Georgia Poetry Circuit’s Jones to visit TU Nov. 8
Post Published On:Thomas University will welcome poet Ashley M. Jones to campus on Tuesday, Nov. 8, for a presentation as part of the Georgia Poetry Circuit and Arts for the Community at Thomas University (ACTU).
Jones is the Poet Laureate of the State of Alabama for 2022 through 2026. She holds a Master of Fine Arts Degree in Poetry from Florida International University and is the author of “Magic City Gospel,” “dark / / thing,” and “REPARATIONS NOW!” Her poetry has earned several awards, including the Rona Jaffe Foundation Writers Award, the Silver Medal in the Independent Publishers Book Awards, the Lena-Miles Wever Todd Prize for Poetry, a Literature Fellowship from the Alabama State Council on the Arts, the Lucille Clifton Poetry Prize, and the Lucille Clifton Legacy Award.
Jones co-directs PEN Birmingham and is the founding director of the Magic City Poetry Festival. She teaches in the Creative Writing Department of the Alabama School of Fine Arts and is part of the Core Faculty of the Converse University Low Residency MFA Program. She recently served as a guest editor for Poetry Magazine.
Founded at Mercer University in 1985, the Georgia Poetry Circuit is a consortium of 10 Georgia colleges and universities working together to bring three poets of national and international repute to all member campuses each year. This provides important access to the literary arts for Georgia residents across the state.
At each school, each circuit poet gives a free and open reading of his/her work. Visiting poets also meet with creative writing students at each campus for workshops, talks or extended question-and-answer sessions. In addition to the opportunity to hear work from diverse writers, circuit events provide Georgia students with an immensely valuable educational opportunity for interaction with excellent contemporary poets in the United States.
This program is supported in part by Georgia Council for the Arts through the appropriations of the Georgia General Assembly. Georgia Council for the Arts also receives support from its partner agency, the National Endowment for the Arts. This project is supported in part by an award from the National Endowment for the Arts.
Jones’ presentation will begin at 12:30 Tuesday in the Flowers Foods Executive Classroom inside Smith-Bonvillian Hall on TU’s Forbes Campus. For more information about this and other ACTU events, visit www.facebookcom/actu31792 or www.thomasu.edu/actu, call 229-227- 6964 or email actu@thomasu.edu.
