Jessica Peterson is a printer, book artist, designer and mother. She started letterpress printing in 2003 at a workshop at the Center for Book Arts in New York and hasn’t stopped since.

Originally from Rochester, New York, she moved to Alabama in 2006 to earn an MFA from the University of Alabama's Book Arts Program. She established The Southern Letterpress in 2012 in Columbus, Mississippi, with the mission to bring letterpress printing resources and education to her local community.

From 2015 to 2024, The Southern Letterpress was based in the Ninth Ward in New Orleans, Louisiana in a building shared by Antenna's Paper Machine and provided job printing and workshops to the community in the Gulf South.

In 2024, Jessica became the director of the Common Press at University of Pennsylvania.