD Creative Writing

    2013: MFA Creative Nonfiction, Columbia College Chicago

    2010: BA English, Otterbein University

  • 2021: Quill Prose Award, selected by Kazim Ali, Red Hen Press

    2021: Anderson Award in Medieval Studies

    2016: Chapbook Contest, selected by Julie Carr, Essay Press

    2011: Essay Contest Winner, South Loop Review

  • 2022 Notable: “Mother,” Gigantic Sequins, vol. 13

    2011 Notable: “The Secret Garden,” South Loop Review, vol. 13

  • 2025: Jeanne Leiby Memorial Chapbook Award longlist, The Florida Review

    2020: Book Award longlist, Tarpaulin Sky Press

    2017: Pushcart Prize nomination, cahoodaloodaling

    2017: Chapbook Contest finalist, Gambling the Aisle

    2016: Open Prose Contest finalist, selected by Maggie Nelson, 1913: A Journal of Forms

    2016: Sixth-Ever Contest finalist, The Cupboard Pamphlet

    2015: Lamar York Prize finalist, Chatahoochee Review

    2014: First Book Prize finalist, selected by Claudia Rankine, 1913: A Journal of Forms