Jessica Petrow-Cohen is a Brooklyn based creative nonfiction writer.

Her essay “On Molting,” was the winner of the 2024 Kenyon Review’s Short Nonfiction Contest judged by Melissa Febos.

Her senate testimony on behalf of same sex marriage was published in The New York Times and Senator Raymond Lesniak’s book, “What’s Love Got To Do With It?” 

Those are probably the two coolest things that have ever happened to her. She also has really awesome moms and friends.

Jessica’s writing has also appeared or is forthcoming in The Kenyon Review, Brevity, The Washington Post, HuffPost, and The Fulcrum. Her work has been supported by The Kenyon Review Writers Workshop, The Virginia Center for Creative Arts, and The Fine Arts Work Center. She publishes a Substack called “Claiming Writerhood,” which is something she is still actively trying to do.

Jessica studied Psychology, Chemistry, and Creative Writing at Duke University and currently works in Strategy at The New York Times.