Jessica Morey-Collins is a poet and land use planner who works as a plans examiner in the Pacific Northwest. Her chapbook, We Were More than Kindling, is forthcoming with Black Lawrence Press in 2023. Jessica’s poems can be found in publications such as Prairie Schooner, Pleiades, Cotton Xenomorph, Maudlin House, Hobart, Tinderbox, and have been nominated for the Pushcart Prize, Best New Poets, and Best of the Net. The opening poem of We Were More than Kindling, “Promise to Recede” won the 2018 Prism Review Poetry Contest. Jessica was awarded an MFA in poetry at the University of New Orleans, and won an Academy of American Poets award, the Maxine and Joseph Cassin Prize for poetry thesis, and also worked as associate poetry editor for Bayou Magazine. Jessica then earned a Master’s of Community and Regional Planning from the University of Oregon, focused on strategies to enhance organizational, economic, and community resilience, and won the American Planning Association (APA) Academic Achievement Award. Jessica has worked as an urban planner, educator, GIS marketer, curriculum developer, and graduate writing consultant. She is a mental health advocate, trauma survivor, and a straight-passing queer, who spends her spare time doting on her angelic friends, handsome partner, and ridiculous cats.