Her Fiction
Novels, short fiction and her growing collection of “family fiction”.
Her Novels
Her first novel, My Sisters Made of Light (Press 53) was a finalist for the 2010 Colorado Book Award in Literary Fiction, and was a book of the month selection for the American Association of University Women. Through sales and donations, she raised $25,000 for the creation of a shelter for women and children in Punjab, Pakistan.
The sequel, The Shawl of Midnight, also set inside the women’s movement in South Asia, was published by Golden Antelope Press in 2022.
“The Shawl of Midnight is a remarkable work. I found myself as immediately taken with this book as I was with its predecessor My Sisters Made of Light. Its depiction of time and place, its evolution of character, are told with such convincing detail that it has the ring of truth. I literally read twenty pages thinking I had turned only one. The Shawl of Midnight is a compelling story that belongs in the annals of literature.” - Harry Maclean, Edgar Award-winning author, In Broad Daylight and The Past is Never Dead: the Trial of James Ford Seale and Mississippi's Struggle for Redemption
“Jacqueline St. Joan writes with the passion of a life-long feminist and the insight of wide experience. She brings to her story what she brought to the law, a conviction that life is full of both struggle and purpose and that grace comes to us when we have no reason to expect it.” -Dorothy Allison, Bastard Out of Carolina
“An absorbing, inherently interesting, deftly crafted novel that will have a very special appeal and resonance with women readers, The Shawl of Midnight showcases author Jacqueline St. Joan's genuine flair for originality, eloquence, and the kind of memorable narrative storytelling style that fully engages the reader's rapt attention from first page to last.” - Midwest Book Review
“St. Joan manages from the first page to draw the reader into this exquisite novel about sisterhood, coming of age and the ways women can cross generations, borders and cultures to weave from the tatters of oppression enduring fabrics of deliverance and justice.” – Susan Greene, the Colorado News Collaborative
“The Shawl of Midnight is a mesmerizing second novel from Jackie St. Joan that takes you into the frightful challenges and drama of gender crisis in Pakistan and India through the experiences of a family we know well from her breakthrough book, My Sisters Made of Light.” – Fawn Germer, author of Hard Won Wisdom and 8 other titles.
“A masterpiece, a finely embroidered story.” – Zahra D. Buttar, Ph.D., College of Southern Nevada, Departments of Political Science, Women’s Studies and Global Studies
Excerpts from Her Fiction Writing
Browse recent fiction writing below. Click on any title or category to read more.
Colorado Book Award-Literary Fiction, Finalist
My Sisters Made of Light follows three generations of a Pakistani family as they make their way through life in the political, social, and religious maze that is their motherland.
This novel pulls readers into the compelling, heartbreaking, and often terrifying world of honor crimes against women in Pakistan through the life and family history of Ujala.
Ujala decides to follow the path for which her mother has prepared her and pushes aside fears for her own safety to help other women escape from the impossible situations in which they find themselves.
Dorothy Allison, author of the critically acclaimed Bastard Out of Carolina, says, "[Jacqueline St.
Joan] brings to her story what she brought to the law, a conviction that life is full of both struggle and purpose and that grace comes to us when we have no reason to expect it.
SNEAK PREVIEW from The Shawl of Midnight.
All the women in Nafeesa's family have been imprisoned, assassinated, scarred or exiled. Yes, every single one. Is it any wonder, then, that the surviving men in her family have kept those disturbing facts from her? But now Nafeesa wants to know the truth. With the help of her beloved dying grandfather, Kulraj Singh, she receives clues to her past, and in return she pledges to bring his two daughters back to him before he dies. From Pakistan, Nafeesa travels, first to Mumbai--where she meets her lesbian activist Aunt Faisah and Faisah's partner Lia--and then to Kashmir. She's on a journey to adulthood--to learn who she is, who her people are and what she is made of. In the company of her heroic auntie, she travels the foothills of the Himalayas through a war zone, under a deadline, through snow lion country, only to question if this Baji Ulaja is truly so heroic after all. The Shawl of Midnight explores the depths of family relationships, how people change over time and distance, how we might discover through our own pressures and actions what we are made of, and where home truly is.
Finalist, F(r)iction Spring Short Story Contest, 2016
I passed the entrance to Chitral Gol, the wildlife sanctuary where snow leopards hunt horned goats. A tree sparrow and a whistling thrush sang on the holly oaks on the cliff. In a field of snow-covered rhubarb, a pair of partridges called back and forth in staccato, as if I were a wild cat they were warning other birds. Crows swarmed as one body, cawing their criticisms wildly. Who is she? What is she doing? Why is she alone? Where is her husband?