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Jessica Klimesh, MFA, MA
Why a "Writing Studio"?
A studio is where artists work. Where one immerses themselves in the creative process.
At JEK Writing Studio, the creative process may not be everything, but it's a large part of what I do.
Though I initially started my business with the intent of offering proofreading and editing services, due especially to my academic/technical writing and grammar background, I came to realize that creative writers aren't as well-served by conventional editing services. With technical and academic editing, there's more of a prescriptive approach—out of necessity; the end product is everything.
But creative writing needs more space. That's because the creative process needs more space. I found that whenever I worked with creative writers, my approach varied greatly from writer to writer. And what I ultimately realized was that the creative writers I could benefit most were the ones who savored the process—the creative process, the writing process.
Focusing on process allows me to use an author-centric approach, guiding writers in an editorial way, while also encouraging them to brainstorm and experiment.
Thus, JEK Writing Studio was born, and with it, a boutique writing experience.
Creative Writing
While I have an extensive academic and technical writing/editing background that stretches back to the mid-1990s, creative writing has always been what drives me forward. After high school, I became involved in a weekly poetry group, and a couple of years later, founded and led a poetry group at my college. I started attending a community writing workshop in 2004 and, in 2007, founded the Toledo [Ohio] Writers' Workshop, facilitating the group until mid-2015; the group continues to be active.
Since 2016, my fiction has been published in a variety of online and print journals, and I've received nominations for the Pushcart Prize, Best Microfiction, Best Small Fictions, and Best of the Net; I had stories selected for Best Microfiction 2025 and Best of the Net 2025.
Other creative writing accomplishments of note include winning the Nancy Ludmerer Flash Fiction Fellowship in 2024, and winning first prize in Gooseberry Pie Lit's 2024 microfiction contest and third prize in South Shore Review's 2023 flash fiction contest. I am also the co-editor/co-founder of Hot Flash Literary, a journal of flash prose by women-identifying writers.
For many years, I wrote and wrote without knowing what to do with what I was writing. I very rarely submitted my work anywhere, but by some fluke, won a poetry contest in 2008 and earned an honorable mention in another poetry contest in 2009. These early successes also served to inspire me to create JEK Writing Studio, as I had very little guidance as a young writer, and ended up taking a very long and winding road to get where I am today.
I scouted the trail so that you don't have to! You don't have to write alone.
Education/Professional Development
With master's degrees in both English (with a teaching/academic writing focus) and Creative Writing (with a fiction focus), graduate certificates in TESOL (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages) and International Scientific and Technical Communication, and an undergraduate degree in Communications, I have a broad and comprehensive writing, editing, and teaching background. But I also continue to hone my skills, regularly taking writing workshops and interacting with other writers, all of which allow me to keep up with trends in literature, as well as with trends in language and publishing.
While my approach to feedback is informed by my formal education, it has also been shaped by my experience and by books and articles I read and study, including especially The Anti-Racist Writing Workshop: How to Decolonize the Creative Classroom (2021) by Felicia Rose Chavez, Critique Is Creative: The Critical Response Process in Theory and Action (2022) by Liz Lerman & John Borstel, and Craft in the Real World: Rethinking Fiction Writing and Workshopping (2021) by Matthew Salessess.