The Writer’s Block: A Video Q&A with Major Jackson

“Major Jackson has the talent to free himself to become whatever kind of poet he wants,” writes George Held, of the Philadelphia Inquirer. His poetry is grounded in the sights, sounds, and communities of Philadelphia, and yet it expands beyond simple documentation to capture a raw and miraculous humanity.

Jackson is the author of four collections of poetry: HOLDING COMPANY (W.W. Norton, 2010) and HOOPS (W.W. Norton, 2006), both finalists for an NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Literature-Poetry, LEAVING SATURN (University of Georgia, 2002), winner of the 2001 Cave Canem Poetry Prize and finalist for a National Book Critics Award Circle, and ROLL DEEP (W.W. Norton, 2015). He currently serves as the poetry editor of the Harvard Review.

Jackson was Cave Canem faculty in the Spring of 2017, and read at City of Asylum as part of the annual celebration of black poetry. Amidst the bustle of pre-reading preparation, he sat down with Sampsonia Way to talk about how Philadelphia, like so many American cities, is changing, and how his own work has changed since his time there.