Jean James was born in Portadown, Northern Ireland, but now lives in Swansea. Having retired from full-time teaching, she undertook a Creative Writing MA at Swansea University, with a particular focus on nature writing and poetry. Jean has been published in both Abridged and the Welsh Arts Review. She won The British Haiku Society haibun competition in 2013 and came first and runner-up in the BHS tanka competition in 2015. She came third in the Welsh Poetry Competition in 2018. A selection of her short poems was published by Snapshot Press in the form of an echapbook in 2019.
