Reagan E. J. Jackson (she/her) lives in Seattle, Washington and dedicates her time to being a writer, artist, community organizer, facilitator, international educator, and ukulele singer-songwriter. She was the Co-Executive Director of Young Women Empowered, where she spent 10 years supporting young women, trans, and non-binary youth to cultivate their leadership in a community of belonging. Prior to this, Reagan worked as a community organizer for the Making Change at Walmart Campaign through UFCW 21. She taught K-12 English and Spanish, and she led over 250 youth on study abroad programs to Guatemala, Japan, and Mexico respectively. She received her Bachelor of Art in English and Creative Writing from the University of Washington, Seattle and her Master of Arts in International Education with a focus on Social Justice from SIT Graduate Institute in Brattleboro, Vermont.
Reagan is the author of Still True: The Evolution of an Unexpected Journalist (Hinton Publishing, 2024), which won a Bronze Medal in Creative Nonfiction at the Independent Publisher Book Awards (the Ippys) in 2024. Still True is a hybrid book, part memoir and part time capsule of essays and articles from over a decade of her time as a journalist in South Seattle.
The author of three full-length poetry collections and two children’s books, Reagan brings heart, integrity, and joy to everything she creates. Her essays and reporting have appeared in The South Seattle Emerald, The Seattle Globalist, Yes! Magazine, The Black Girl Nerds Blog, Real Change News, and Crosscut. She has also been anthologized in Black Imagination: Black Voices on Black Futures (McSweeny 2020), Fly to the Assemblies!: Seattle and the Rise of the Resistance (Vervolta 2017), and Emerald Reflections: A South Seattle Anthology Volumes 1 and 2 (Vervolta 2016 and 2018).
In recognition of her impactful work, Reagan has earned a number of honors. She was Seattle University’s 2020 Distinguished Visiting Writer for the Winter Quarter, during which time she taught her signature course, “Mixed Tape Memoir.” In 2016, The Seattle Globalist named her Journalist of the Year. She has also won awards from the Society of Professional Journalists Excellence in Journalism Competition (2016) and the Washington Press Association Communication Contest (2014).
Her writing has been supported with residencies through Tin House, Hermitage Arts, the Mineral School, the Women’s International Study Center, and the Bloedel Reserve. She is currently at work on her debut young adult fiction novel, which is inspired by the youth she worked with, and tells a story of chosen family and the kinds of happy endings for black, brown, and queer youth too often denied in mainstream narratives. She is represented by Ameerah Holliday with Serendipity Lit.