Kima Jones
Born1981 or 1982 (age 41–42)[1]
Harlem, New York
Occupation(s)Writer, poet, book publicist
OrganizationJack Jones Literary Arts

Kima Jones (born c. 1982) is an American writer, poet and literary publicist. She is the founder of the Jack Jones Literary Arts, a literary publicity firm.

Early life and education

Jones was born circa 1982[1] in Harlem, New York[2] (in particular, the Sugar Hill neighborhood),[3] the oldest of eight siblings.[4] Her grandfather was a Southern Baptist minister and her father an imam.[3] Jones took an early interest in writing, winning a poetry contest in elementary school to give a reading at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture with children's author Walter Dean Myers.[1] In this period, Jones lived in foster care but at 12 was reunited with her family, moving to Poughkeepsie, New York.[1] Her mother and stepfather especially encouraged her reading.[5] The latter, a professor at Marist College, gave her boxes of his extra books; one of these included Mary Helen Washington's collection Black-Eyed Susans and Midnight Birds: Stories by and about Black Women and after reading the anthology cover to cover, Jones turned to the book's index to create another reading list for herself.[5]

Jones attended Dutchess Community College, then Sarah Lawrence College, though she ultimately left without finishing a degree.[1]

Career

Jones moved to Los Angeles, California,[6] when she won PEN Center USA Emerging Voices fellowship in 2013. In 2015, she founded Jack Jones Literary Arts literary publicity firm,[7] specializing in working with writers from historically underrepresented backgrounds, predominantly writers of color.[8] Jones has said that her own background as "a queer black girl from Harlem" made the work of women of color like Sandra Cisneros and Toni Morrison especially important to her growing up.[8] Her first two clients were Tananarive Due and Dolen Perkins-Valdez.[1] From there, her roster expanded to include Tyehimba Jess, representing his poetry collection Olio for which he won the Pulitzer Prize;[6] Angie Thomas, for her bestselling debut young adult novel The Hate U Give;[9] Rion Amilcar Scott, who won the 2017 PEN America Robert W. Bingham Emerging Fiction Prize for his book Insurrections; and Desiree Cooper, who won the 2017 Midland Authors Award in Adult Fiction for Know the Mother.[10] Jones's firm also runs an annual writers retreat for women of color.[10]

Jones has been a recipient of the MacDowell, Yaddo and Lamda Literary fellowships.[11] She contributed the 2014 anthology Long Hidden: Speculative Fiction from the Margins of History[1] and to Roxane Gay's 2018 online anthology Unruly Bodies.[12] Her poem "Homegoing AD" was published in Jesmyn Ward's collection The Fire This Time: A New Generation Speaks About Race,[13] then anthologized in The Best American Non-Required Reading 2017, edited by Sarah Vowell.

In 2018, Jones was named to The Root 100,[14] The Root's "annual list of the most influential African Americans, ages 25 to 45."[15]

In 2021, Triangle House Literary announced its hire of Jones as literary agent.[16]

In 2020, it was announced that Knopf had purchased Jones' debut memoir, Butch. It is set to be released in fall 2023.[17] She is the 2022 recipient of the Granum Foundation Prize.[18]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g Gyarkye, Lovia (24 December 2018). "Kima Jones, the Founder of Jack Jones Literary Arts, Is Taking the Publishing Industry by Storm". The New York Times. Archived from the original on 24 December 2018. Retrieved 24 December 2018.
  2. ^ Ohikuare, Judith (July 17, 2017). "What Does It Mean To Be A Feminist Employer". Refinery29. Archived from the original on 25 December 2018. Retrieved 24 December 2018.
  3. ^ a b Philyaw, Deesha (2016-09-07). "The Fire This Time: A new generation of voices on race". Andscape. Archived from the original on 2018-12-25. Retrieved 2018-12-25.
  4. ^ Taylor, Tess (2018-02-14). "The Art of Publicity: How Indie Publicists Work With Writers". Poets & Writers. Archived from the original on 2018-12-25. Retrieved 2018-12-25.
  5. ^ a b Gore, Sydney (2017-02-15). "Kima Jones Is The Bookworm Putting More Women Of Color On Your Shelf". Nylon. Archived from the original on 2018-12-25. Retrieved 2018-12-25.
  6. ^ a b French, Agatha (January 2, 2018). "2018 literary breakthrough: Kima Jones". Los Angeles Times. Archived from the original on 25 December 2018. Retrieved 24 December 2018.
  7. ^ Branigin, Anne (January 10, 2018). "Black, Bookish and Beautiful: This All-Black, All-Female Publishing Team Is Ensuring That Authors of Color Get Their Shine". The Root. Archived from the original on 25 December 2018. Retrieved 24 December 2018.
  8. ^ a b Ho, Jean (August 9, 2016). "Diversity In Book Publishing Isn't Just About Writers — Marketing Matters, Too". Code Switch. NPR. Archived from the original on 20 December 2018. Retrieved 24 December 2018.
  9. ^ Jerkins, Morgan (26 July 2017). "Is Trump Ruining Book Sales?". The New Republic. Archived from the original on 25 December 2018. Retrieved 24 December 2018.
  10. ^ a b Hubbard, Shanita (July 21, 2017). "Kima Jones Jack Jones Literary Arts". Essence. Archived from the original on 25 December 2018. Retrieved 24 December 2018.
  11. ^ Ramos, Jairo (April 9, 2014). "Kima Jones, On Black Bodies And Being A Black Woman Who Writes". Code Switch. NPR. Archived from the original on 2018-12-25. Retrieved 2018-12-25.
  12. ^ Grady, Constance (3 April 2018). "Roxane Gay on Unruly Bodies, the difficulty of being transgressive, and #WhoBitBey". Vox. Archived from the original on 25 December 2018. Retrieved 24 December 2018.
  13. ^ Capp, Fiona (2018-06-13). "Non-fiction review: The Fire This Time". The Sydney Morning Herald. Archived from the original on 2018-12-25. Retrieved 2018-12-25.
  14. ^ "Mayor Randall Woodfin makes list of Top 100 most influential African Americans". The Birmingham Times. 2018-10-04. Archived from the original on 2018-12-25. Retrieved 2018-12-25.
  15. ^ "The Root 100 - The Most Influential African Americans In 2018". The Root. Archived from the original on 2019-04-04. Retrieved 2018-12-25.
  16. ^ "Triangle House Literary announces expansion, hires literary powerhouse Kima Jones". Literary Hub. 2021-05-11. Retrieved 2023-05-30.
  17. ^ Pineda, Dorany (17 November 2020). "L.A. poet who works to amplify Black voices just sold her own memoir, 'Butch,' to Knopf". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 30 May 2023.
  18. ^ "Kima Jones Wins Granum Foundation Prize, Katherine E. Young Wins Translation Prize". Granum Foundation. 2022-11-09. Retrieved 2023-05-30.
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