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Between, Georgia

by Joshilyn Jackson (Goodreads Author)

3.84 of 5 stars 3.84 · rating details · 6,286 ratings · 750 reviews

Nonny Frett understands the meaning of the phrase "in
between a rock and a hard place" better than any woman
alive. She's got two mothers, "one deaf-blind and the
other four baby steps from flat crazy." She's got two
men: a husband who's easing out the back door; and a
best friend, who's laying siege to her heart in her front
yard. And she has two families: the Fretts, who stole...more

Paperback, 295 pages

Published May 2nd 2007 by Grand Central Publishing (first published January 1st 2006)

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Lists with This Book

The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd

Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood by Rebecca Wells

Quirky Southern Fiction

15th out of 323 books — 537 voters

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain

Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe by Fannie Flagg

Best Southern Literature

87th out of 604 books — 1,429 voters

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Community Reviews

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Mar 24, 2008 Tish rated it 2 of 5 stars

I lived in the small-town South for 15 years. I may not have been born and bred there - but, hey, I've read the Southern Belle Primer; I can use "y'all" properly in a sentence; I like my tea sweet & my steak chicken fried. That said, I do get so tired of the whole "crazy folks" thing with Southern characters. Must everyone be sooo dang quirky? Really. I've met a few "characters" in my time, but the South is not populated entirely with whack-a-do weirdos. In fact, most of us are normal, well-...more

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Jun 02, 2008 Jeansue Libkind rated it 4 of 5 stars

Jackson says in the first sentence in the book that Between is a real place but she’s never been there. I have. I drove through it regularly in the early 1980s on Route 78 going from Athens to Atlanta. I would always exclaim, “Here we are, in Between.” My teenage son would moan and began to chide me when the town sign came into view, “Don’t say it, Mom.” I saw a row of unpainted houses, their porches complete with sloping roofs and old sofas alongside one side of the highway. Apparently there ar...more

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May 12, 2011 Christi rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2008-reads

just didn't ever love this book
it was decent but I wish it focused more on Stacia, her talents, her art, her abilitites
instead we got the story told from the point of view of her daughter

I thought the book was leading up to an ending with tragedy that would hammer home to Nonnie what her mother was trying to teacher her: making a decision/taking charge of your life and having something happen to create an outcome for you are not the same thing.

I think the book could have been infinitely better i...more

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Mar 20, 2008 Ptreick rated it 2 of 5 stars

I read "Gods in Alabama" last fall and found this book to be way too similar. Jackson's characters are cut from the same cookie-cutter pattern? The overbearing female figure, the passive/agressive narrator, the too-good-to-be-true boyfriend that the narrator takes forever to discover. I just don't understand the weak Southern woman she perpetuates in her books... women who sit around not taking action (which is, in itself, taking an action)...

3 likes · like · see review

Apr 05, 2009 Debby rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Recommended to Debby by: sheryl

Shelves: 5-star-books

Boy am I glad a GR friend (Thanks Sheryl) recommended this author on her profile. Between, Georgia on CD was narrated by the sutor which made the book even more enjoyable. Wonderful characters, very engaging story. I couldn't put it down. I've already reserved her other books from the library.
If you like reading Maeve Binchy, Elizabeth Berg, or Lee Smith to name a few, I think you'd like reading Joshilyn Jackson too. I highly recommend Between, Georgia. I'll be starting her 1st book, Gods in Al...more

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Jul 03, 2008 B. rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: a Georgia native ~ or just about anyone that enjoys being amused

Recommended to B. by: Treehugger

I found myself laughing out loud when I read this! Every chapter was a new "chunk" of drama in Between, Georgia. I love books that are set in the South, especially Georgia since I was born, raised and still live in Georgia.

