Joshilyn Jackson

Author profile

born

The United States

gender

female

website

http://www.joshilynjackson.com/ftk/

twitter username

joshilynjackson

genre

Literature & Fiction

About this author

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SHORT VERSION:

New York Times Bestselling novelist Joshilyn Jackson lives in Georgia with her husband, their two children, and way too many feckless animals. She is the author of five novels: gods in Alabama, Between, Georgia, The Girl Who Stopped Swimming, Backseat Saints, and A Grown-Up Kind of Pretty. Her books have been translated into a dozen languages, won SIBA’s novel of the year, twice been a #1 Book Sense Pick, and been shortlisted for the Townsend prize. A former actor, Jackson reads the audio versions of her novels; her work in this field has been nominated for the Audie Award, was selected by AudioFile Magazine for their best of the year list, and garnered a Listen Up Award from Publisher’s Weekly.

She is hard at work on a new no...more SHORT VERSION:

New York Times Bestselling novelist Joshilyn Jackson lives in Georgia with her husband, their two children, and way too many feckless animals. She is the author of five novels: gods in Alabama, Between, Georgia, The Girl Who Stopped Swimming, Backseat Saints, and A Grown-Up Kind of Pretty. Her books have been translated into a dozen languages, won SIBA’s novel of the year, twice been a #1 Book Sense Pick, and been shortlisted for the Townsend prize. A former actor, Jackson reads the audio versions of her novels; her work in this field has been nominated for the Audie Award, was selected by AudioFile Magazine for their best of the year list, and garnered a Listen Up Award from Publisher’s Weekly.

She is hard at work on a new novel titled Someone Else's Love Story, expected in 2014.

LONG VERSION:

Joshilyn Jackson was born by the sugar white beaches of Florida’s Redneck Riviera and raised by a tribe of wild fundamentalists who taught her to be virtuous and upright. Unfortunately, it didn’t take, and Ms. Jackson dropped out of college to pursue a career as an actor. She worked in regional repertoire, wrote plays, and traveled the southern third of the country with a dinner theatre troupe.

She decided both virtue and an education were worth the work, so she went back to college to study English literature, focusing on Modern and Medieval Theater. She graduated with honors from Georgia State. She fell for the hometown guy who’d been her best friend since she was a teenager and followed him north, braving Chicago’s winters to marry him. She recovered from a near-terminal case of culture shock in time to earn her MA in English from the University of Illinois at Chicago.

Jackson spent seven years in as a southern ex-pat in Illinois, working with various theatre groups as an actor and playwright and selling short fiction to literary magazines and anthologies such as Calyx and TriQuarterly. She also taught English at UIC, trying to explain the function of the gerund and why Waiting for Godot is a great play to crowds of hung-over 18 year olds. In her first year of teaching, she won the Student’s Choice Award for Best English Instructor.

Motherhood made her homesick, and in 1998 she moved back to the South to teach part time, raise kids full time, and try her hand at writing novels in her copious spare time (read: every day from 4 am ‘til the baby woke up.) She’s been a full time novelist since gods in Alabama sold at auction in 2005, but Jackson’s teaching experience and theatre background have both come in handy. She enjoys reading the audio versions of her novels, and she’s been on faculty of writing workshops all over the country and enjoys speaking at book festivals, libraries and literary events. She occasionally teaches a creative writing class, most recently at Vermont College of Fine Arts and Emory University.

She currently lives outside of Atlanta with her husband Scott and their two kids, Sam and Maisy Jane. They share space with Bagel the hound dog, Ansley the small auxiliary dog, Boggart Cat, and a twenty-three-pound, one-eyed Maine Coon cat named Franz Schubert. Their outsize aquarium has, over the years, hosted a pair of brother gerbils who turned out to be an incestuous brother-sister baby factory, tadpoles who turned out to be mosquito larvae, more tadpoles who turned out to be newt larvae, caterpillars who turned out to be verminous hairy tent worms, and an egg sack that recently hatched out several zillion cannibalizing mantises who are now living in the back garden. This crew is often supplemented by stray beasts of all stripes seeking permanent homes.(less)

280 posts
Joshilyn Jackson's Blog

Joshilyn Jackson isn't a Goodreads Author (yet), but she does have a blog, so here are some recent posts imported from her feed.

