Nicole Jean Turner

Nicole Jean Turner is a hand-patched, sticker-smattered, snagged-lace-layered writer based in Worcester, Massachusetts. She writes in cursive to hide butchered spelling that might otherwise raise suspicion about her master’s degree in writing.

That sleight-of-hand humor reflects Turner’s lyrical, relatable style, often described as drawing from minimalist traditions in a post-confessional mode. Her work intersects fragmented, voice-driven burnt tongue with layered metaphor across both poetry and prose, spanning a wide range of audiences, from inspirational children’s poetry to award-winning formal verse.

Turner prefers to be described as just another one of the writers you might find in the dive bar that Worcester’s longest-running weekly poetry event, the Dirty Gerund Poetry Show, calls home. A regular reader for more than a decade, she coaches the slam team and organizes a traveling arm of the show, repackaging its late-night literary ruckus for museums, cafés, and other all-ages audiences.

Turner first emerged from the spoken word poetry scene of Syracuse, New York, in 2012 under the stage name Nic Jean. Since then, she has strung literary heartstrings from the Pacific Northwest to New England, connecting stages, pages, and workshop spaces with those drawn to subversive, DIY, community-centric work.

Turner’s unconventional style reflects her deep commitment to accessibility, favoring art that meets people where they are rather than imposing expectations. Whether working within more traditional literary spaces or mentoring emerging writers outside a dive bar, she consistently encourages others to shed their preconceived ideas of what a writer should look or sound like and to claim their own distinct voices and stage presence.