Writers-in-Conversation Series

On September 11, we are excited to welcome Mitchell S. Jackson to our Writers-in-Conversation series. Jackson is the winner of the 2021 Pulitzer Prize in Feature Writing and the 2021 National Magazine Award in Feature Writing. His autobiographical debut novel, The Residue Years, about the difficulties of life in a Black neighborhood in N. Portland, won a Whiting Award and The Ernest J. Gaines Prize for Literary Excellence. His essay collection, Survival Math: Notes on an All-American Family, about the experiences of Black males in the U.S., based on men in his own family, was named a best book of 2019 by fifteen publications.

 

Jackson is also a well-regarded speaker who has delivered lectures and keynote addresses both in the US and abroad, including the TED Conference, the Ubud Writers and Readers Festival in Bali, the Sydney Writers’ Festival; the Hegra Conference of Nobel Laureates and Friends; as well as at Yale University, Brown University, Cornell University, Columbia University, Oberlin College, UCLA, and other esteemed institutions. A formerly incarcerated person, Jackson is also a social justice advocate who, as part of his outreach, visits prisons and youth facilities in the United States and abroad.

Our interviewer Michael N. McGregor is a Seattle-based author whose book Pure Act: The Uncommon Life of Robert Lax was a finalist for a Washington State Book Award. After growing up in Seattle, he earned a BA in journalism at the University of Oregon and an MFA in creative writing at Columbia University. A former journalist and professor of creative writing, he curates the website writingthenorthwest.com. You can learn more about him and his work, including his latest book, An Island to Myself: The Place of Solitude in an Active Life, and his new novel, The Last Grand Tour, at michaelnmcgregor.com.