Jeremy Jackson

Upcoming reading at Writers' Workshop

2011-10-26T11:21:00.000-05:00

Hi, folks. Just a note to alert everyone that I'm giving a reading, alongside fellow fiction writer Benjamin Percy, on Thursday, November 3, at 8 p.m. The reading will be in the Frank Conroy Reading room in the Writers' Workshop Dey House on the University of Iowa campus. (The Dey House is at the northern end of Clinton Street.) Hope to see you there.

September 9th Reading @ Grinnell

2010-08-03T20:37:00.003-05:00

I'm giving a reading on September 9, 2010 at Grinnell College, 8:00 p.m. in the Rosenfeld Center, room 101.

New book deal

2010-05-13T10:28:00.005-05:00

Great news! My eighth book, titled, I Will Not Leave You Comfortless, will be published by Milkweed Editions. It will probably come out in the fall of 2012.

The book follows me and my family members through a rough year in the early 1980s. It's probably most comparable to my first novel, Life at These Speeds, but minus the dark humor. It's a tribute to a lost time and lost family members, and a meditation on the aching beauty of childhood.

Update-o-gram

2009-03-31T11:01:00.004-05:00

Well, loyal readers, I'm happy to announce that I've finished a new book—a literary memoir—and that publishers are reading it at this very moment. With a little luck, it will be on sale in 2010. In the meantime, my out of print novel In Summer is now available in Amazon's Kindle format. (If you don't have a Kindle, you can also read the book on your iPhone or iPod touch with the Kindle app.)

Cheers, y'all!

Cornbread Extra: Two New Recipes

2008-05-30T08:59:00.009-05:00

OK, cornbread fans, here are two recipes I developed for a Japanese magazine a couple of years ago when The Cornbread Book was published in Japan. The Japanese edition of the book, by the way, is gorgeous, with full color photos (although, to be honest, I can't identify the recipes in all the photos...). If there's ever an updated edition of The Cornbread Book published in the US, I'll add these recipes, but in the meantime, here they be.

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Cheesy Corn Puffs

These munchy little appetizers are addictive and easy to make. Technically, they’re a steam-leavened bread—steam is what makes them puff up, not the usual leavenings like baking powder or yeast. Feel free to experiment with different cheese in these—whatever grateable melting-type cheese is handy or yummy-sounding. You can also add fresh herbs along with the cheese if you wish.

Makes about 50 small puffs

4 tablespoons (1/2 stick) unsalted butter
1/2 teaspoon salt
Freshly ground black pepper
2/3 cup cornmeal
2 large eggs
2/3 cup grated cheese, such as cheddar, monterey jack, fontina, etc.

Preheat your oven to 375F. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper.

In a medium pan, combine the butter, salt, pepper, and 2/3 cup water. Bring to a boil, then stir until the butter is melted (if it isn’t already). Off the heat, add the cornmeal and stir vigorously until the mixture is smooth and starts to clump together.

Put the pan on low heat and stir until a dry film begins to form on the bottom of the pan, about a minute. Remove the pan from the heat and let it cool for a few minutes.

Stir in one egg until it the mixture is smooth, then repeat with the second egg. Stir in the cheese.

With the help of a spoon, place small mounds of the batter—about 3 cm in diameter—onto the baking sheets.

Bake the puffs until they’re dry and lightly browned on the bottoms, about 20 minutes. They’re best served within an hour of baking, but can be reheated the next day in a 325F oven, just until hot.

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Berry Cornbread Muffins

These homey, corny, and not-too-sweet breakfast muffins are a great showcase for whatever berries are in season at the moment. I especially like making these with raspberries, but all kinds of other small berries work equally well. The butter adds flavor, and the oil add tenderness.

Makes 12 muffins

1 cup cornmeal
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup sugar, plus more for sprinkling on top
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup milk
4 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
4 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 large egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
6 ounces fresh berries, such as raspberries or blueberries

Preheat your oven to 375F. Coat 12 muffin cups with butter or cooking spray, or line them with paper liners.

Sift together the cornmeal, flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt. In another bowl, whisk together the milk, butter, oil, egg, and vanilla extract. Stir the wet ingredients into the dry, just until everything is combined but there are still small lumps of dry ingredients visible. Gently fold in the berries.

Divide the batter among the 12 muffin cups and sprinkle sugar on top of each muffin, if desired. Bake the muffins for 16 to 20 minutes, until set and lightly browned at the edges. Turn the muffins out of the muffin cups and let them cool slightly before serving.

