Jessie McCarty is a cataloger and writer.

I have a BFA in Creative Writing and certifications in taxonomy design, systems migration, and rare book cataloging (DCRMB). I am an upcoming MLIS candidate at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee for Information Management.

My poetry, in English and Gaeilge, uses archival and taxonomy as memory tools. Poems have been published in Sarka, Pity Milk bathmatics, The Minnesota Review, Charm School, The Documentarian, Don’t Submit Lit, Thick Press, and more.

I write the newsletter Poetic Classifications on Substack.

Their full-length debut, Pretty Punks, is forthcoming with Magra Books in December 2025 (Pre-order here). Previous collections include The Bovine Huff (Track and Field Studios, 2021) and Our Fairy Diary (2023).

Jessie’s archive research has been published as chapbooks for several theatrical productions, including The Sarcoma Cycle (Logan Berry, 2024) and the Faggots and Their Friends Between Revolutions: A Homo-Turgy (Jack Bowes, 2024). They were nominated as Best New Poetry Book and Best New Poet in the Chicago Reader, 2022.

Click on the image to read my resume