Nonny seemed to always be in a pickle and I was always rooting her on.

~~~***SPOILER***~~~

I found myself wanting to slap Nonny silly over her interactions with Jonno. And I definately wanted to choke the life out of Bernese. And I certainly couldn't help but keep my fingers c...more

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Jan 09, 2013 Alice rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Recommended to Alice by: Jessie

This is one of those books I found myself enjoying despite the fact that I could never quite pinpoint what I was enjoying about it. I think it may be the characters (they're all so easy to get fond of, in one way or another), and although I'm not left feeling like, "That was a great book!", I'm still glad I read it.

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Nov 02, 2007 Mandy rated it 3 of 5 stars

OK, so it's not great literature, but it kept me reading. (I also had mistakenly checked out the large print edition from the local library. Eek!) I just enjoyed this story and wanted Nonny to get her act together and make the right decisions. And sometimes the Frett clan (and their antagonists) seemed so cartoonish. I wanted to scream that these things, this vendetta, wouldn't occur in today's America. Then I thought about my home town and stories I'd seen on the news and realized that whenever...more

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Dec 08, 2008 Mistyleedrury rated it 5 of 5 stars

I love novels set in the South, and this was no disappointment. It is rich with Southern character and anyone who has lived in and loved the South will find very familiar folks in Between, Georgia. The book follows Nonny Jane Frett and her life that is torn between two feuding families as she tries to keep everyone happy - while getting her own life in check. An easy, fun read.

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Sep 04, 2012 Mary Pessaran rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: favorites

There's story. There's characters. And then, there's writing. It is easy to give this book fire stars because Joshilyn Jackson does all three with finesse. I like the honesty of the characters. They knew who they were and made no apologies for their shortcomings. Most didn't even know they had shortcomings. Nonny, the stolen granddaughter, could easily have felt torn between two families, but her loyalties were clear, strengthening her motivations for actions. The conflicts are old, with added n...more

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Mar 16, 2012 Elizabeth rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: southern, fiction

My favorite of Joshilyn Jackson's books thus far. Probably b/c it was the first I read (2nd published) but there is just something extra special about this one to me... the definition of what family truly is (and isn't) and the use of language, modes of communication... especially w/n families... reminded me very much of Kate Atkinson and Behind the Scenes at the Museum.

Something about the South has always appealed to me so I think I was drawn in by the title when I saw it at the library [sorry...more

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Jan 14, 2012 Michelle rated it 4 of 5 stars

This is the 2nd Joshilyn Jackson book I've read, and I love her writing, although I don't think I'd ever want to live in the small Southern towns (in America) that she describes. This is a story of an epic feud between two families, bound together by the small town they live in and by Nonny, the adopted daughter. There is a terrible sense of foreboding in this book, which hints continually at the climax and the fearful outcome - I found it hard to put down, but hard to read, so worried was I abo...more

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Jun 27, 2010 Jael rated it 4 of 5 stars

I don’t know about everyone else, but if I like one book by a certain author I’m certain to go back for more. At the end of God’s in Alabama there’s a teaser to Joshilyn Jackson’s second novel Between, Georgia. Ms. Jackson got me again.

Nonny Frett came into the world amid turmoil. Her birth mother Hazel Crabtree literally gave her up to the Frett family after giving birth in their living room. Ever since she has been caught between two dueling families. The Fretts and the seemingly crazy Crabtr...more I don’t know about everyone else, but if I like one book by a certain author I’m certain to go back for more. At the end of God’s in Alabama there’s a teaser to Joshilyn Jackson’s second novel Between, Georgia. Ms. Jackson got me again.

Nonny Frett came into the world amid turmoil. Her birth mother Hazel Crabtree literally gave her up to the Frett family after giving birth in their living room. Ever since she has been caught between two dueling families. The Fretts and the seemingly crazy Crabtrees control the small town of Between, Georgia.

Nonny Frett is raised by her mother Stacia, who is deaf and blind, and her aunt Genny, who is teetering on the edge of insanity. When the granddame of the Crabtree family, the crazy alcoholic Ona, finds out she has a granddaughter there is no peace between the two families. Nonny visits Ona as a young child, but the kibosh is quickly put on that. Ever since Nonny’s aunt Bernese, the head of the Frett family, and Ona trade deadly looks in town. At a moment’s notice Ona can call on her crazy relatives to terrorize the Frett family or better yet sic her dog “The Bitch” (that’s not me using colorful language that is how the dog is referred to in the book!) on Genny.

