Ashley M. Jones

Ashley Michelle Jones is a poet, instructor of creative writing at the Alabama School of Fine Arts, the first Black Poet Laureate of Alabama (2022-2026), and the youngest person to hold this position. Her works deal with race and history inspired by Alabama's historical enslavement of Black men and women in the Deep South. She is the author of ‘’Magic City Gospel’’, ‘’dark//thing’’, and ‘’Reparations Now!’’

For the actress, see Ashley Jones. For the basketball player, see Ashley Joens.
Ashley M. Jones
Born
Ashley Michelle Jones

Birmingham, Alabama, USA
OccupationPoet
Websiteashleymjonespoetry.com

Early life and education

Jones was born in Birmingham, Alabama, United States,[1] to Donald Jones, the chief of the Midfield Fire & Rescue Service and mother Jennifer Jones. She grew up in Birmingham in the neighborhoods of Midfield and Roebuck. Jones's creativity was encouraged by her parents and Jones dreamed of becoming a writer when she was little.[2] She started writing little books in second grade and started writing poems at the age of eight.[3]

As a child she attended the EPIC Alternative Elementary school in Birmingham, Alabama, followed by the W.J. Christian Middle School, and then into a magnet school in 7th grade when she joined the Alabama School of Fine Arts' Creative Writing program.[2] Her bachelor's degree summa cum laude from the University of Alabama at Birmingham was in Creative Writing, with a Spanish minor (2012).[4] At Miami's Florida International University she earned an M.F.A. in poetry in 2017.[5]

Career

Jones has been a faculty member in the Creative Writing Department of the Alabama School of Fine Arts since 2015.[4] She founded the Magic City Poetry Festival,[6] and has served as facilitator at “Poetry that Breaks Silence” in 2015.[7] Jones was named Alabama's poet laureate in 2021, and will hold the post from 2022 until 2026. She is the first black person,[8] and the youngest person, to hold this position.[9] In 2022 Jones started the Alabama Poetry Delegation to allow poets in Alabama to share their work with others in the state.[10]

Selected works

Jones’s ‘’Magic City Gospel’’ explores blackness, history and identity. This work received a silver medal in poetry in the 2017 Independent Publisher Book Awards.[11] ‘’dark//thing’’ delves into the issue of otherness placed on Black people from her perspective and won the Lena-Miles Wever Todd Prize for Poetry.[12]

  • Jones, Ashley M. (2017). Magic city gospel: poems. Spartanburg, SC. ISBN 978-1-938235-26-9. OCLC 945355149.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)[13]
  • Jones, Ashley M. (2019). dark // thing. Warrensburg, Missouri. ISBN 978-0-8071-7060-1. OCLC 1053863377.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)[14]
  • Jones, Ashley M. (2021). Reparations now! : poems (First ed.). Spartanburg, SC. ISBN 978-1-938235-86-3. OCLC 1237649189.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)[15]

Awards and honors

Jones received the 2015 Rona Jaffe Foundation Writer’s Award.[16][17] She received the 2018 Lucille Clifton Poetry Prize from Backbone Press[18] and was a finalist in the Ruth Lilly Dorothy Sargent Rosenburg Fellowship.[19]

References
  1. Osborne, Dean (October 27, 2021). "Meet Ashley M. Jones, Alabama's next Poet Laureate". The Black Wall Street Times.
  2. Bowser, Javacia Harris (September 24, 2021). "How Ashley M. Jones Became the Most Influential Poet in Alabama". AL.com.
  3. Martiza-McCauley, Jennier (April 19, 2017). "Ashley M. Jones: The Magic City Poet".
  4. "Jones, Ashley / Welcome". www.asfa.k12.al.us. Retrieved 2022-12-17.
  5. "Poet with a platform". FIU Magazine. March 1, 2022. Retrieved 2022-12-05.
  6. Salazar, C.T. (2021-11-14). "Two new poetry books by Birmingham writers show power of city's scene". Hattiesburg American. pp. , . Retrieved 2022-12-05.
  7. Jones, Monique (January 16, 2015). ""Poetry That Breaks Silence" Honors Martin Luther King's Dream". Miami New Times. Retrieved 2022-10-31.
  8. Cobb, Mark Hughes (2021-12-03). "The first". The Montgomery Advertiser. pp. , . Retrieved 2022-12-05.
  9. Mzezewa, Tariro (2021-10-21). "Alabama's Next Poet Laureate Writes Searingly About Race". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2022-09-13.
  10. Stuart, Shauna (2022-10-03). "State poet laureate announces creation of Alabama Poetry Delegation". al. Retrieved 2022-12-05.
  11. "About". 24 June 2015. Retrieved 7 January 2022.
  12. "Congratulations to Ashley M. Jones, Winner of the Lena-Miles Wever Todd Prize for Poetry".
  13. Reviews for Magic City Gospel
    • "Fiction Reviews". Publishers Weekly; New York. 263 (52). December 19, 2016.
  14. Review for dark//thing
    • "Briefly Noted". The New Yorker; New York. Vol. XCV, no. 9. April 22, 2019 – via ProQuest.
  15. Review of Reparations Now!
  16. "6 emerging female writers honored". The Fresno Bee. 2015-09-02. pp. , . Retrieved 2022-12-05.
  17. Isokawa, Dana (2015). "Recent Winners". Poets & Writers; New York. 43 (6): 121–133 – via Proquest.
  18. "2018 Lucille Clifton Poetry Prize". Retrieved 7 January 2022.
  19. "Poetry Foundation Announces the 2020 Ruth Lilly and Dorothy Sargent Rosenberg Poetry Fellowships Winners". Retrieved 8 January 2022.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.