JEFF JACKSON is a novelist, playwright, visual artist, and songwriter. His second novel Destroy All Monsters was published by Farrar, Straus & Giroux in Fall 2018. It received advanced praise from Don DeLillo, Janet Fitch, Dana Spiotta, Ben Marcus, and Dennis Cooper. His novella Novi Sad was published as a limited edition art book and selected for “Best of 2016” lists in Vice, Lit Reactor, and Entropy. His first novel Mira Corpora, published in 2013, was a Finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize and featured on numerous "Best of the Year" lists, including Slate, Salon, The New Statesman, and Flavorwire. His short fiction has appeared in Guernica, Vice, New York Tyrant, and The Collagist and been performed in New York and Los Angeles by New River Dramatists.
As a playwright, six of his plays have been produced by the Obie Award-winning Collapsable Giraffe company in New York City. Vine of the Dead: 11 Ritual Gestures debuted in 2016 at the Westbeth Arts Center. Dream of the Red Chamber: Performance for a Sleeping Audience, an adaptation of the epic Chinese novel, debuted in Times Square in 2014 to rave reviews. Botanica was selected by the New York Times as "one of 2012's most galvanizing theater moments."
He holds an M.F.A. from NYU and is the recipient of fellowships from the MacDowell Colony, Baryshnikov Arts Center, Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, and Hambidge Center.
Co-Founder of Destination: OUT
Popular website focusing on adventurous jazz, highlighting important and out-of-print releases. Guest posts by various critics and musicians. Lauded by The New Yorker, Wired, Playboy, The Wire, and BBC Radio.
Film and Music Curator
- Co-curator of New Frequencies, cutting-edge film, music, and literature series for the McColl Center for Art + Innovation. Featured artists included Ben Marcus, Sandra Beasley, Guy Maddin, Janie Geiser, Jem Cohen, Rob Mazurek, Stephanie Barber, Battle Trance, and Lewis Klahr. The series was awarded “Best Arts Programming” by Charlotte Magazine in 2015 and Best Arts Event of 2016.
- Founded, programmed, and organized NODA Film Festival whose eight festivals attracted over 12,000 attendees. Each festival focused on different theme, including Great Black Cinema, Asian Cinema, Animation, French New Wave. The series awarded Creative Loafing’s “Best Film Festival.”
- Programmed bi-monthly Loft/Lab concert jazz concert series in Manhattan that was positively reviewed in the New York Times and Time Out New York.
Publications and Performances
- From the Discarded Collection in THE NY TYRANT
- The Signs published in VOLUME ONE BROOKLYN.
- The Dying of the Deads published in THE COMMON.
- The Pyre published in VICE.
- Meet the Chorines published in THE COLLAGIST.
- My Year Zero published in in GUERNICA.
- Three Untitled Stories About Smoking in USERLANDS: NEW FICTION WRITING FROM THE BLOGGING UNDERGROUND. Included alongside work by Patrick DeWitt, Justin Taylor, Zac German, Mark Doten, M. Kitchell, Mark Gluth, and more. Chosen by NPR as a "Recommended Summer Read."
- The Beach and A Unified Field of Ash performed by NEW RIVER DRAMATISTS in Los Angeles and New York City, alongside works by National Book Award winner Denis Johnson and Pulitzer Prize laureate N. Scott Momaday.
- The Impossibility of Touching: Looking at The Death of Maria Malibran in STUDIES IN GENDER AND SEXUALITY
Film Professor, UNC Charlotte
Taught American Independent Films: Cinema Outside the Mainstream , a survey class that includes Maya Deren, Sam Fuller, Stan Brakhage, John Cassavetes, Jack Smith, David Lynch, Charles Burnett, Todd Haynes, and Harmony Korine.
Anthologies
- Topograph: New Writing from the Carolinas and the Landscape Beyond
Edited literary anthology which explodes stereotypes about Southern writing and charts new paths in fiction, poetry, and creative non-fiction by the region's boldest writers. Features exclusive work from Blake Butler, John Darnielle of the Mountain Goats, Scott McClanahan, Alan Michael Parker, Megan McShea, Jack Pendarvis, and many more.
- The Portable Lentricchia
Edited and wrote introductory critical essay for a compilation of the fiction by the noted literary critic and acclaimed novelist Frank Lentricchia. Presented paper at Duke University symposium on Lentricchia's work, along with Don DeLillo, Anthony DeCurtis, and others.
Arts & Culture Writing
As a freelance critic, Jeff has written book, film, music, and theater reviews and feature articles for publications including The Village Voice, MTV Online, Blender, Jazziz, The Charlotte Observer, Creative Loafing, and The Valley Advocate. He has served as Arts and Culture Editor for CV, a website that focuses on coverage of local and national arts events. He currently writes the ongoing culture column “Ideal Home Noise” for The Fanzine, which covers literature, photography, film, and music.
Visual Art Exhibitions
- Rituals in Transfigured Time exhibition consisting of 11 sculptures at Goodyear Arts in November 2016.
- “Failed Necromancy” assemblage in the Musicality show at Papercut Gallery in July 2014.
- Seven assemblages from “The Social Registry” series in Invisible Cities exhibit at Artist Space 711 in September 2012.
- “Keep Watch Over Absent Meaning” assemblage in Invitations for Displacements exhibit at the Dialect Gallery in April 2010.
Music
Songwriter and singer in the band Julian Calendar, which has released the full length album Parallel Collage and performs live shows.