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'Welcome' in purple typewriter font on pale green paper-like background
Photo of Jeda Pearl, who is a Scottish-Jamaican woman with light-brown skin. She has dark brown, long curly hair and dark brown eyes and is smiling. She stands in front of a dark green wall and is wearing a patterned dress with toucans and tropical leaves on it.

Hi, I’m Jeda. I’m a Scottish Jamaican writer and poet based in Scotland.

My work often traverses/reflects the ‘in between’ and explores the intersections of belonging, disability, secrecy and survival. 

I write poetry, fiction and occasionally create multidisciplinary work.

I also love arts programming, collaborative projects and helping develop community platforms.

About Jeda | Collaborate |Events |Writing |Books | Subscribe

Book cover graphic. The illustration has swirling contour and ridge lines in pale and deep sky blues at the top and bottom opening onto a galaxy river of deep indigo brush marks and thistle-lilac splatters of stars. Overlaid with the title 'Time Cleaves Itself' and, in the bottom left, 'Jeda Pearl.'

Jeda Pearl’s debut poetry collection

Time Cleaves Itself invites you into the split and rewoven threads of a disabled Scottish woman of colour’s intersecting, in between worlds as she navigates belonging and claiming space. Landscapes and bodyscapes are brought into focus through lenses of race, illness, disability and womanhood. Here lyrical acts of observation unfold with defiance, tenderness, rhythm and the occasional side-eye. The accordion of time stretches across poems that deliver a sonic meditation on memory, grief, disability, belonging and resilience.

Cover artwork and design by Kezia Lewis.

Published July 2024 by Peepal Tree Press

Inspiration for my work comes from many places…

  • The musicality of my family’s shared languages, Scots, Geordie, Jamaican Patois
  • Science fiction, the fantastical, surreal, eccentric, weird and unexpected
  • Superstitions, folklore and unsettling, twisted fairytales
  • Untold and hidden histories
  • Highlighting people and stories from underrepresented communities
  • Life in all its rough and tough edges, incredible beauty and everything in between
  • The wilds of parenthood
  • Creativity in all its forms and so many amazing writers and artists…

Read, listen or watch selected readings

Blog posts

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Bio

Jeda Pearl (she/her) is a Scottish Jamaican author and artist based in Edinburgh, Scotland. In 2024, she was shortlisted for the Royal Society of Literature (RSL) Jerwood Poetry Award, and her short fiction was longlisted by the British Science Fiction Association Awards. In 2022, her poetry was shortlisted for the Sky Arts RSL Award and longlisted for the Women Poets’ Prize. Art installations include Disrupting the Narrative (2024), Windrush Legacy Creative Reflections (2023), and Acts of Observation (2021). Performances include StAnza, Hidden Door, Push the Boat Out, Cymera and Edinburgh International Book Festival. Her poems and short stories are published by Luna Press, New Writing Scotland, Open Book, Not Going Back to Normal, Shoreline of Infinity, Aesthetica, Tapsalteerie, and her debut poetry collection, Time Cleaves Itself, is published by Peepal Tree Press. @JedaPearl jedapearl.com.

Connect on: Ko-Fi | LinkTree | Instagram | Facebook | BlueSky 

Contact Jeda for readings, panels, writing workshops, creative collaborations or her writing CV.

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