Ashley M. Jones

Ashley M. Jones is the Poet Laureate of Alabama (2022-2026). She is the first person of color and youngest person in Alabama’s history to hold this position. Jones is the author of four poetry collections, most recently Lullaby for the Grieving. She is the co-editor of WHAT THINGS COST: An Anthology for the People, and she has earned fellowships and awards from many organizations, including the Academy of American Poets, the Rona Jaffe Foundation, and the Alabama State Council on the Arts. Her poems are published in POETRY, Academy of American Poets, and The Oxford American, and her work has been featured by outlets including PBS, CNN, The BBC, Good Morning America, ABC News, and the New York Times. Jones is the Associate Director of the University Honors Program at UAB, the executive director of the Magic City Poetry Festival, and she is a PhD student in English at Old Dominion University. (Source)

Poems by Ashley M. Jones

Lullaby for the Grieving by Ashley M. Jones

January 14, 2025

“please, / let me enter. please, let me / leave whole.” — Ashley M. Jones

Poems curated by Ashley M. Jones

What the Mirror Said by Lucille Clifton

September 2, 2025

"somebody need a map / to understand you. / somebody need directions / to move around you." — Lucille Clifton