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Language Lesson
In the absence of a full grief lexicon, Language Lesson is a short study of loss, mortuary rites and survivors' interpretations of these processes. The chapbook collection, is inspired by the loss of Jackson's paternal grandmother.
- GenresPoetry
32 pages
Published August 1, 2016
About the author
Ashaki M. Jackson
4 books3 followersAshaki M. Jackson, Ph.D., is a social psychologist, program evaluator and poet. She has worked with youth moving through the juvenile justice system through research, evaluation and creative arts mentoring for one decade. Her work has appeared in CURA: A Literary Magazine of Art and Action, Pluck! Journal of Affrilachian Arts and Culture and Prairie Schooner among other journals and anthologies. Writ Large Press published her chapbook, Surveillance, in March 2016, and a second chapbook, Language Lesson, was published by MIEL, August 2016. Jackson is also co-founder of Women Who Submit, a community that supports women in submitting their literary works to top tier journals. She earned her MFA (poetry) from Antioch University Los Angeles and her doctorate (social psychology) from Claremont Graduate University. She lives in Los Angeles.
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
June 20, 2017
I'll follow Ashaki Jackson anywhere.
September 10, 2021
Language Lesson is a small book of poetry about a large grief, by Ashaki M. Jackson. Got to see her read from it at Lit Crawl LA in Noho a couple of weeks ago now. Just by word count I could have knocked it out in probably an hour, but I read it slowly, a few poems at a time. It's a profound meditation on how deep grief sits in the body. Wish I'd known this back when my mom died in 2006. I wanted to write about it more. Wrote a lot of prose. Only one short three-line poem. I was trying to understand it. In my head. But most of what was happening was deeper, unavailable to conscious understanding. Ashaki's poems know this. Thanks to her book, I now know this.
September 29, 2016
Thoughtful, poignant. A full and heavy heart brought to the page in beautiful poetry.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews