Jess has a descriptive, lyric style. She loves to turn a phrase or extend a metaphor and carries influences from poets like Robert Frost or Emily Dickinson into her works. Other writing heroes include the Bronte sisters, where Jess admires the delicate gothic style, John Steinbeck who portrays the reality of the working class, and Nathaniel Hawthorne whose work has such a sense of place that reading it makes Jess nostalgic for the New England town she grew up in.
