After escaping from the Midwest to the Sierra Nevada mountains of California, Stephen Jackson eventually made his way to the Pacific Northwest, where he divides his time between Washington and Oregon, undecided still on settling in Seattle, Portland, or Eugene.
A working-class poet, he has had over ninety poems published in over sixty different magazines, journals, and anthologies from around the world, both online and in print, including the International Human Rights Art Movement anthology, A Human Voice, The Fictional Café anthology, The Strong Stuff, the PoetRhy Garden project of Basel, Switzerland, and the Washington State Queer Poetry Anthology.
Two of his poems have been nominated for the Pushcart Prize. He received honorable mention for the 2021 Penrose Poetry Prize, which recognizes excellence in LGBTQIA+ writers, and was a finalist for the 2025 James Tate Poetry Prize aimed at the development, celebration and promotion of contemporary Surrealist poetry. His micro-chapbook the no-man was released in July of 2022 as part of the Ghost City Press annual Summer Series. More recent work has appeared in London’s fourteen poems, Dublin’s Impossible Archetype, and Winnipeg’s Prairie Fire.
As the creator of Seattle small press So Many Birds publishing [SMBp], he designed individual poetry books and chaps for local writers, championed previously unpublished writers in the biannual chapbook Future+Present, and showcased the work of writers from around the world in the quarterly literary magazine Harness. Select SMBp from the menu to visit the ongoing archive.
Stephen prefers “he/him” pronouns. All photos, images, and writing that appear on this site are under the copyright of Stephen Jackson/SMBp unless otherwise noted. ©2025
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Stephen Jackson 