Jessica Bryant Klagmann grew up climbing mountains, canoeing rivers, and scampering through the woods of New Hampshire. She studied writing there, and then at the University of Alaska in Fairbanks. She’s worked as an environmental programs writer, an adult education director, a college writing instructor, a literary journal editor, and an organic farmer. Every good idea she’s ever had came while running, so she tries to stay within sight of a mountain or canyon trail at all times. She and her family live in northern New Mexico, but they also spend time in Maine, where they’re restoring the trees of a hundred-acre forest.

Fascinated by the natural world as a place filled with endless magic, Jessica’s writing explores the many ways humans connect to landscapes—where their hearts are, where they choose to live, where they call home. Her characters often find themselves isolated, entwined with their environments, reclaiming wilds both internal and external. Whether nature draws them out of their solitude or reminds them why they chose it, there is always a sense that lightness may be found where it is least expected.

Jessica’s work can be found in environmental journals like Whitefish Review, Terrain.org, Tiger Moth Review, Flyway, and echoverse, among others. Her short story collection was a finalist for the St. Lawrence Book Award and the Orison Books Fiction Prize.

THIS IMPOSSIBLE BRIGHTNESS is her debut novel. Her second novel will be published in the fall of 2025.