Jennessa Hester
scholar. writer. editor.
Author Illustration by Angel Trazo
Scholarly Work
Articles & Chapters
| Forth. | "Grunty’s Garbled Grunting: Queer Vocality and the Lyrical Gibberish of Banjo-Kazooie." The Journal of Interdisciplinary Voice Studies. | |
| 2025 | "Havana’s Living Dead: Curation, Colonization, and the Erasure of an Afro-Cuban Horror Cinema." The Oxford Handbook of Black Horror Film, eds. Robin R. Means Coleman and Novotny Lawrence. Oxford UP, 169-184. | |
| “The Daddy with No Name: The Kinky Cowboy Aesthetics of The Mandalorian." Hell-Bent for Leather: Sex & Sexuality in the Weird Western, eds. Kerry Fine, Michael K. Johnson, Rebecca M. Lush, and Sara L. Spurgeon. U of Nebraska P, 3-21. | ||
| 2024 | "Ink-Stained Women: Animation Reference Performers and the Body of the Disney Princess." Animation Practice, Process & Production 13, 97–113. | |
| “No-body Like U: Disney Boy Bands from The Jim Crows to 4*TOWN.” The Cultural Legacy of Disney: A Century of Magic, eds. Robyn Muir, Emily Aguiló-Pérez, Hannah Helm, and Rebecca Rowe. Rowman & Littlefield, 89-106. | ||
| “The Little Trans Monster: Gender Actualization and Lady Gaga’s The Fame Monster.” The Adolescentia Project: Essays on Music, Adolescence, and Identity, ed. Mary Beth Ray. Palgrave Macmillan, 205-214. | ||
| "When the World Finally Sees Us: The Coming Out of the High School Musical Franchise." The Disney+ Kingdom: Essays on Nostalgia, Representation and Branding, eds. John Perlich and Dave Whitt. McFarland & Company, 88-102. | ||
| 2023 | "We Don’t Talk About Homos: Queer Activism and the Fight to Make #DisneySayGay." Global LGBTQ Activism: Social Media, Digital Technologies, and Protest Mechanisms, ed. Paromita Pain. Routledge, 163-179. | |
| "Nintendo Switch-ing Genders: Bowsette and the Potentiality of Transgender Video Game Mechanics." Visual Resources 37.4, 289-303. | ||
| 2022 | "Audio Ageplay and Sonic Spankings: The Rhetorical Work of Podcasts to Demystify Kink." Handbook of Research on Communication Strategies for Taboo Topics, ed. Geoffrey Luurs. IGI Global, 344-362. | |
| "Her Phallic Sword: Hypersexual Cyberqueer Activism on Social Media Platforms." Digital LGBTQ Cultures: A Global Perspective, ed. Paromita Pain. Routledge, 196-209. | ||
| 2021 | "The Warm Glow of a Pixelated Campfire: Queer Generosity and Community Building in the Worlds of Anna Anthropy." QED: A Journal in GLBTQ Worldmaking 8.3, 189-195. |
Interviews
| 2025 | Interview with Robyn Muir. Journal of Cinema and Media Studies, no. 64, vol. 2. |
Reviews
| 2022 | Review of Assembly Codes: The Logistics of Media, by Matthew Hockenberry, Nicole Starosielski, and Susan Zieger, editors. Duke UP, 2021. H-Sci-Med-Tech, H-Net Reviews. |
Media Appearances
| 2024 | Featured Guest, “Episode 146: Talking Taylor Swift and Disney.” Being a Fan of Disney. |
| 2022 | Featured Guest, “Episode 104: The Company of Wolves.” Chainsaw Matinee. |
Creative Work
Selected Poems
| Forth. | "wilderness survival." petrichor. |
| "willowbreath." Eyes to the Telescope. | |
| "droplets of kerosense" and "there is no feeling before estrogen." Lambda Literary Emerge Anthology. | |
| 2025 | "trogdor walks into a scout meeting." Strange Horizons. |
| "hidden little waterfall." Always Horny, Mostly Thorny: A Charity Anthology. | |
| 2024 | "the boy scout oath" and "a scout is trustworthy." Bellingham Review, no. 87. |
| "rock me to sleep, daughter" and "what i remember about barbie." Cream City Review, no. 47, vol. 2. | |
| 2023 | "I Dreamt They Cast a Trans Girl to Give Birth to the Demon." HAD. - Rhysling Award Finalist |
| "the butterfly is a symbol of gender transition." Rust + Moth, spring issue. | |
| 2022 | "CREECHER WITH THE COLD LIPS." Wrongdoing Magazine, no. 4. |
| "the boys we pray for twice at night." Kissing Dynamite, no. 44. | |
| "Womb Envy" and "what 500 tokens gets you." Corporeal Lit, no. 3. | |
| "My Kingdom Was Beautiful." Moon Cola, no. 3. |
Features
| 2025 | “A Conversation About Form, Ballads, Connections, and Passivity with Katie Hartsock.” Iron Horse Literary Review, no. 27, vol. 2. |
| “A Conversation About Generating Poems, Film, Spectatorship, Auteurs, and Aging with Laura Evers.” Iron Horse Literary Review, no. 27, vol. 1. | |
| 2023 | “Megan Mary Moore on Her Writing Space.” Iron Horse Literary Review, no. 25, vol. 2. |
| “A Conversation About Nature, Sacrament, and Embodiment with Remi Recchia.” Iron Horse Literary Review, no. 25, vol. 1. |
Honors
| 2024 | Lambda Fellow in Poetry. Lambda Literary Writers Retreat for Emerging LGBTQ Voices. Selected by Chen Chen. |
| Finalist, Prufer Poetry Prize. Pleiades Magazine. Judged by Nicky Beer. | |
| 2022 | Winner, Short Story Prize. South Central Modern Language Association. |
Editorships
| Current | |
|---|---|
| 2021 - Present | Senior Managing Editor, Iron Horse Literary Review. - Previously Managing Editor and Assistant Editor of Poetry. |
| 2022 - Present | Assistant Editor of In Focus, Journal of Cinema and Media Studies. - Previously Assistant Editor. |
| 2023 - Present | Editorial Board, International Journal of Disney Studies. |
| 2025 - Present | Reader, Texas Review Press. |
| Former | |
|---|---|
| 2023 | Poetry Editor, Wrong Publishing. |
Selected Publications
About
Jennessa Hester (she/her) is a transgender scholar, poet, and editor based in Texas. She holds an MA in English (American Literature) from the University of New Orleans and is a doctoral candidate in English (Film and Media Studies) at Texas Tech University.Jennessa specializes in Disney and Nintendo studies with particular emphasis on cultural criticism and phenomenology. Alongside Priscilla Hobbs, she is co-editing the volume Playing with Magic: Understanding Disney Games for University of Texas Press.Jennessa is a Lambda Literary fellow in poetry and has been a finalist for the Rhysling Award and Prufer Poetry Prize. Her writing has been featured in Strange Horizons, Bellingham Review, Cream City Review, HAD, and elsewhere.In addition to her own work, Jennessa serves as senior managing editor for Iron Horse Literary Review, assistant editor of In Focus for the Journal of Cinema and Media Studies, and as a member of the editorial board for the International Journal of Disney Studies.For professional inquiries: jennessa.hester@ttu.edu