Alabama poet laureate to speak at Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College

Nov. 3—TIFTON — Ashley M. Jones, the poet laureate for the state of Alabama, will be the first of three speakers in the Georgia Poetry Circuit series beginning Nov. 7 at Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College.

Jones will speak at 7 p.m. in Ernest Edwards Hall at ABAC. Each event in the series is free and open to the public with no ticket required. Other speakers in the series include Courtney Faye Taylor on Feb. 6 and Allison Adelle Hedge Coke on April 5.

Jones 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." An award-winning poet, Jones has received 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 of the Arts, the Lucille Clifton Poetry Prize, and the Lucille Clifton Legacy Award.

The co-director of PEN Birmingham, Jones 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 Master of Fine Arts program.

Founded at Mercer University in 1985, the Georgia Poetry Circuit is a consortium of 10 Georgia colleges and universities working together to bring poets of national and international reputation to the member campuses annually, providing important access to the literary arts for Georgia residents throughout the state.