Once Out of Nature. Toronto: McClelland & Stewart, 1991. ISBN0-7710-2844-X
Waterglass. Montreal: McGill-Queen's University Press, 1999. ISBN0-7735-1900-9
Palilalia. Montreal: McGill-Queen's University Press, 2008. ISBN0-7735-3383-4
Guesswork. Fredericton: Goose Lane Editions. 2011. ISBN0-86492-621-9
Slack Action. Porcupine's Quill, 2013.
Fluke Print. Porcupine's Quill, 2018.
Granted: Poems of Metaphor. Porcupine’s Quill, 2022.
Prose
Echo Soundings: Essays on Poetry and Poetics. Palimpsest Press, 2014.
Missing Link: the Evolution of Metaphor and the Metaphor of Evolution. Montreal: McGill-Queens University Press, 2015.
Viaticum: from Notebooks. Porcupine’s Quill, 2019.
Momento: On Standing in Front of Art. Gordon Hill, Spring 2023.
Anthologies
Frye and the Word: Religious Contexts in the Writings of Northrop Frye. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2004. (with Alan Mendelson)
The Essential John Reibetanz. Porcupine’s Quill, 2017.
Critical Materials
Leckie, Ross: The Resources of Poetry. Review of Waterglass. Fiddlehead 201 (Fall 1999, Newfoundland Issue): 119–124.
Ormsby, Eric: Of Deathbeds and Ventriloquists: Questions of Empathy. Review of Once Out of Nature. Essays on Canadian Writing 55 (Spring 1995): 240–247.
Messenger, Cynthia: 'Confluence and Separation': The Poetry of Jeffery Donaldson. Review of Once Out of Nature. Essays on Canadian Writing 48 (Winter 1992-93): 111-115.
Perron, Marianne: Review of Palilalia. Grasshopper Reads: A Review of Contemporary Canadian Literature. February 21, 2009. Web: November 17, 2009.
Keith, W.J. "The Spiritual Secularized: A Reading of Jeffery Donaldson's 'Museum.'" "Canadian Poetry" 65 (Fall/Winter 2009): 65-76 .
Pollock, James: "The Magic of Jeffery Donaldson." Canadian Notes and Queries 75 (Winter 08/09): 77-84.
Tregebov, Rhea: Letters in Canada 1991: Poetry. Review of Once Out of Nature. University of Toronto Quarterly 62.1 (Fall 1992): 74-76.
Sutherland, Fraser: Old, New, Borrowed, Blue. Review of Once Out of Nature. Canadian Literature 135 (Winter 1992): 177–179.
Recognition
Donaldson received the Hamilton Arts Council Award for non-fiction in 2021 for his prose Viaticum: From Notebooks, and was nominated for the Canadian Author’s Association Award for Poetry in 2008 for his poem collection Palilalia.[2] His poem collection Slack Action was also shortlisted for the Hamilton Arts Council Literary Award for Poetry.[3]