Welcome to the Journal
Pull Up a Chair
Welcome. Put the kettle on, find a comfortable spot, and stay a while. I'm Jess, and this little corner of the internet is where my two worlds finally get to sit at the same table.
For years I kept them in separate rooms. In one, I was an editor and poet, reading submissions late into the night and helping writers find the shape of what they were trying to say. In the other, I was a student of old ways: shamanism, herbalism, meditation, the folk traditions of Europe, and the mystic roots of the faith I grew up in. People who knew me in one room were often surprised to learn about the other. I still struggle sometimes to find my footing, find my confidence, in both worlds, but it is something I strive to do, because it simply is who I am, and I wouldn’t change a thing about myself.
Somewhere along the way, I realized the wall between them was something I had built myself. Both rooms hold the same work. I listen closely. I make space for voices that might otherwise go unheard. And I try to carry old stories forward so they can still speak to us today. This blog is where I take that wall down.
A Life in Words
I have been writing for as long as I can remember, and still have my old spiral bound notebooks shoved into a box from those young, preteen and teenage years where I was finding the comfort and rhythm of the written word. It saved me in ways I didn’t appreciate then, but I do now. I founded Literally Literary more than a decade ago with a simple belief: good writing comes from everywhere, and too many voices go unheard. Today the publication reaches more than 28,000 readers with poetry, fiction, essays, and nonfiction from writers around the world. After a five-year hiatus, I came back in 2023 to rebuild it from the ground up. Now we publish weekly, send a monthly newsletter, and print a quarterly journal.
Editing has taught me that every piece of writing is an act of trust. When a writer sends me their work, they're handing over something tender. My job is to honor that, helping them say what they meant more clearly without sanding away what makes it theirs.
My own writing lives alongside that work. I co-authored From the Start: Literally Literary Anthology, Volume 1, which gathers the best of our first decade. My poetry collection, Wild & Sacred: Poems of Earth and Spirit, is the most personal thing I've published. It's where the forest, the faith of my childhood, and the old gods all show up in the same breath. Right now, I'm writing a children's chapter book about the saints and the folklore that grew up around them.
The Old Ways
I grew up Roman Catholic, and that tradition still shapes how I see the world. My studies in European history and cultural anthropology, through my BA at The University of Akron and my MA at Eastern University, led me back to it with new eyes. If there is ever one piece of advice I give people, it is to study religions, and this will help find love, kindness, and compassion for our brothers and sisters in humanity. The Catholic mystic tradition is full of animist roots: holy wells, sacred trees, saints who talk to wolves and birds. In its own quiet way, the Church kept an older way of seeing alive. I find that endlessly fascinating, and I'll be writing about it here often.
That thread runs through my family, too. My father's side is Croatian/Yugoslavian Donau Schwaben, and my mother's is Scots-Irish. Their stories and customs are part of why I feel so at home in the Alpine and Slavic traditions I now help keep alive as Ohio Fellowship Leader for The Fellowship of Northern Traditions.
I am proud to be part of The Fellowship of Northern Traditions as a Fellowship Leader, helping people rediscover their roots and place among the old, indigenous beliefs of their European ancestors. Since 2021, I've studied and been a part of a wonderful pack, Spirit of Wolf Shamanism under Shaman Morsuk Kam. I was initiated in Austria in 2023 and received the name Unura Kam. Before that came years of yoga and meditation training, folk herbalism, and martial arts. Each path taught me the same lesson: we have to meet our own darkest parts and become whole before we can truly help anyone else.
What You'll Find Here
This blog will wander a bit, the way a good forest path does. Here's some of what I have planned:
Writing and editing: craft notes, submission advice, and what I've learned from years of reading slush piles
Poetry: new work, and the stories behind poems in Wild & Sacred
Saints, folklore, and history: the animist threads hidden in Christian tradition, and the old customs of Europe
Practice: reflections on shamanism, the seasons, herbs, and the work of becoming whole
Behind the scenes: life as a writer, editor, mother, and wife who would rather be in the woods
Mostly, I hope this becomes a place of real community, the kind I've spent my life trying to build both on the page and in sacred space. Leave a comment, tell me what you're reading, or write to me at jess.aayla.kaisk@gmail.com. I'd love to hear from fellow writers, readers, and seekers alike.
The kettle's on. I'm so glad you're here.
Carrying old stories forward, Jess x
