Addiction ran rampant in author Jason Allen's family and disrupted every aspect of his life growing up working-class poor in a small, Long Island town.
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Against the backdrop of lush estates in the Hamptons, Jason and his friends worked long hours and partied hard every night until he too fell victim to serious alcohol addiction. His total self-destruction averted only by the close bond he shared with his mother and younger brother, he clung to his desire to make it off the Island and become who felt he was meant to be. Jason talks about the loss of his father to alcoholism, his new novel The East End, and how writing and sobriety saved him.
Jason Allen writes fiction, poetry, and memoir, and is the author of the novel The East End (Park Row Books/HarperCollins) and the poetry collection A Meditation on Fire (Southeast Missouri State University Press). He has an MFA from Pacific University and a PhD in literature and creative writing from Binghamton University. His work has been published in: Passages North, Paterson Literary Review, Contemporary American Voices, Cream City Review, Ragazine, The Molotov Cocktail, and many other venues. He's taught in China and done at least a dozen coast-to-coast drives across the U.S. Jason was born in the Green Mountains of Vermont and spent the first year of his life in a log cabin, and then grew up working-class-poor in the Hamptons. He currently lives in Atlanta, Georgia, where he teaches writing.