Her first book isn’t finished, but Ashley M. Jones’s words already are earning national accolades. Recently, the young poet and 2012 UAB alumna won the Rona Jaffe Foundation Writers’ Award, a prestigious honor spotlighting promising female writers of fiction, poetry, and creative nonfiction early in their careers. She was among only six women nationally to receive the award.
“Winning this award validates what I’ve been writing,” says Jones, a creative writing teacher at the Alabama School of Fine Arts in Birmingham. “Sometimes writing is a lonely process, and you never know if your work will be well received or if it will be meaningful to others. The award encourages me to continue.”
Birmingham’s history, the Civil Rights Movement, and Jones’s personal experiences inspire her poetry. An anonymous nominator submitted Jones’s work for the award, explaining that “her poems approach the complicated racial and national identity of the author with heartache and humor in a voice that also speaks to her generation.”
Jones earned a bachelor's degree in English from UAB. She credits that education, which also included courses in Spanish and the UAB Honors College, with sharpening her writing. Professors in all academic areas “cultivated the interdisciplinary mindset” and “helped me discover my own poetic voice,” she says.
With the award’s $30,000 prize, Jones will complete her first book of poetry, Magic City Gospel, and continue her poetry workshops for Birmingham elementary- and high-school students. “I want to be a model for young writers of color and show them that their writing can be political, and it can tell important stories without compromising literary merit,” she says. “I hope my writing is accessible to all readers and that it creates awareness and sparks a fresh way of thinking about our country’s past and present.”
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