The Residue Years by Mitchell S. Jackson

Jackson is also at work on an accompanying documentary for The Residue Years. And the first thing Gordon Lish said to me was, ‘Jackson, you got an ear.’ Once I had him, all of the rest of it became, “ when is it going to happen.” And then the next class, I was again the only one who got to read one sentence. It was the happiest writing day in my life, to be able to read one sentence in that class. “I was the only one of 40 people that got to read one sentence. Later, he took a writing workshop at New York’s Center for Fiction with the storied literary editor and writer Gordon Lish (former editor to Raymond Carver, Barry Hannah or Amy Hempel, most notably.) As Jackson explains, aspiring writers aren’t given much leeway in the infamous editor’s class, with students frequently halted in mid-first sentence by Lish while reading their work.

program at his alma mater, Portland State–a program run by the author Diana Abu-Jaber, author of Birds of Paradise, Crescent and others books. Besides Wideman, whom Jackson met after taking a class with the author, Jackson caught his first break when he was accepted into the writing M.A. “I knew it was going to happen, I just didn’t know when,” Jackson said. Jackson’s own journey from drug dealing and prison to NYU adjunct professor and published author has been filled with an incredible cast of mentors, teachers, and supporters who encouraged Jackson’s writing and gave him the self-confidence to keep pushing. Of The Residue Years, Wideman wrote, “I was touched by characters whose lives were often as real for me as my memories of growing up.” A recent New York Times review was equally effusive: “Jackson’s prose has a spoken-word cadence, the language flying off the page with percussive energy.” Jackson’s prose has earned comparisons to Junot Diaz‘s immediate, streetwise style, and the book has received kudos from no less than John Edgar Wideman. I hope this helps someone.’ And so when she said that, I thought, I can just tell the truth now. “What really gave me the courage to tell more of our story, was when she told me, ‘it’s time for us to tell the truth.

I used to call her and read passages,” he said. “I was really worried about how she would respond to it. Jackson’s own mother gave her approval to her son to mine their family story for his novel.

The Residue Years by Mitchell S. Jackson