Jessica Franken is an essayist, poet, editor, and teacher.
She has work published with Seneca Review, River Teeth, Creative Nonfiction, and elsewhere, and appears on the Best American Essays 2022 notables list. Jessica is especially interested in hybrid and chimeric forms, speculative nonfiction, lyric essay, and other fourth-genre work. She leads generative writing communities and works as a freelance writer and editor.
WRITING PROMPTS
LATEST WRITING
When Centurio senex guzzles mangoes, juice rivers down the canyons of his face into his spike-toothed mouth. Eyes: larger than I expected, faceted like tiger-eye gemstones. Ears: golden mittens, thumbs where the eyebrows would go: try it. And while you do, let me tell you (did you try it?) about his beard of drapey skin he pulls into a mask with goggles. Aviator with furry flap, he peekaboos his moist, pheromone-emitting chin. I was raised to find utility beautiful (Dutch farm folk) so I love his gumwad face: its funneling folds—collecting pulp, amplifying voice, circulating air, fine-tuning echolocation—a topography of usefulness.
“One-Hundred-Year-Old Man,” Bat Conservation International