Maisy Says The B Word

Maisy on the Stairs, photographed by Erin Virginia Jackson

The Cast: The neighbors across the street have a teenager boy named Trey, and then a couple-three younger kids who are in the HERD of neighborhood children that Maisy plays with. One night, the neighbors had friends over, and the friends had two kids: Teenager Jacob, who hung out with Trey, and a younger boy, Josiah, who joined the pac... read more »

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Published on May 29, 2012 19:04 • 18 views

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Books by Joshilyn Jackson

Average rating: 3.70 · 19,327 ratings · 3,462 reviews · 6 distinct works

	Gods in Alabama 3.75 avg rating — 6,317 ratings — published 2005 — 26 editions	My rating:
	Between, Georgia 3.79 avg rating — 4,046 ratings — published 2006 — 21 editions	My rating:
	The Girl Who Stopped Swimming 3.36 avg rating — 4,087 ratings — published 2008 — 17 editions	My rating:
	Backseat Saints 3.75 avg rating — 2,719 ratings — published 2010 — 9 editions	My rating:
	A Grown-Up Kind of Pretty: A Novel 3.97 avg rating — 2,153 ratings — published 2012 — 10 editions	My rating:
	A Grown-Up Kind of Pretty [With Earbuds] 0.00 avg rating — 0 ratings — published 2012	My rating:

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Quotes by Joshilyn Jackson

“There are gods in Alabama: Jack Daniel's, high school quarterbacks, trucks, big tits, and also Jesus.”
― Joshilyn Jackson, Gods in Alabama

tags: alabama , first-sentence , opening-lines

60 people liked it

“God gave us crying so other folks could see when we needed help, and help us.”
― Joshilyn Jackson, Gods in Alabama

tags: cry , crying , god , help

22 people liked it

“I had been born and mostly raised in the South, so I ought to have been able to find a way to reach him. Southern girls are trained from birth up that the way to a man's heart is never through the front door. They may leave a basket of cookies there, and while he's busy picking them up, they're squirming in through a back window.”
― Joshilyn Jackson, Gods in Alabama

18 people liked it

See all Joshilyn Jackson's quotes »

Polls

March Book Nomination Poll. We will read the top two books.

Before I Go to Sleep by S.J. Watson

5 votes, 41.7%

Love in a Nutshell by Janet Evanovich

3 votes, 25.0%

The Flight of Gemma Hardy by Margot Livesey

2 votes, 16.7%

Zero Day by David Baldacci

1 vote, 8.3%

The Tiger's Wife by Téa Obreht

1 vote, 8.3%

The Tea Rose by Jennifer Donnelly

0 votes, 0.0%

The White Tiger by Aravind Adiga

0 votes, 0.0%

Smitten by Colleen Coble

0 votes, 0.0%

Beat the Reaper by Josh Bazell

0 votes, 0.0%

A Grown-Up Kind of Pretty by Joshilyn Jackson

0 votes, 0.0%

12 total votes

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Topics Mentioning This Author

topics	posts	views	last activity
The Next Best Boo...: OFFICIAL SPRING CHALLENGE - 2009	6462	7918	Jun 14, 2009 02:57pm
The Seasonal Read...: FALL CHALLENGE 2009 COMPLETED TASKS	4046	2551	Nov 30, 2009 09:01pm
Novel Ladies: Author Alphabet	1287	93	Dec 01, 2009 05:58am
Novel Ladies: LuLu's Reading Log 2010	26	17	Dec 26, 2009 03:17pm
GR-101: Book Appr...: Marilyn's Reading Log-2010	17	6	Jan 17, 2010 11:15am
The Ultimate Book...: Joshilyn Jackson	7	10	Jan 22, 2010 01:50pm
Cover to Cover Ch...: Your Top 5	108	456	Mar 02, 2010 11:43am
Novel Ladies: Duck, Duck, Goose....Book Style	442	73	Mar 02, 2010 02:06pm
"The BB's": Favorites Reads of '09	56	45	Mar 15, 2010 08:46am
Fiction Fair: <b> HAPPY CYBERBIRTHDAY MARISSA </b>	21	25	Mar 28, 2010 09:14am

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Joshilyn Jackson

Author profile

280 posts
Joshilyn Jackson's Blog

combine editions
Books by Joshilyn Jackson

Upcoming Events

Quotes by Joshilyn Jackson

Polls

Topics Mentioning This Author

Add NewVideos

Joshilyn's Fans (382)

Joshilyn Jackson

Author profile

280 postsJoshilyn Jackson's Blog

combine editionsBooks by Joshilyn Jackson

Upcoming Events

Quotes by Joshilyn Jackson

Polls

Topics Mentioning This Author

Add New
Videos

280 posts
Joshilyn Jackson's Blog

combine editions
Books by Joshilyn Jackson