Mitchell S. 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 North 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.

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.