Jessica Petrow-Cohen is a Pushcart Prize nominated creative nonfiction writer.

Her essay “On Molting,” was the winner of the 2024 Kenyon Review’s Short Nonfiction Contest judged by Melissa Febos. Her writing has also appeared or is forthcoming in publications including The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Kenyon Review, Brevity, HuffPost, The Common, Fugue, Lumina, Working Artist Mag, The Fulcrum, and more. Her Substack, Claiming Writerhood, publishes essays on love, loss, and the place where the two meet. Her work has been supported by the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, The Kenyon Review Residential Writing Workshop, and The Vermont Studio Center.

Jessica was raised by two moms in a tight knit queer community and has been a fierce advocate for LGBTQ+ rights for many years. Her senate testimony on behalf of same-sex marriage was published in The New York Times and in former New Jersey State Senator Raymond J. Lesniak’s book, “What’s Love Got to Do with It?”

Jessica studied Psychology, Creative Writing, and Chemistry at Duke University and currently works in Strategy at The New York Times. She lives in Brooklyn with her partner, she is an amateur flying trapeze artist, and she cares deeply about her friends.