Major Jackson was born and raised in Philadelphia, where he pursued his degree in accounting at Temple University. In the late 1990s, he joined the Dark Room Collective, an organization that gave greater visibility to emerging and established writers of color and included Thomas Sayers Ellis, John Keene, Janice Lowe, Carl Phillips, Tracy K. Smith, Sharan Strange, Natasha Trethewey, Artress Bethany White, and Kevin Young. Jackson is the author of six collections of poetry, including
Razzle Dazzle: New and Selected Poems, 2002–2022 (W. W. Norton, 2023);
The Absurd Man (W. W. Norton, 2020);
Roll Deep (W. W. Norton, 2015); and
Leaving Saturn (University of Georgia, 2002), winner of the 2001 Cave Canem Poetry Prize and a finalist for a National Book Critics Circle Award. (
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