Patricia Spears Jones

Patricia Spears Jones photo

Born and raised in Arkansas, Patricia Spears Jones aka Patricia Jones has lived in New York City since the mid-1970s where she has been involved in the city's poetry and theater scenes as poet, editor, anthologist, teacher and former Program Coordinator for the Poetry Project at St. Mark’s Church and working with Mabou Mines, the internationally acclaimed theater collective. In 2010, Jones was named, by Essence.com, as one of the “40 Poets They Love” in 2010.

Jones has performed and/or held workshops at a range of venues such as San Francisco State University's Poetry Center, The California College of Art, The Arkansas Literary Festival, Barnes & Noble at Astor Place, Lesley University, Columbia College in Chicago, Chicago State University, Woodland Pattern, Fordham University, Poets Out Loud series; University Rhode Island Read/Write series; Bread Loaf, Hollins University, Rhodes College, Intersection, Just Buffalo, St. Mark’s Poetry Project, Poets House, The New Museum of Contemporary Art, the Nuyorican Poets Caf´e;, the Bowery Poetry Club, McNally Robinson Bookstore, the University of Kansas at Lawrence, the Center for Book Arts, the Envision Festival at Bard College, University of Rhode Island, and the Studio Museum of Harlem.

She has received grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, the New York Foundation for the Arts, the Foundation for Contemporary Arts, the Goethe Institute for travel and research in Germany. Green Integer selected her for The PIP Gertrude Stein Awards for Innovative Poetry in English 2005-2006 . Agni selected “Sapphire” as an honorable mention for the Anne Sexton Poetry Prize in 2000. She has received fellowships to Yaddo, Squaw Valley Community of Writers, Bread Loaf Writers Conference, the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, and the Millay Colony for the Arts.   Photo: Rachel Eliza Griffiths

Jackson Poetry Prize Winner Speaks

Learn more at Patricia Spears Jones’s official website



4 Books by Patricia Spears Jones