Jessica Raschke was born and bred in Melbourne, Victoria, and is currently based in the Southern Highlands, NSW. Over the years, Jess has worked in a diverse range of professional settings, primarily writing, editing, research, tertiary and community education, death and grief literacy, and creative consultancy.
In recent years, she has facilitated Death Cafes, Mortality and Mystery gatherings, and Deep Encounter: Writing for Insight and Transformation workshops. She also supported the establishment of Mental, and worked with The GroundSwell Project to organise From the Brink: A Fringe Festival About Ageing Dying and Grieving in the Blue Mountains. One of her great passion projects was The Soul Spectrum.
In 2020, Jessica enjoyed some writing time at Varuna, and as part of The CORRIDOR Project‘s residency program. In 2019 she was selected for a Testing Grounds residency @ Test Sites (Melbourne), and an Enter Text residency at Arteles (Finland).
In 2018 and 2019, she was the local lead of Compassionate Communities in Bundanoon, as part of an international movement that mobilises communities around end-of-life issues, with the support of Quest for Life. Compassionate Communities was led by The GroundSwell Project throughout Australia.
She has worked as a writer and editor for several not-for-profit organisations, such as Oxfam Australia, The Dax Centre and All Together Now. Her writing has appeared in Dumbo Feather, Overland, Pip Magazine, The Fold Southern Highlands, Cordite, 5 Poetry Journal, The Big Issue, Metro, The Death Mook, Australian Screen Education, Australian Bookseller + Publisher and InPress. Her books, Luscious Glass Cage (2008), The Beguilings (2010), and Lightning Shades (2021) are published by Ginninderra Press.
Between 2001 and 2009, then from 2018 to 2020, she taught across a range of disciplines, including journalism, media studies, publishing and communications, cultural studies, and creative and non-fiction writing at the University of Melbourne, RMIT University, Monash University and Western Sydney University.