The Story Behind Life at These Speeds

2008-05-21T08:45:00.004-05:00

Of all my books, my first novel, Life at These Speeds, remains a favorite of many people. In many ways, it is my favorite, too, though I love all of my books.

In December of 1994, I was a senior at Vassar College, and one night I was studying in the library when quite suddenly, from nowhere, I heard this voice (not literally) say "Straight off, I'll tell you that all the people in this story are real living people except that most of them are dead." In that instant, I also understood that it was a cocky teenage boy speaking and that the bus carrying his track team had had an accident, killing everyone aboard.

The voice was so clear, so direct, and so ready to tell his story, that I left the library immediately, walking quickly home to my apartment. I stared at the sidewalk as I went, afraid that if I looked around I would be distracted and lose my sense of this character who was speaking to me. At home I sat down and wrote a short story describing the night of the bus accident. I named the character Kevin Schuler. I named the story "It Didn't Bother Me".

It was the best story I'd ever written. People responded very positively to it, and I began to think that perhaps there was a larger story to be told. Some readers wanted to know what happened after the accident, and I realized that that was what a novel could explore. I'd never written a whole novel, but I made a few attempts, in the spring of 1995, to write some chapters and ideas.

Between the fall of 1995 and spring of 1997 I was in the University of Iowa Writers' Workshop. I used my time there to write many different kinds of short stories. Short stories are ideal for the workshop format, and short stories gave me the chance to explore many different kinds of writing. But all the time I was writing stories, I knew that I wanted to return to my "It Didn't Bother Me" novel project, and as soon as I finished my MFA thesis in the spring of 1995, I started work on the novel. I was excited about it, and ready.

I wrote an entire first draft of the novel between May and December 1995. During that time, I lived on my parents' farm in mid-Missouri--the place I had grown up, and the setting of the novel. Being home again after six years of being away at school was a rich experience in remembering the details of the place, but also a bittersweet reminder that time had passed, people had changed, childhood was gone, and adulthood was rather strange. In part, I felt that my novel was a way for me to say goodbye to the Missouri of my childhood, and the classmates that I had spent thirteen years with in the public school in Russellville. Though I didn't model any of my characters directly on real people, there were certainly bits and pieces of real people that made their way into the book.

While I wrote the novel, the working title was The Tracker. I know, not a great title. I wrote six days a week, two or three hours each morning. When I finished around noon, I would walk the perimeter of our farm, which took about half an hour and helped me clear my mind. I thoroughly enjoyed writing about Kevin Schuler. His voice was strong and steady, and I sympathized with him, liked him, and trusted him. He was kind, smart, and interesting, but also troubled, difficult, and sometimes annoying. Still, I found myself thinking of him throughout the day. Sometimes I would wake up thinking of him. Sometimes I experienced physical symptoms that mirrored his.

In general, I didn't really know what was going to happen in the story until I wrote it. The writing of the novel was a "process of discovery" as my teacher Frank Conroy would have said. I knew where the novel started (with the chapter that had been the story "It Didn't Bother Me") and I had a vision of where it ended (with Kevin literally walking away from the track), but the writing process involved building a bridge between those two points.

When I was finally done with the first draft, I was kind of sad. I still wanted to be writing about Kevin. I wanted to write him letters that started "Dear Kevin, I wish I were still writing about you..."

I edited and polished the manuscript in 1998, and then I put it away for a while. I taught writing at Vassar between 1998 and 2000, and during that time I finally showed it to a literary agent, David Dunton, and after working with him to improve the manuscript, he sent it out to publishers. More than twenty publishers turned it down, which seriously made me question the quality of the book. In fact, I was preparing to do a complete overhaul of the whole book when an editor named Carin Siegfried, at Thomas Dunne Books/St. Martin's Press, bought the book in the spring of 2001.

Carin helped me improve the book even further, and she helped me discover the title Life at These Speeds. And in the summer of 2002 the book was published. Though the publicity and marketing was minimal, the book was picked for Barnes and Noble's "Discover Great New Writers" series, and got a smattering of nice reviews, including a glowing one in the Boston Globe, and generally sold slowly but steadily, largely by word of mouth. Runners and teens both discovered the book. In 2003 Picador put out a lovely paperback edition, which is still--six years after initial publication--in print.

No, I certainly didn't get rich or famous off of Life at These Speeds--not that those are my measures of success--but it is a book I'm proud of, warts and all, and I will never forget the engrossing and somewhat magical writing process that created it.