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Learn how to dress like a fashion blogger. Is this on your list of goals for 2017? If so, then you don’t want to miss next week’s See Jane Write event. And you don’t have to be in Birmingham to attend!
HAPPY NEW YEAR!
I know what you’re thinking: “OK. Javacia really needs to stop waking up at 4 a.m. That girl is so sleepy she doesn’t know what month it is!”
Don’t worry. I’m fully aware that today is December 1, not January 1, but for me December is the new January. Gone are the days of waiting until January 1 to start working on my goals for the New Year. I’m going to start slaying my 2017 goals TODAY.
Can you believe this is the last day of November?!
That means it’s also the last day of the #bloglikecrazy challenge! If you have successfully published a new blog post every day this month, be sure to join us in the See Jane Write Facebook group to celebrate.
November has been quite the month.
One of my favorite things about See Jane Write is our monthly, members-only writing critique sessions. At these gatherings members bring a piece of writing of 500 words or less to be read and revised by other ladies of See Jane Write. These sessions have helped some members complete entire first drafts of books and these sessions have been the beginnings of beautiful friendships.
If you’d like to host a critique session of your own, here are a few tips on how to give useful writing critiques.
When Birmingham-bred poet Ashley Jones was in graduate school at Florida International University, she made a promise to herself: She promised herself that she would produce a book of poetry by the end of her MFA program. Jones kept her promise and on Friday, December 2 she will host a reading, book signing and early release party for her debut collection Magic City Gospel. The poems in the collection, which officially releases in January, are largely inspired by Jones’ experiences as a black girl and woman in the South. This special early release event will be held at 7 p.m., Friday, December 2 at the Alabama School of Fine Arts in downtown Birmingham.
Jones burst onto the poetry scene last year winning the prestigious Rona Jaffe Foundation Writer’s Award (a national literary award only given to six women each year that includes a grant for $30,000). Last year Jones also returned to Birmingham to teach creative writing at the Alabama School of Fine Arts (ASFA) and this year began teaching at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) as well.
But Jones believes poetry should be in the community and not just the classroom. She recently helped produce the 100,000 Poets for Change in Birmingham event to raise money for the Smithfield-Dynamite Hill Community Land Trust, which works to keep the Smithfield Community in the ownership of its residents and fight against gentrification. She’s also coordinator of The Nitty Gritty Magic City Reading Series. The brainchild of Alabama poets Katherine Webb and Daniel DeVaughn, NGMC seeks to create a unique literary space in Birmingham where people can tell their stories through their art.
In a candid conversation, Jones discusses Magic City Gospel, her writing practice, writing as a form of activism and more.