jasonakley

Jason Akley is the author of seven books. He has a BS degree from Tulane University in physics and mathematical economics. His writings include Lazarus, two children's books, Sweet Pea and the Bumblebee and The Candlestick, a collection of novellas, Salted with Salt and The Altar of Silence, a collection of stories and poems titled Crossroads from Damascus, and his most recent book, Rick's Place. Lazarus has received excellent reviews and was included in the Kirkus newsletter as a best submission of 2010. Both of the children's books were award-winning finalists in the Children's Picture Book category of the National Best Books 2007 Awards, and one was also nominated for the 2008 Evvy Awards. Currently, he's working on his eighth book, The Psalmist, and he's enjoying spending time with his wife and two daughters. He hopes to continue engaging readers with thoughtful stories.

Kirkus Review of Lazarus

An avant garde update of a classic Greek tragedy.
Akley’s new novel is a deeply ambitious project, 700 plus pages of experimental prose filled with allusions to the Bible, the Beatles, Marx, Nietzsche, Johnny Cash and the cool jazz of Miles Davis, but readers who stick with it will be amply rewarded. Although labyrinthine, it is also gratifying. Akley’s previous work includes a number of award-winning children’s books, but this project is decidedly adult. Lazarus is contemporary version of the Oedipus trilogy, Sophocles’ timeless epic about the benighted family of a man who kills his father and marries his mother. However, the novel is less a retelling than a refraction. Akley shines his ancient source through a prism and watches the colors spin and dance on a white wall, jumping between generations and growing family trees whose limbs are sometimes chopped with surprising speed, he delivers a tale as engrossing as it is complex. However, he manages this sprawling project with a steady hand, his deft prose is the thread that keeps his patchwork quilt from falling to pieces. The author experiments with numerous forms, piecing his story together with diary entries, e-mail correspondence, dramatic dialogue and, to great effect, screenplay. Each form is more adeptly handled than the last and such flexibility proves his skill.
A challenging but altogether cutting-edge, first-rate magnum opus by an up-and-coming author.

Writing