Mitchell S. Jackson on his Autobiographical Novel "The Residue Years"

Host Jennifer Kemp speaks with Mitchell S. Jackson about his novel The Residue Years.  In this autobiographical novel, Mitchell writes what it was to come of age in Portland in the ’90s under the shadow of crack cocaine and its familiar mayhem.

The Residue Years switches between the perspectives of a young man, Champ, and his mother, Grace. Grace is just out of a drug treatment program, trying to stay clean and get her kids back. Champ is trying to do right by his mom and younger brothers, and dreams of reclaiming the only home he and his family have ever shared. But selling crack is the only sure way he knows to achieve his dream. In this world of few options and little opportunity, where love is your strength and your weakness, this family fights for family and against what tears one apart.

Mitchell S. Jackson is a Portland, Oregon native who lives in Brooklyn, New York.  He received an M.A. in writing from Portland State University and an MFA in Creative Writing from New York University.  He has been the recipient of fellowships from Urban Artist Initiative and The Center For Fiction. A former winner of the Hurston Wright Foundation’s award for college writers, he teaches writing at New York University and is the literary editor of Dossier Journal. Jackson published the eBook collection Oversoul Stories and Essays in the summer of 2012.