Jackson Bliss

Jackson Bliss is the winner of the 2020 Noemi Press Award in Prose and the mixed-race/hapa author of Counterfactual Love Stories & Other Experiments (Noemi Press, 2021), Amnesia of June Bugs (7.13 Books, 2022), and the speculative fiction hypertext, Dukkha, My Love (2017).  His writing has appeared in The New York Times, Tin House, Ploughshares, Guernica, Antioch Review, ZYZZYVA, Longreads, TriQuarterly, Columbia Journal, Kenyon Review, Vol. 1 Brooklyn, Witness, Fiction, Santa Monica Review, Boston Review, Juked, Quarterly West, Arts & Letters, Joyland, Huffington Post UK, The Daily Dot, and Multiethnic Literature in the US, among others.  He is the Distinguished Visiting Writer at Bowling Green State University and lives in LA with his wife and their two fashionably dressed dogs. 

Twitter: @jacksonbliss

Instagram: @JacksonBliss

Not all books are for all readers … when you start a book and you just don’t like it, how long do you read until you bail?

Man, you’re telling me! Someone is probably saying that very thing right now about one of the easter eggs in Counterfactual Love Stories, my experimental short story collection that dropped last October.  And the thing is, they have every right to. For me, though, I try to give a book at least fifty pages, and if I still don’t like it afterwards, I put it down and make a concerted effort to try it one last time. I’ve done this with Infinite Jest more times than I count and should probably give up, but I just can’t. Some of my friends peace out from books they don’t like after ten pages, but I don’t think that’s enough time to understand the rules of the text or understand that writer’s voice and style. I mean, can you imagine if people judged Cloud Atlas just from the Adam Ewing sections? I almost didn’t get through that book because I wasn’t feeling him and his voice bored me, but I’m so glad I stuck around because that novel definitely rewarded me and if I’d given up, I would never have gotten to the best parts (for me) nor would I have understood the utility of those first and last sections. Also, it takes a lot for me to abandon a book. Partially that’s because I don’t want readers to abandon my own books. I want my books to have a real chance before readers dip. Partially that’s also because I just feel bad about abandoning anything: a book, a stuffed animal, an old papasan chair. Also, it feels like a waste to buy something and not read it. Sometimes if I’m not feeling a book and I know I don’t want to finish it, I’ll cheese through it or regift it to someone else.

Is there a genre of music that influences your writing/thinking? Do you listen to music while you write?

Hell yes! While I listen to virtually every genre except mumble rap and bad country, I tend to do my best writing when I listen to dream pop (hence the name of my memoir, Dream Pop Origami), post-rock, electronic downtempo, Lo-Fi, jazz, ambient, classical, chill-out, and IDM. With the exception of dream pop, I prefer music without words when I’m writing because I have a harder time concentrating when I’m reading language, coining language, and hearing language at the same time. The lyrics will intrude in my writing sometimes in strange and comical ways. Recently, I’ve been kinda obsessed with Boards of Canada, Lana del Rey, Mogwai, Beach House, Ex:Re, Arlo Parks, Cigarettes After Sex, Fana Hughes, and the Love Life soundtrack (among many many others). When I’m in thinking mode, I can listen to all the above genres but I also enjoy singer-songwriter, hip-hop, trip-hop, and rock. Recently, I’ve been kinda obsessed with Dawn Richards, Wolf Alice, Washed Out, Run the Jewels, Cannons, Post Malone, Tegan and Sara, Jazmine Sullivan, Topaz Jones, and the new Weeknd, Japanese Breakfast, and Madlib albums. One of my fave things to do in LA is drive around the city listening to music where I can think my thoughts and watch the city moving in sync to the music in my car. Above all else, what I need is really strong melodies, tons of feels, beautiful turns of phrases, and music that hits me in the heart.

Vacation druthers … City or Rural destination? Why?

Typically, the most important thing to me for vacations isn’t deciding between town and country, but getting the hell out of the country and visiting someplace new. Before the pandemic hit, my wife and I tried to see a new city in the world once or twice a year. For one trip, we flew to Tokyo and took little day trips to Kamakura and then went Nagano with my Japanese cousin and his wife. For another, we traveled from Paris to Marseille, Aix, and Lyon during the off season staying in two-star hotels. Sometimes we’re too ambitious and other times we just like to chill in one international city the whole time. The only thing we both need is an escape from LA and an escape from the States. Every time we return, we’re both happy to be back in LA and also grateful that we could see another part of the world. I always research the history, culture, and art of that country. I try to teach myself some words and phrases of that country’s official language. I also like to research favorite places for locals so I can see that city from their perspective. And I always try to buy one dope t-shirt from that city so that every time I wear it, I think of that trip. At the end of the day, it’s not just the trip, obviously, it’s the whole experience of living in another world for a short amount of time with different rules, values, ideas, histories, cuisines, and perspectives, that really appeals to both of us.

Is there another profession you would like to try?
I know this sounds like a joke considering my age, but I’d love to figure out how to be one of the first Gen X male influencers. I mean, I live in LA, so the weather is hella photogenic! And I’ve got my own style. Maybe, this is just my covert attempt to get free shit and earn money for taking pics, which I would do even if no one paid me. But another part of me wants to show the world what being a healthy, socially conscious, active, metrosexual forty-something man looks like. The problem is, I’m too old and I’m not a woman and considering that 85% of influencers are women, I know I don’t stand a chance. But hey, I’d still like to try. I would love to spend all of my time when I’m not creating content working on my next novel. That sounds so much better than academia! Then again, almost anything does at this point.

Do you have another artistic outlet in addition to your writing? Do you sew? Paint? Draw? Knit? Dance?

I write downtempo electronic, post-rock, and contemporary music for the piano and my band name is Mizu, the Japanese word for water, which is one of my fave elements. My first LP is called Space Age, which I wrote and remastered in Buenos Aires, LA, & Chicago and I’m currently working on two new LPs, both of which I hope to release in the next year, one electronic and one instrumental piano. The thing is, I’m classically trained, so music has always been a fundamental part of my existence. In high school, I went to an Arts Academy in 9th grade and practiced to become a concert pianist before realizing that I preferred writing my own music over memorizing other composers’ music. In Argentina, I began writing tracks for Space Age. It just took learning how to use Garage Band! Many of my friends who knew me before I became a writer claim that they can still hear my musical background in the cadence, flow, and beats of my sentences. I kinda think they’re right. I’d like to believe that nothing ever truly dies, but shows up someplace else, which is what I think happened to my musical background. It showed up in my books.