I.S. Jones
“Writing grounds me in the physical world,” I.S. Jones tells GO. “It’s the filter by which I make sense of myself and everything around me.” For the poet, essayist, and music journalist who received her MFA at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and who has a slew of fellowships under her belt, reading and writing have always been a central part of her life. “I wrote because I was a brutally shy child. I struggled to speak for myself,” she says. “Writing gave me a key to a power that was always inside of me.” From her individual poems and essays, which have appeared in Guernica, The Rumpus, and other journals, to her most recent chapbook Spells of My Name, which was published with Newfound in 2021, Jones writes her soul onto every page. And since coming out as lesbian, “there’s a new freedom I have forged for myself as to who I call family, how I adorn myself, what I believe is in service to my wellbeing,” she explains. With a full-length book of poems, Bloodmercy, which reimagines Cain and Abel as sisters, now in the works, Jones’ vision for her life is one of “boundless happiness” and possibilities. “I’m in this space in which my life can go in any direction.” –AB
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