Pulitzer Prize-Winning Author

Mitchell S. Jackson

author of

Fly, Survival Math, and The Residue Years

in conversation with series host

Michael N. McGregor

author of The Last Grand Tour

& An Island to Myself: The Place of Solitude in an Active Life

6:00 p.m., Thursday, March 12

Cascadia Art Museum, 190 Sunset Ave, Edmonds, WA 98020

(To order tickets through the Cascadia website, click here)

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 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 the author of Fly: The Big Book of Basketball Fashion, described by the New York Times, as “a coffee-table book that elevates the subject to the same decorative status as a Dior or Gucci monograph.”

Jackson’s other honors include fellowships, grants, and awards from the John Simon Guggenheim Foundation, Creative Capital, the Cullman Center of the NYPL, the Lannan Foundation, PEN, and TED. His writing has been featured on the cover of the New York Times Magazine, the New York Times Book Review, Time, Esquire, and Men’s Health, as well as in The New Yorker, Harpers, Harper’s Bazaar, The Paris Review, The Guardian, and elsewhere. Jackson is a contributing writer for the New York Times Magazine and a columnist for Esquire. He holds the John O. Whiteman Dean’s Distinguished Professorship in the English Department of Arizona State University. 

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.

Jackson was born in Portland, Oregon, and raised by a single mother. When he was a young man, he was arrested on drug charges and sent to prison, where he took an interest in literature and began experimenting with autobiographical writing. Following his release, he enrolled at Portland State University, where he took his first classes in journalism and creative nonfiction . He went on to earn a Master of Arts in Writing from Portland State and then a Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing from New York University.

Click here to read Jackson’s answers for our Three Questions and a Quote feature.

For more about Jackson and his work, go to: mitchellsjackson.com.

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Purchase Mitchell S. Jackson’s books online at the Edmonds Bookshop.

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About the Cascadia Writers-in-Conversation Series

On the second Thursday of each month, host Michael N. McGregor brings one Northwest writer in front of an enthusiastic audience for a brief reading, a discussion of the author’s work, and a question-and-answer session with engaged literature lovers.

The series showcases the wealth of writing talent in the Pacific Northwest by featuring writers from different genres at different stages of their careers who may have been overlooked rather than those readers already know.

Writers who appear in the series are also featured on WritingtheNorthwest.com.

The series offers a unique chance to hear talented writers speak in-depth about what it means to be an author in the Northwest and why and how they create their works of fiction, nonfiction, and poetry. The conversations take place in one of Cascadia’s beautiful galleries, with Northwest art lining the walls.

Cascadia Art Museum is the only museum dedicated to artists and their works from the Pacific Northwest. Focused on visual art and design from 1860 to 1970, it is committed to the belief that recognizing previously neglected artists who made significant contributions to the region’s cultural identity gives us a fuller and more comprehensive understanding of Northwest art history. The Writers-in-Conversation series signals the museum’s desire to highlight underappreciated Northwest artists in literature as well. The series is co-sponsored by the Edmonds Bookshop.

Michael N. McGregor is Seattle-based author whose book Pure Act: The Uncommon Life of Robert Lax was a finalist for a Washington State Book Award. After living his early life in Seattle, he spent 17 years as an award-winning professor of creative writing at Portland State University, where he helped found the MFA in Creative Writing program. A former member of the Advisory Committee for the Oregon Book Awards and Fellowships, he holds a BA in Journalism from the University of Oregon and an MFA in Creative Writing from Columbia University in New York. His first novel, The Last Grand Tour, and his first memoir, An Island to Myself: The Place of Solitude in an Active Life, were published in 2025.

Note: I’m an affiliate of Bookshop.org, where your purchases support local bookstores. If you buy a book through a click on this website, I’ll earn a small commission that helps defray the costs of maintaining WritingtheNorthwest.com.