Gillian Jerome is a mother, writer, teacher who lives on the unceded land of the xʷməθkʷəy̓ əm
(Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish) and Sel̓íl̓witulh (Tsleil-Waututh) Nation. She is the author of two books of poems. Her first book, Red Nest (Nightwood Editions, 2009), was nominated for the Dorothy Livesay Poetry Prize and won the 2010 ReLit Award for Poetry. Nevertheless: Walking Poems was published by Nightwood Editions in Spring 2022. She co-edited an oral history project, Hope in Shadows: Stories and Photographs from Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside (Arsenal Pulp Press, 2008), which won the 2008 City of Vancouver Book Award.
Her work has been supported by the BC Arts Council and the Canada Council for the Arts. She has taught Creative Writing and Literatures the University of Arizona, Douglas College, and the University of British Columbia.
She now teaches English Language Arts, Creative Writing and Career and Life Education to Vancouver teenagers. Born in Ottawa, and raised in Orléans, Ontario, she lives in East Vancouver.