Poetry by Jacqueline West
September 2025
"With the Five-Year-Old at the Bell Museum" in Mom Egg Review
July 2025
"Dear Mary Shelley" in Star*Line
"Kolibri" in Eye to the Telescope
June 2025
"Snow White Puts the Pieces Together" in NewMyths Magazine
March 2025
"For a Dryad" and "Voice from the Wood" in Carmina Magazine
November 2024
"Song Through Wires" in Star*Line (More Info)
* Nominated for the 2024 Rhysling Award *
September 2024
"The Last Bride" in the anthology GRIMM RETOLD (Ordering Info)
May 2024
"Mother Bear" in the women in horror anthology MOTHER KNOWS BEST (Ordering Info)
"When the Villagers Come" and "Winter Guest" in Illumen, spring 2024 issue (Ordering Info)
January 2024
"Crone" in Star*Line, Winter 2024 Issue (Listing only available online)
"Finding the Bird Skull in the Backyard" in Eye to the Telescope
December 2023
"Mistletoe" in Pyre Magazine (ordering info)
"Buried Heart" in Crow & Cross Keys
November 2023
"You Have Her Eyes" in Horror Writers Association Poetry Showcase Volume X (ordering info)
"Gossip in Salem" in Under Her Eye: A Women in Horror Poetry Showcase
October 2023
"Blight" in The Crow's Quill Magazine: Historical Horror Issue
"Close to Magic" in Crow & Cross Keys
September 2023
"The Practice" in Crow & Cross Keys
"Scattering" in Carmina Magazine
"Under World" in Carmina Magazine
* Nominated for the 2023 Rhysling Award *
March 2023
"Medusa Love" in Star*Line 46.2 (Contents/Ordering Info)
January 2023
"The Creation" in Eye to the Telescope, Issue 47: Frankenstein
October 2022
"One Eye, Two Eyes" in the Horror Writers Association Poetry Showcase Vol. IX (ordering info)
March 2022
"The Twelfth Dancing Princess Explains" in Enchanted Living, Issue #58: The Fairy Tale Issue (Ordering info)
January 2022
"A Christening" in Dreams & Nightmares (Listing only available online)
November 2021
"Sugar" in the Horror Writers Association's Poetry Showcase, Vol. VIII (Ordering info)
October 2021
"Lost Voice," "Cadaverous Material," and "The Count Loses His Appetite" in Illumen: Autumn 2021 Issue (Ordering info)
July 2021
"For Ophelia, Twenty-Five Years Later" in Liminality, Issue #28 - Summer 2021
March 2021
"Biography" in Liminality, Issue #27 (Spring 2021)
January 2021
"Reasons to Leave the Path" in Star*Line
• Nominated for the 2021 Pushcart Prize •
• Nominated for the 2021 Rhysling Award •
Fall 2020
"Runaway" in Abyss & Apex, Issue 75: 3rd Quarter 2020
March 2019
"Lady Macbeth's Green Gown" in Liminality, Issue #19 - Spring 2019
• Nominated for the 2020 Rhysling Award •
February 2019
"The Day the Dragons Returned" in Star*Line (Table of contents and purchasing info)
December 2018
"Snow Angel" and "A Lover's Almanac" in Enchanted Living (formerly Faerie Magazine)
February 2018
Candle and Pins: Poems on Superstitions - full-length collection, Alban Lake Publishing
October 2017
"Yanis" reprinted in The Driftless Reader
March 2013
"The Boarding School" in Spellbound - Spring 2013 Changelings and Doppelgangers issue
December 2011
"Black Sheep" - Fantastique Unfettered - December 2011
September 2011
"Buying the Muse" in Ideomancer
"Styx" in Niteblade
June 2011
"Escaping the Dawn" in Cover of Darkness (listing only available online)
• Nominated for a 2012 Rhysling Award •
April 2011
"Sin Eater" in Paper Crow (listing only available online)
December 2010
"Mother-Die" in Stone Telling
October 2010
"Corpselight" in Paper Crow (listing only available online)
July 2010
"One October Night in Baltimore" in Sybil's Garage #7
June 2010
"Seashell" in Enchanted Conversation
May 2010
"To a Friend in Alaska," and "Friday, 3 p.m., British Museum" in The Literary Bohemian
April 2010
"Artemis, in the Kitchen" and "The Evil Eye" in Illumen
March 2010
Cherma - University of Wisconsin, Madison's Parallel Press chapbook series
February 2010
"Early Frost" in Grasslimb
November 2009
"Notre Dame de Paris" in Sugar House Review
October 2009
"Abracadabra" in Goblin Fruit
"After the Trial" in ChiZine
September 2009
"Tiresias on Eighth Avenue" and "Midas" in flashquake
June 2009
"Arsinoe's Letter to her Sister" in Lone Star Stories
April 2009
"Crash," "Ashes," and "Fade Out" in Neon Magazine
"Lethe" in ChiZine
March 2009
"Residue" (Listing only available online) in A cappella Zoo
"The Woman at the Well," "Early Frost," and "Strangers" in Prick of the Spindle
"After Party" in 42opus
January 2009
"Watching the Old Man Clean the Pike" and "Heiligeberge" in Barnwood
"At the Traveling Monet Exhibition" in The Rose & Thorn
"Neurotransmission" and "Venus in Travilla" in ChiZine
October 2008
"Rusalka" in Illumen
"Stranded on the Red Cedar River" in Inkwell Journal, Fall 2008 Issue
"Family Ritual" in Aberrant Dreams
"Doppelgängers" in Goblin Fruit