The first chance she gets, Nonny uses her college degree to get out of town. It leads to a career as a sign language interpreter. A failed marriage to the complicated Jonno follows. But if you can’t guess already the turmoil between the two families constantly draws her back home. Everything soon comes to a head for Nonny. Her impending divorce and a family crisis cause Nonny to finally decide what she wants in life.

If you haven’t noticed I tend to like books that involve some kind of family strife. I’ve got no answers on that. I can relate more to family matters than the latest sci-fi novel, which I will read some day. The subject matter of Between, Georgia might sound overly dramatic, serious, but Jackson does it with spot-on humor. She explores what it truly means have family and a sense of belonging. Check it out! (less)

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Dec 08, 2009 Julie rated it 4 of 5 stars

I think someone recommended this book to me ages ago because it was about a woman (with a deaf-blind mom) who was an interpreter. Not that the book is only about that - no way - more layers than a wedding cake, people! But, seriously, there's not too many novels about deaf-blind people, CODAs (Children of Deaf Adults) or interpreters out there, so I gave it a try. Oh, also, my husband said it was awesome, and I like him.

Very cool (and fairly accurate) portrayal of the family dynamics when there'...more

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Aug 25, 2009 Olga rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2009, novels, south

I loved the way this book started and I was very disappointed by how it ended. It started with a beautiful and hilarious first chapter, written so well that I even read it outloud to my partner.

The characterizations started out beautiful: Nonny who is an archaeologist (digging in the past for her family story -- this line ended up not being developed at all) and an interpreter from and to American Sign Language, and a bridge, and someone who got caught in between, or in Between, GA. In between...more

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Nov 17, 2009 Allison rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: fiction

I have been to the actual town of Between, Georgia, and it might be a more interesting place to visit if it was anything like Jackson's imagination. Still, her depiction of small-town life could be anywhere, and the only local color I picked up on was the band scene in Athens-- barely.

Between made for a good title, though. The characters are a hoot, and I got completely caught up in Nonny's stuck-in-the-middle dilemmna. I also appreciated the way she interpreted ASL conversations for the reader....more

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Jan 23, 2009 Linda rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I loved this story! I listened to the audio cds on a recent trip. I don't know how much the audio departs from the written version of the book but I highly recommend the cds. There are 8 cds so it's probably about 8 hours of listening time.

Listening to the cds gives a taste of the rich southern accents of Joshilyn Jackson's various charactors. She gives one of her charactors a voice exactly like 'Mama' on the TV show, 'Mama's Family'. Too funny.

I don't usually write book reviews. I feel like I'm...more

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Feb 16, 2011 Snotchocheez rated it 2 of 5 stars

As I was looking over the shoulder of my librarian friend putting away this book, I asked her what she was shelving, and she answered "Joshilyn Jackson! What, you've never heard of her? Man, you gotta read "Gods in Alabama"!" whereupon we found it had already been checked out...she said "Read this one, it's better than "Gods in Alabama" anyway". And so went my invitation to a party I evidently had heretofore never been invited (and, probably, never was invited to begin with).

"Between, Georgia" j...more As I was looking over the shoulder of my librarian friend putting away this book, I asked her what she was shelving, and she answered "Joshilyn Jackson! What, you've never heard of her? Man, you gotta read "Gods in Alabama"!" whereupon we found it had already been checked out...she said "Read this one, it's better than "Gods in Alabama" anyway". And so went my invitation to a party I evidently had heretofore never been invited (and, probably, never was invited to begin with).

"Between, Georgia" just screams out "SOUTHERN U.S. CHICK LIT" on nearly every page, a genre that pretty much begins and ends with Fannie Flagg, at least from my limited viewpoint. With the few poorly fleshed-out male characters surrounded by a cavalcade of quirky damaged females, and with a really limp, uncompelling, humorless plot line and snoozy romantic sub-plot, I knew almost at once I really shouldn't be reading this. Much to Ms. Jackson's fans' chagrin, however, I did, and I'm giving this clunker a two-star review (barely earned, only because it kept me reading to the end, and it wasn't howlingly bad, but it sure isn't worth the 3.77-star Goodreads cume rating: another reason why I felt I shouldn't be reading this).

