(photo by Andrea Flanagan)
About
Attorney. Judge. Author. Advocate. My career has been defined by one through-line: holding authority responsibly while fighting for people whose voices too often go unheard.
I have spent decades at the intersection of law, literature, and social justice, practicing and teaching law, presiding over Denver’s first specialized protective orders court, leading clemency reform for incarcerated women who survived abuse, and founding policy and service organizations for domestic violence survivors. I co-founded Project Safeguard and served as a victim advocate on the University of Colorado’s Independent Investigation Commission reviewing its athletic department’s conduct.
My work has always extended beyond the courtroom. In 2004, a trip to Pakistan sparked my award-winning novel, My Sisters Made of Light, a finalist for the Colorado Book Award, and a fundraising campaign that helped build a shelter for women and girls in Punjab. I have published poetry, essays, and legal scholarship in outlets ranging from the Harvard Women’s Law Journal to The Missouri Review, and taught law, literature, and writing across Colorado.
Now retired from practice, I have turned toward something I had been circling for years: telling my own story. My memoir, Your Verdict: A Judge’s Reckoning with Law and Loss, forthcoming Spring 2026 from Golden Antelope Press, explores what I saw from the bench in 1990s Denver, including protest cases, domestic violence work, and public controversy. It also examines the judgments rendered far from the courthouse, including the estrangement that followed my interracial marriage, the costs of living publicly as a feminist and bisexual woman, and the unfinished reckonings within my family of origin.
Until Your Verdict arrives, you can pre-order the book at https://westsidebooks.com.
You can learn more about my writing at jacquelinestjoan.com. I also write a free weekly newsletter on the craft of memoir, Writing All the Way to the End, on Substack. If you, your book club, or your organization would like to host a reading and book signing, please feel free to message me here on LinkedIn or at jackiestjoan@earthlink.net.Jacqueline St. Joan was raised in the Washington, D.C. area and has lived in the Bay Area, California, Brooklyn, N.Y. and, for most of her life, in Denver, Colorado
Favorite meme
Poet of the Year, Ziggies Blues Club
Jackie St. Joan: Women in a Day Podcast
“Prepare to be completely inspired and taken with this episode's guest, Jacqueline St. Joan. Jackie was born with a keen awareness of the injustices of the world around her and rather than be complacent or apathetic, she has chosen to be a continuous driver of change. As a dedicated co-parent, a strong member of the Denver feminist community, an attorney then judge and as a successful writer Jackie has found a way to bring awareness and a plan to the issues she tackles from those in her own neighborhood to Pakistan.” – Portia Hensley
https://www.womeninadaypodcast.com/home/2018/8/31/jacqueline-st-joan