Ashaki M. Jackson is the author of two chapter-length books – Surveillance (Writ Large Press, 2016) and Language Lesson (Miel, 2016). As part of Los Angeles’s literary community, she has served in mentor and administrative capacities with WriteGirl, 826LA, and PEN America. You can read her work in Prairie Schooner, Obsidian, 7x7 LA, Midnight Breakfast, and Faultline (UCLA) among other publications. Jackson is a Cave Canem alumna who earned a MFA (creative writing) from Antioch University Los Angeles and a Ph.D. (psychology) from Claremont Graduate University.

Q&A

Q&A with Vickie Vértiz, author of Auto/Body

By ASHAKI M. JACKSON

I'm in all times at all times. I'm both in Mesoamerican times – as someone who practices Aztec dance, and has a belief system built with syncretism, and also as a professor of Chicanx Studies is like taking apart Mexican identity via Mexican nationalism, and a child of the 80s as a queer person, and someone who worked grew up working class who loves things that have existed for a long time, and who likes to reuse them.

Q&A

Q&A with Elisabeth Houston, author of Standard American English

By ASHAKI M. JACKSON

I find the process of constructing language to be necessary and brutal.

Q&A

Q&A with Ama Codjoe, Author of The Bluest Nude

By ASHAKI M. JACKSON

Suffering is non-negotiable, and I am grateful for how poem-making helps me live with and through what is painful and cherish what is joyful. With all of this in mind, I aim to craft poems that have blood in them, that give something to the reader.