Canisia Lubrin and Marcus Jackson in Conversation

Canisia Lubrin is a writer, editor, teacher, and author of three books, including The Dyzgraphxst. Her work has received a 2021 Windham-Campbell Prize, the OCM Bocas Prize for Caribbean Literature, and Griffin Poetry Prize, among others. Lubrin has held fellowships at the Banff Centre, Civitella Ranieri, Literature Colloquium, and several universities. She is an assistant professor and coordinator of the University of Guelph Creative Writing MFA in the School of English & Theatre Studies and poetry editor at McClelland & Stewart/Penguin Random House Canada. Code Noir (Knopf, 2024) is her fiction debut, containing 59 drawings by the acclaimed visual artist Torkwase Dyson.

Marcus Jackson is a poet and photographer who studied in New York University’s graduate Creative Writing Program and as a Cave Canem fellow. His poems or photographs have appeared in such publications as the American Poetry Review, the New Yorker, and the New York Times Magazine. His second book of poems, entitled Pardon My Heart (Northwestern University Press/TriQuarterly Books), was released in 2018. Of Pardon My Heart, Jeff Gordinier for the New York Times writes, “Jackson's collection confirms the arrival of a thrilling new voice in American poetry, one whose writing, on page after page, has the fullness and glow of a jubilee.” Jackson’s forthcoming photography monograph of street portraits is slated for publication in 2024. Jackson lives with his wife and child in Columbus, Ohio, and he teaches in the MFA program at Ohio State. 

• Learn more on Jackson's website.