I keep thinking that maybe since I've been of late reading some amazing Southern works that that was the reason why I just didn't appreciate this book. That might be the case, but I still think the real reason it just didn't cut it for me was the female-centric point of view that seemed to totally exclude the male reader (well, this male reader, anyway).

Ugh...the plot: two families (the icky, white trash Crabtrees and the kinda icky, kinda quirky, mostly sanctimonious Fretts) live in dinky Between, Georgia. And, for whatever reason, they hate each other. The protagonist, Nonny, is a Crabtree by birth (hatched by a 15-year old white trash Crabtree) and is adopted by Stacia Frett, who is blind and deaf and suffers from something called Usher's Disease (never really explained). Stacia and twin sister (and quirkly neurotic, three-steps-from-crazy) Genny adopt and raise the betweenling (in Between, Georgia, wow! what a coincidence!) Fast forward to the present: Nonny Frett (nee Crabtree) is a student at UGA, a professional sign language interpreter who is going to get a divorce (much to the dismay of her puritanical Baptist aunt Bernese)...but she's got even bigger drama to deal with...because her two families (her adopted one and her blood one) are angry at each other because of an incident with some dogs...things escalate out of control in a cascade of wacky southern drama. (Gasp!) Blah blah blah zzzzzzzzzz. A buncha corn pone hoo-ha ensues...and pretty much slams the door on any possibility of my trying to slog through "Gods in Alabama" (if this moribund drama is any indicator of what I'm to expect with that, Ms. Jackson's first book).(less)

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Sep 04, 2010 Patricia rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. The book's main character, Nonny Frett, makes her living as an interpreter for deaf students and others. Her adoptive mother, Stacia Frett, had been born deaf, so Nonny learned how to communicate with her using American Sign Language. Nonny is from a small town called Between, Georgia, which has a population of 90. Hazel Crabtree, Nonny's birth mother, was only sixteen and unmarried when she got pregnant. Through an odd set of circumstances, Stacia Frett was present at Nonny's birth and decided...more The book's main character, Nonny Frett, makes her living as an interpreter for deaf students and others. Her adoptive mother, Stacia Frett, had been born deaf, so Nonny learned how to communicate with her using American Sign Language. Nonny is from a small town called Between, Georgia, which has a population of 90. Hazel Crabtree, Nonny's birth mother, was only sixteen and unmarried when she got pregnant. Through an odd set of circumstances, Stacia Frett was present at Nonny's birth and decided that she wanted to keep the baby, which was fine with Hazel. Hazel had hidden her pregnancy from her own mother, Ona, who did not even know that she had a grandchild until Nonny was several years old.

The Frett and Crabtree families had a long-standing feud and Nonny's adoption by a member of the Frett family only increased the animosity between them. When the novel opens, Nonny is about to divorce her husband, Jonno, a musician who has been unfaithful to her. She is still physically attracted to Jonno anyway and seems to be unsure whether to proceed with the divorce.

When a vicious dog attacks Genny Frett, Stacia's twin sister, Nonny rushes home from Athens, Georgia, to help her family during the crisis. Genny has a nervous disorder and is severely injured when the dog attacks her. Stacia, who was with her during the attack, is hurt during a fall. Stacia went blind gradually as an adult and needs her sister Genny to communicate with others. Bernese, the oldest Frett sister, is strong-willed and decides to avenge her sisters after the dog attack. The dog belongs to Ona Crabtree, so animosity between the Frett and Crabtree escalates to the point of violence.

I tried to like this book, but the plot didn't really seem to get moving until the second half. I really enjoyed Joshilyn Jackson's novel, The Girl Who Stopped Swimming, and that was the reason that I started reading this one. There are plenty of quirky characters in Between, Georgia, but sometimes the story seemed far-fetched. Can't say it wasn't original. You will learn a lot about American Sign Language and the ways that deaf people communicate. (less)

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Jul 20, 2010 Beth rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: read-in-2010

This is the first time I have read a book by Joshilyn Jackson. I love Southern Fiction and with all the great reviews on Backseat Saints, Joshilyn Jackson's newest book, I decided I needed to give her books a try. I am so glad I did! Right off the bat the first chapter had me cracking up. I could feel the chaos in the room as Hazel Crabtree, Nonny's birth mother, was giving birth on the Frett's floor. All of the characters in this book were quirky and flawed! The feud between the Fretts and the...more

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Apr 23, 2012 Mia Vega rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

When I first pick up the book "Between, Georgia" by Joshilyn Jackson I was not sure if I would like it. The description on the inside cover was a little different than the book itself. I was actually surprised by the way that he author decided to play the story out. The story to me was real. It had real life problems that most people can relate to. The book had me guessing on what was going to happen next and that made it more enjoyable. The only thing that I did not like was that when a proble...more

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Jan 20, 2010 Rosina Lippi rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction, reviewed-here

Like the author's first novel, the primary focus of Between, Georgia is the narrator's relationship with her female relatives and the greater context of the tiny Georgia town where they all live in anything but peace. The narrator is Nonny, thirty years old, on the brink of divorcing a charming but morally challenged husband. If only she could stay out of his bed. Nonny is an interesting, strong character with an engaging voice but she also has a lot of trouble making up her mind. Not because sh...more Like the author's first novel, the primary focus of Between, Georgia is the narrator's relationship with her female relatives and the greater context of the tiny Georgia town where they all live in anything but peace. The narrator is Nonny, thirty years old, on the brink of divorcing a charming but morally challenged husband. If only she could stay out of his bed. Nonny is an interesting, strong character with an engaging voice but she also has a lot of trouble making up her mind. Not because she's flighty. That role will be taken up by the priceless Amber DeClue, who at one point shouts "I've got to go iron my hair!"

Nonny's personal demons follow from her unusual history: she was born to Hazel Crabtree, the teenage unmarried daughter of the Crabtree matriarch, but adopted by Stacia Frett (also unmarried) and raised by Stacia, her twin sister Jenny and her older sister Bernese.

The Fretts have money, maintain their property meticulously, and work hard, but Nonny's adoptive mother Stacia was born deaf, and will lose her sight by age thirty. Her twin Genny has escaped this fate, but she is anxious to the point of crippling neurosis.

The Crabtrees - Nonny's birth family - are every bad thing you've ever heard about white trash, but they are also sturdy and fearless.

This novel has a lot of plot, but it's very well handled, everything braided together in an interesting and not always predictable pattern. I never lost track of the many characters, and I was interested in all of them. There is a small but very compelling romance tucked in here as well, and we watch Nonny trying to work up the resolve to end her troubled marriage and the courage to take what is being offered to her by another, far more worthy guy.

If I had any reservations about the story, which involves everything from raising butterflies to the social intracies of American Sign Language, it had to do with the incident that puts a match to the Frett-Crabtree fuse. The Crabtrees have an autoparts yard, and in the yard they have three Dobermans who have been poorly trained. Somebody does a bad job of locking a gate and one of the dogs attacks poor nervous Genny, coming just short of killing her before help arrives.

One of the Fretts retaliates by shooting the dog in question. There is a fraught negotiation between Nonny and Ona Crabtree, the grandmother who wanted to raise her and has been frustrated in her attempts to gain Nonny's love. Nonny wants Ona to give the two remaining dogs away before Genny gets out of the hospital; Ona uses this as a way to manipulate both Nonny and Bernese, her arch enemy.

There were a few logical flaws here, but not enough to ruin the story for me. In fact I have been thinking about this novel a great deal, wondering about the characters, what happens with them after the novel closes. Wondering about Stacia, who suffers a loss of objects crucially important to her, but who goes on (as Nonny points out) to live a rich life from what is left to her, something she knows how to do very well.

There's something unique about Jackson's narrative voice, and I like it.
(less)

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May 29, 2010 Justin rated it 4 of 5 stars Recommends it for: any lover of southern lit

Talk about a book full of quirky characters! Reading Between Georgia made me want to hop in my car and travel down to Georgia in search of this little town and it's cast of characters so I could slap a few of them and hug a few of them. I'd especially like to hug that moody and adorable little Fisher. There were a couple little shockers in the book, but I have to say the ending was worth it.

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Jun 10, 2008 Toni rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: chick-lit, southern-fiction

