Photo: Nigetastic, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons¹³

Parneshia Jones

American poet (born 1980)

Parneshia Jones (born 1980) is an American publisher, poet, and editor. She is the author of a 2015 poetry collection, Vessel, which won the Midwest Book Award.²

From Wikipedia’s article on Parneshia Jones (this version), CC BY-SA 4.0.

Born 1967.¹

About

In 2020, Jones was appointed director of Northwestern University Press.

From Wikipedia’s article on Parneshia Jones, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.²

Companies

Northwestern University PressBoard member¹²

Early life and education

Date not recordedSpalding University Master of Fine Arts³
Date not recordedChicago State University Bachelor of Arts^{3 4}

Career

Occupation: poet.⁷

Date not recordedProfessor, Vermont College of Fine Arts⁵
Date not recordedDirector, editor, Northwestern University Press^{5 6}

Work

An Affrilachian poet, Jones cites her undergraduate experiences at Chicago State University, studying under important black writers and scholars Haki R. Madhubuti, Dr. Kelly Norman Ellis, Dr. B. J. Bolden, Dr. Donda West, and a one-on-one chance meeting with Gwendolyn Brooks, who reviewed and red-marked Jones’ early poems and encouraged her to continue writing, as a milestone in her writing and editing career.

Jones is the author of Vessel (Milkweed Editions, 2015). In this verse collection tracing the intersections of her Midwestern and Southern histories, she documents familial memories; the love of place and food, and a black woman's experience; and reveals that her first name relates to Mount Parnassus. The collection won the Midwest Book Award and was chosen as "One of 12 Books to Savor" by O, The Oprah Magazine.

Jones's work has been published in anthologies including The Ringing Ear: Black Poets Lean South (2007), Poetry Speaks Who I Am (2010), and She Walks in Beauty: A Woman’s Journey Through Poems (edited by Caroline Kennedy, 2011).

At Northwestern University Press, Jones eventually assumed acquisitions duties. She has worked with esteemed authors of Nobel Prize, Pulitzer Prize, Grammy, and National Book Award acclaim. With a particular focus on the TriQuarterly Books imprint of the press, her acquisitions have included Head Off & Split, which earned poet Nikky Finney the National Book Award, and Finney's follow-up collection, Lovechild’s Hot Bed of Occasional Poetry: Poems and Artifacts. Jones acquired Forest Primeval by Vievee Francis, 2017 winner of the Kingsley Tufts poetry award. The following year, Jones acquired Incendiary Art by Patricia Smith, winner of the Kingsley Tufts poetry award and the LA Times Book Prize. Jones has also worked with Kwame Dawes, Angela Jackson, Kyle Dargan, Karl Kirchwey, Ellen Hagan, and Nandi Comer.

In 2019, Jones became a Visiting Writer in Residence at the Vermont College of Fine Arts. She has served as president of the Board of Directors of the Cave Canem Foundation, and is currently on the advisory board of the ShoreFront Legacy Center, an organization and foundation that documents African-American history on Chicago's North Shores.

From Wikipedia’s article on Parneshia Jones (this version), CC BY-SA 4.0.

Personal life

Born1967, Evanston⁸
CitizenshipUnited States⁹
ResidenceEvanston¹⁰

Sources

The numbers on this page point here. Each one links to the record it came from.

1
WikidataParneshia Jones on Wikidata
2
WikipediaParneshia Jones on Wikipedia
3
WikidataParneshia Jones: education, on Wikidata
4
Wikidataeducation, as reported
5
WikidataParneshia Jones: Professor, Vermont College of Fine Arts, on Wikidata
6
WikidataDirector, editor, Northwestern University Press, as reported
7
WikidataParneshia Jones: occupation, on Wikidata
8
WikidataParneshia Jones: place of birth, on Wikidata
9
WikidataParneshia Jones: citizenship, on Wikidata
10
WikidataParneshia Jones: residence, on Wikidata
11
WikidataParneshia Jones: Official website, on Wikidata
12
WikidataNorthwestern University Press, Board member
13
Wikimedia CommonsParneshia Jones photo by Nigetastic, CC BY-SA 4.0