Jeda Pearl (she/her) is a Scottish Jamaican writer and artist based in Edinburgh, Scotland. In 2022, she was shortlisted for the Sky Arts RSL Award and longlisted for the Women Poets’ Prize. Art installations include Windrush Legacy Creative Reflections (2023), Caledonian Biotech Library, 3033 (Scottish Storytelling Centre, 2022) and Acts of Observation (Collective, 2021). Performances include StAnza, Hidden Door, Push the Boat Out, Cymera and Edinburgh International Book Festival. Her poems and short stories are published by 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.
Debut Poetry Collection
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 – pre-order
Awards
- Shortlisted for Sky Arts RSL Awards!
Utterly thrilled to be shortlisted for the Sky Arts RSL Writers Award 2022 (poetry)! - Longlisted for the Women Poets’ Prize!
I’m over the moon to be longlisted for the Rebecca Swift Foundation Women Poets’ Prize 2022!!
Selected Works
For upcoming readings, events and activities go to the Events page.
Short fiction
- To The Forest – Nova Scotia Vol 2 (Luna Press)
Luna Press have published Nova Scotia Vol 2, edited by Neil Williamson and Andrew J. Wilson. It’s a real privilege to be published alongside some absolute legends! Nova Scotia Vol … - The Rust, published in Glimpse anthology
The Rust, published in Glimpse, a new anthology of Black British speculative fiction from Peepal Tree Press. - In Search of Patience published in Open Book Unbound
My speculative short story, ‘In Search of Patience,’ is published in Open Book Unbound, issue December 2021. - When Cocoa Ripe, It Must Bust
Delighted to have my short story, ‘When Cocoa Ripe, It Must Bust’ published in the anthology Make A Wish, Keep the Wish Secret and shortlisted for the 2018 Cambridge Short Story Prize! - The Apple Inspector and other stories
Here are some notes on early submissions (short stories) that were successful and encouraged me to keep going…
Poetry
- Hunter’s Voices
26 Sep 2024 | Hunter’s Voices, an anthology of poetry inspired by the Hunterian, with images of museum art and artifacts, edited by Professor Alan Riach. - Guardian Poem of the Week: Highland Daunder
Honoured to have ‘Highland Daunder’, from my debut poetry collection (Time Cleaves Itself) in the Guardian newspaper, selected by Carol Rumens, as poem on the week!! - Inheritance Reverb
A captioned video of Jeda reading ‘Inheritance Reverb’ – a poem from her debut collection, Time Cleaves Itself. - Time Cleaves Itself, Jeda Pearl’s debut poetry collection
My debut poetry collection, Time Cleaves Itself, will be published by Peepal Tree Press in July 2024! - Sleekit: Contemporary poems in the Burns stanza
An anthology of contemporary poems in the Standard Habbie form (aka Burns stanza), edited by Lou Selfridge and published by Tapsalteerie. - How Do We Talk About Knives
A new poetry anthology featuring contemporary writers in Scotland on names, language and identity; edited by Samina Chaudhry, Marcas Mac an Tuairneir and Rebecca Sharp. - PASSIONS – responses to Maud Sulter’s archive
PASSIONS is publication published by Rhubaba bringing together contributions from nine Black artists, curators and makers responding to Maud Sulter’s archive. - ‘I was born’ – in two anthologies
‘I was born‘ is part of the 2020 Mixtape: Writers of Colour Audio Anthology, curated by Hannah Lavery and published by the Scottish BPOC Writers Network. It was also shortlisted for the Aesthetica Creative Writing Award. - Acts of Observation exhibition
Online | A poetic audio installation (2021), pamphlet and an online captioned film of a series of five linked poems that weave themes involving the disabled BPOC body with archeoastronomy and the sublime, commissioned by Collective gallery. - BBC Scotland Big Scottish Book Club
In October 2021, I had the honour of sharing a poem with Damian Barr’s Big Scottish Book Club. I read ‘inheritance reverb‘ which is one of three poems, written as a response to Maud Sulter‘s body of work, commissioned by Rhubaba, forthcoming 2022. - 15 Ways of Looking at a Tuareg Pendant – New Writing Scotland
My poem, ’15 Ways of Looking at a Tuareg Pendant’, after Raman Mundair’s ’15 Ways of Looking at a Silk Sari’ is published in The Last Good Year: New Writing Scotland 38. - Chronic Fail
‘Chronic Fail‘ is a poem I wrote during 2020 as a response to experiencing the pandemic as a disabled person. It is part of Not Going Back to Normal – A Disabled Artists Manifesto: a digital collection of 49 artworks and texts responding to a call for ideas for a radically accessible arts world, curated by Sasha Saben Callaghan and Harry Josephine Giles - Poems in Shoreline of Infinity 18
I’m thrilled to have five poems published in Shoreline of Infinity 18! Shoreline of Infinity is a sci-fi magazine and indie publisher based in Scotland. - Two poems in Ceremony
I have two poems in Ceremony is the first anthology from the Scottish BPOC Writers Network, formerly the Scottish BAME Writers Network. Curated and edited by award-winning poet, Alycia Pirmohamed. - Published in Multiverse – a new science fiction poetry anthology
I’m thrilled to announce that I have two poems, The Thaw and Tempest to be published in Multiverse – New International Science Fiction Poetry published by Shoreline of Infinity, co-edited by Russell Jones and Rachel Plummer.
Readings and recordings
Want to collaborate?
Jeda has experience as an arts programmer, event chair and panellist, and workshop facilitator. She has sat on art project selection panels and may be available for consultations.