Includes Jacqueline's reading of the poem
August 2008
"In the Brush Pile" in GlassFire Magazine
"Teenage Atlas, in the Kitchen" and "Life through a Black Net Veil" in Fickle Muses
"Antigone, at the Mall" in Oddlands
July 2008
"Candle and Pins" (Listing only available online) in The Willows
"Lakeside" (Sound file) in Rose & Thorn
Jacqueline's reading of her Pushcart Prize-nominated poem, published by The Rose and Thorn Literary E-zine in their Winter 2005 issue
"Armaros" in Oddlands
May 2008
"All in a Row" and "Eggshells" (Listing only) in Mythic Delirium Issue 18
April 2008
"The Calendar of the Dead" in Strange Horizons
March 2008
"Stratford on Avon" in flashquake
January 2008
"Groundskeeper at Heptonstall" in St. Ann's Review
November 2007
"Bread" and "When the Cows Attack" in Heartlands
April 2007
"Obituary Clipping, in an Envelope" (Print only) in Briar Cliff Review
• Nominated for a 2007 Pushcart Prize •
March 2007
"Afternoon Burial, 1931" in Prairie Poetry
November 2006
“Poem – for Michele Murray” in Barnwood
October 2006
“What Tools” in Chizine
September 2006
“Little Ten Fingers” in Prairie Poetry
April 2006
“The Putting Away" and “March Thaw" (Listing only available online) in Pebble Lake Review
March 2006
“Without Rain at Trafalgar” (PDF format) in Poetry Midwest
“Scarecrow” (Listing only available online) in Not One of Us
January 2006
“Lakeside” in The Rose and Thorn
• Nominated for a 2006 Pushcart Prize •
December 2005
“Anachronism under King’s Cross” in flashquake
August 2005
“Life through a Black Net Veil” in The Pedestal Magazine
June 2005
“Banshee” in Mytholog
May 2005
“Daughter to Mother” in Children, Churches and Daddies
April 2005
“Two Travelers” in Children, Churches and Daddies
March 2005
“Archive” in Hidden Oak
January 2005
“Strike” in Poetry Motel
“In the Brush Pile…” in Barbaric Yawp
Buy a copy of Candle and Pins from Amazon.com or direct from Hiraeth Publishing
Candle and Pins
The poems of “Candle and Pins” are inspired by familiar—and some unfamiliar—superstitions, ranging from love charms to burial practices, parsley seeds to the evil eye. Like superstitions themselves, these poems explore the terrain where magic and everyday life intertwine, and where beauty, horror, fear, and belief combine in ways both new and ageless.
Selected for the preliminary ballot of the 2018 Bram Stoker Awards
Nominated for the 2018 Elgin Award
"...Eerie and beautifully shivery, like the unexpected caress of a gentle finger on the nape of your neck when you’re alone in the room. I caught myself going “ooh” in out-loud admiration several times during the course of the read, occasionally needing to pause and just sit and reflect and let things sink in. Artful, evocative, clever, gorgeous. Highly recommended!"
"The poems in Candle and Pins breathed life into each superstition which, in turn, added an extra dimension to the entire collection... If you love dark poetry, Candle and Pins is a lovely collection to check out."
- Book Den
"Fears and superstition...make for some beautiful and haunting poetry."
"This is a great bit of horror poetry... Very happy that I came across this collection."
Cherma
Poetry chapbook published by the University of Wisconsin's Parallel Press.
Jacqueline West draws inspiration from the names, local records, and family stories of a small group of Bohemian immigrants who settled in western Wisconsin's Pierce County in the late 1800s. Known as the Cherma settlement, it was named after the village of Dolní Cermná in the modern-day Czech Republic. West presents a compelling picture of the lives, relationships, and hardships experienced by these immigrants.
Cherma is a 2012 Eric Hoffer Book Award Finalist
West uses pictorial language, helping us into the settlers' experiences: "waiting roots shriveled like finger bones" "the silent curve of her spine / rolling down toward the floor like a broken hill." She never intrudes herself into the stories, making sure not to break the illusions of this world she has created. Anyone who enjoys novels, history and/or the intersection of these two in historical fiction would enjoy these lovely poems. I was reminded especially of Louise Erdrich.
- Sarah Busse, Madison.com
By weaving fragile imagery into the stark tones of these narrative poems, West reveals a multitude of vulnerabilities hidden below her characters' steely resolves. Her careful attention to nuanced detail elevates specific events to universal experience and underscores the gains and losses of a people who have sacrificed much for their admission into American society.
- Rose & Thorn Journal
An engrossing speculation into the ordinary lives of rural Americans, highly recommended to anyone who loves fine poetry.