Joshilyn Jackson

Jackson was born in Fort Walton Beach, Florida.^[1] She graduated from Booker T. Washington High School in Pensacola, Florida, in 1986.^[1]

She attended several colleges before getting a two-year degree from Georgia Perimeter College and a BA in English literature from Georgia State University.^[1] She received an MA in creative writing from the University of Illinois Chicago in 1997.^[1]

Before starting her writing career, Jackson was an actor.^[2]

Jackson writes novels primarily in the thriller and Southern fiction genres,^[2] including A Grown-Up Kind of Pretty; Backseat Saints; The Girl Who Stopped Swimming; Between, Georgia; Gods in Alabama; Someone Else's Love Story; The Opposite of Everyone; The Almost Sisters; Never Have I Ever; Mother May I; and With My Little Eye.^[3] She has also written the novella My Own Miraculous. Jackson describes her writing style as "weirdo fiction" with a Southern Gothic influence and dark humor.^[4]

Jackson is a board member of Reforming Arts, a nonprofit organization which provides liberal arts education to women in Georgia prisons.^[5] She volunteer teaches creative writing classes at Arrendale State Prison.^[6]