“Jason Taylor Morgan is an author whose prose weaves transcendent narratives of life’s journey that linger in the minds of readers long after the last page is turned. With a visual writing style, keen eye for vivid imagery, compelling first-person narrative arcs, and a profound understanding of the human experience, he crafts stories that reflect the complexity of human minds and emotions. Writing both male and female main characters, he specializes in first-person female narratives, showcasing his versatility, understanding and commitment to espousing the strength, grace and spirit of women. Morgan invites readers to explore the nuanced dance between thought and emotion in a world that is ever evolving. Whether delving into the depths of personal struggle or the heights of triumph, his writings resonate with those who seek depth and introspection and redemption and beauty and often some magic within the pages of a book.”
Jason was born in Boston, Massachusetts to an Irish Catholic father and a Southern Baptist mother, which set the stage for a Mason-Dixon Line dynamic to run right through the heart of his childhood. From an early age, writing was both his passion and his escape. He attended Bard College and was mentored by novelist and National Book Award winner Mary Lee Settle, who helped him understand the difference between writing a character and finding the character’s heart, soul and voice.
Author of six novels, and a Northerner, he often sets his books in the American South, a region of the country he finds fascinating and rife with contradictions, eccentricity, darkness and natural beauty. Made even more ambiguously compelling by his progressive-minded, musician mother’s stories of her Southern Virginia To Kill a Mockingbird childhood. From these “exotic” impressions, he creates atmospheric, physically beautiful, with colorful characters, tension-filled worlds.
An author of character-driven Literary and Magical Fiction, his protagonists are often young, gifted magical women who face daunting societal and personal odds. That takes them on profound inner and outer journeys to find their truth, find themselves, and achieve redemption, fulfillment, and purpose within a finite span of time or over a lifetime.
“There is always a trace of natural magic, enchantment, or spirituality in my books. My main characters experience human life on a wider scale of psychic or energetic consciousness and emotional awareness and sensitivity than most people, as I do. They see and feel and sense beyond the ordinary. And need to learn to transcend or fight through conservative opposition or the status quo to live as their true selves, in unapologetic lives, to achieve their dreams and destinies.”
Following Bard, at 23, in 1978, and on Settle’s challenge to go on the ultimate literary adventure as a young man and write a novel in Europe, he did. Lugging an old Olympia typewriter with no letter “z”, he took a one-way Freddie Laker Airlines flight from NYC to London, England. Jason lived there and in Paris for two years. Living a young novelist’s dream - writing his first novel (unpublished) abroad. Falling in love with a beautiful photojournalist. Guest lecturing at Harrow College of Art and Technology in London. Editing children’s books. Wandering the streets of Paris by day and smoking French cigarettes, sipping brandy, and writing in eccentric Left Bank hotels all night.
.
After his European adventure, Jason returned to the US and embarked on a Jason-like career path: experimenting with conventionality as a successful and respected marketing and analyst relations agency senior executive in the Technology Industry. Then Counselor for at-risk kids on a children’s hospital psych unit. Then a journey as an energy healer for emotional trauma, advanced consciousness teacher, and seminar leader.
Jason traveled and lived in various places abroad and in the US for seven years of his life on either side of raising a family, two magnificent daughters, in Wellesley MA and his more conventional careers. He wrote a novel capturing his 2010 - 2015, five-year personal and spiritual journey throughout the US: O’ROURKE, THE MEDICINE MAN.
Now, at 70, he is an artist of acrylic abstracts - jasontaylormorgan-art.com - an art gallery director, and mentors gifted children in Creative Writing.
And, of course, he still writes. Jason just finished his sixth novel, SOULS ON FIRE AND LONESOME DREAMS, and has begun his seventh.
He lives quietly and peacefully in the lovely arts-oriented little city of Cloverdale in the heart of wine country (unfortunate irony; he doesn’t drink anymore), in N Sonoma County, CA.