Maybe should be a three-and-a-half, but regardless I enjoyed this book alot. It's well written although the obligatory Southern characters thrown in do make it a little too quirky. I appreciated the references to Ushers Syndrome, ASL and the special challenges of signing to someone who is not only profoundly deaf, but also sightless. I especially appreciated the love between the main characters.

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Dec 06, 2012 Christie rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: ficiton

I purchased this book over three years ago for the purpose of joining a book club that never materialized. Not being one to read much "Southern" fiction, the book sat on the shelf in my library ever since. I'm so glad I decided to finally give the book a chance.
This is a quirky book, filled with bizarre characters and a storyline that elicits all kinds of emotions. The author has done such an amazing job with character and plot development, that you will be laughing one minute, dying to find out...more

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Feb 19, 2009 Indra rated it 4 of 5 stars

I'd give it 4.5 if I could...I really enjoyed this book. It could be lumped in with the whole "chick lit" thing, but I liked it much better than most of the books I've read in that category. The Southern sass and humor is a lot of fun, but what made me love this book was the whole story arc and the characters. Nonny Frett is a wonderful character that many people can relate to and like--she tries to do right and usually does, but she's also a fallible human being. The character of Fisher and Non...more

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Jul 26, 2011 Stacy rated it 3 of 5 stars

This was not my favorite one of Joshilyn Jackson's books. I enjoyed reading it, but it didn't captivate me like the others. Many of the characters just annoyed me (Genny & Bernice, for example) and I felt like the storyline didn't really go anywhere--it just dragged. The only scene that captivated me was the fire scene, but that's not until the last chapter or two of the book. Don't get me wrong, I definitely didn't dislike it, it just wasn't one of my favorites. I did like Nonny and how she...more

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Jan 14, 2008 Nancy Sheads rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Stopped reading midway through the book when I realized I didn't really care what the characters did or what happened to them. Find it hard to believe that a dog that viciously attacks two women would not have been put down or at least taken away from the owner. Once the plot stretched the limits of believability, reading further became a waste of time.

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Oct 02, 2010 Mari Anne rated it 5 of 5 stars

I have a confession to make... I am in LOVE with Joshilyn Jackson books. I picked this one up this afternoon and before I could blink I was 89 pages in! I couldn't stop until I finished it!

Jackson has a great writing style and wonderfully quirky Southern characters. This story of Nonny, from her crazy birth in the foyer of her adopted aunt's house, to the wonderfully quirky and romantic ending is pure reading joy! Jackson has a wonderfully dry and witty humor that is present in all her stories a...more

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Jul 27, 2010 Jen rated it 5 of 5 stars

Can't say enough good stuff about this author, so I will just copy & paste the same thing for each book...I don't think it's ever taken me longer than two days to finish a Joshilyn book! She weaves the most entertaining tales that have just the right mixture of happy, sad, hope, fear, normalcy, and dysfunction and nails it every single time! Thus far, they have always centered around a strong-willed female character from the South who is on some sort of personal journey that requires her to...more

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About Joshilyn Jackson

SHORT VERSION:

Jackson's latest novel, SOMEONE ELSE'S LOVE STORY, pubs on November 19, 2013!

New York Times Bestselling novelist Joshilyn Jackson is the author of six novels: gods in Alabama, Between, Georgia, The Girl Who Stopped Swimming, Backseat Saints, A Grown-Up Kind of Pretty, and most recently, SOMEONE ELSE'S LOVE STORY. Her books have been translated into a dozen languages, won SIBA’s nove...more SHORT VERSION:

Jackson's latest novel, SOMEONE ELSE'S LOVE STORY, pubs on November 19, 2013!

New York Times Bestselling novelist Joshilyn Jackson is the author of six novels: gods in Alabama, Between, Georgia, The Girl Who Stopped Swimming, Backseat Saints, A Grown-Up Kind of Pretty, and most recently, SOMEONE ELSE'S LOVE STORY. Her books have been translated into a dozen languages, won SIBA’s novel of the year, twice been a #1 Book Sense Pick, and twice 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 two Listen Up Awards from Publisher’s Weekly.

She is hard at work on a new novel expected in 2015.

She lives in Decatur, Georgia with her husband, their two children, and way too many feckless animals. She

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 in Decatur 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, and Mango, a huge yellow tom. 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)

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