James Jones Literary Society

Last updated

The James Jones Literary Society is an association that honors American author James Jones by sponsoring a number of literature awards.

Contents

History

The Society was founded in 1991 at Lincoln Trail College, Robinson, Illinois. As of 2008, it had nearly 300 members from 34 states and 5 countries. The Society sponsors a national symposium every year, when the First Novel Fellowship is awarded; these are held in different locations, but return every third year to Robinson, Jones's home town. [1]

First Novel Fellowship

The Society's best known award is the Annual James Jones First Novel Fellowship, co-sponsored by Wilkes University. It was established in 1992, and as of 2011 is a $10,000 prize, and two $750 runner up awards, awarded to American authors of first novels in progress that honor "the spirit of unblinking honesty, determination, and insight into modern culture" that Jones's works exemplified. 667 entries were received for the 2011 contest. [2] [3] [4]

Laine Cunningham, winner of the 2003 award for her novel Message Stick, credits the award for US and international agents beginning to call her. She has since sponsored her own writing award. [5]

Awards

YearAuthorWorkPublishedNotes
1993 Nancy Flynn Eden Undone$2,000, 143 entries. [6] [7] [8]
1994 Mary Kay Zuravleff The Frequency of Souls Farrar Straus & Giroux, 1996, ISBN   978-0-374-15851-4 403 entries. [8] [9]
1995 Rick Bass Where the Sea Used To Be Houghton Mifflin, 1998, ISBN   978-0-395-77015-3 $2,500, also awarded to Tanuja Desai Hidier. [10]
1995 Tanuja Desai Hidier Tale of a Two-Hearted Tiger$2,500, also awarded to Rick Bass. [10] [11]
1996 Greg Hrbek The Hindenburg Crashes Nightly William Morrow, 1999, ISBN   978-0-380-97741-3 $2,500. [12] [13]
1997 Leslie Schwartz Jumping the Green Simon & Schuster, 1999, ISBN   978-0-684-85589-9 [14]
1998 Judith Barnes A Year in the Woods$2,500. 470 entries. [15]
1999 Louise Wareham Leonard Since You Ask Akashic Books, 2004, ISBN   978-1-888451-63-4 $3,000. [16] [17]
2000 Steven Phillip Policoff Beautiful Somewhere Else Carroll & Graf, 2004, ISBN   978-0-7867-1321-9 $5,000. 566 entries. [18] [19]
2001 Ray Cristina Tracking Ginger CreateSpace, 2010, ISBN   978-1-4499-8701-5 $5,000. [20]
2002 Linda Busby Parker Seven Laurels Southeast Missouri State University Press, 2004, ISBN   978-0-9724304-7-0 [21]
2003 Laine Cunningham Message StickSun Dogs Creations, 2008, ISBN   978-0-9822399-0-2 $6,000. [5] [22]
2004 John Smelcer The Trap593 entries. [23] Award rescinded in 2015. [24] [25]
2005 Anne Campisi The Lime Tree$10,000. [26]
2006 Herta Feely The Trials of Serra Blue [27]
2007 Robin Oliveira My Name is Mary Sutter Viking Press, 2010, ISBN   0-670-02167-9 Working title The Last Beautiful Day. [28]
2008 Margarite Landry Blue Moon$10,000. 520 entries. [29]
2009 Tena Russ After Paradise$10,000, 674 entries. [30]
2010 Gina Ventre Moon's Extra Mile$10,000, 520 entries. [31]
2011 Robert Shuster To Zenzi New Issues Poetry & Prose, 2021, ISBN   9781936970698 $10,000, 667 entries. [32]
2012 Lise Brody For One Thing She Did$10,000, 585 entries. [33]
2013 Margot Singer The Art of FugueAs Underground Fugue, Melville House Publishing, 2017, ISBN   9781612196282 $10,000, 666 entries. [34]
2014 Cam Terwilliger Yet Wilderness Grew in My Heart$10,000. [35]
2015 Josie Sigler The Flying Sampietrini$10,000. [36]
2015 Alison Murphy Balagan$10,000. [37]
2017 Erin Kate Ryan Quantum Girl Theory Random House, 2022, ISBN   978-0-593-13343-9 $10,000. [38]
2018 Alicia Upano Big Music$10,000. [39]
2019 Marco Kaye Levon$10,000. [40]
2020 Morgan M.X. Schulz Good Morning, Dr. Du Bois$10,000. [41]
2021 Rose Whitmore Feats of Strength in the Time of Hoxha$10,000, more than 700 entries. [42]

Other awards

Since 2006, the Society has co-sponsored the annual Illinois Emerging Writers Competition, created in 2005 by Secretary of State of Illinois and State Librarian Jesse White. Originally this consisted solely of the Gwendolyn Brooks Poetry Award, but since the co-sponsorship of the Society, it has also included the James Jones Short Story Award. Each category carries prizes of $500, $300, and $100 for unpublished works. Both are named after Illinois writers. [43] [44]

Since 2007, the Society has been working to establish the James Jones Chair in World War II Studies at Eastern Illinois University. [45] [46]

The Society sponsors an annual Valentine Essay Contest, based on Jones's short story, "The Valentine", for high school seniors from Crawford County, Illinois and Clark County, Illinois. The $75 and $50 prizes are awarded on Valentine's Day. [47] [48] [49] [50]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Scott Turow</span> American author and lawyer (born 1949)

Scott Frederick Turow is an American author and lawyer. Turow has written 13 fiction and three nonfiction books, which have been translated into more than 40 languages and sold more than 30 million copies. Turow’s novels are set primarily among the legal community in the fictional Kindle County. Films have been based on several of his books.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">James Jones (author)</span> American writer

James Ramon Jones was an American novelist renowned for his explorations of World War II and its aftermath. He won the 1952 National Book Award for his debut novel, From Here to Eternity, which was adapted for film a year later and made into a television series a generation later.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Edward P. Jones</span> American novelist and short story writer

Edward Paul Jones is an American novelist and short story writer. He became popular for writing about the African-American experience in the United States, and received the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and the International Dublin Literary Award for The Known World (2003).

Earl Wilbert Lovelace is a Trinidadian novelist, journalist, playwright, and short story writer. He is particularly recognized for his descriptive, dramatic fiction on Trinidadian culture: "Using Trinidadian dialect patterns and standard English, he probes the paradoxes often inherent in social change as well as the clash between rural and urban cultures." As Bernardine Evaristo notes, "Lovelace is unusual among celebrated Caribbean writers in that he has always lived in Trinidad. Most writers leave to find support for their literary endeavours elsewhere and this, arguably, shapes the literature, especially after long periods of exile. But Lovelace's fiction is deeply embedded in Trinidadian society and is written from the perspective of one whose ties to his homeland have never been broken."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ben Lerner</span> American writer

Benjamin S. Lerner is an American poet, novelist, essayist, and critic. The recipient of fellowships from the Fulbright, Guggenheim, and MacArthur Foundations, Lerner has been a finalist for the National Book Award for Poetry, the National Book Critics Circle Award in fiction, and the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, among many other honors. Lerner teaches at Brooklyn College, where he was named a Distinguished Professor of English in 2016.

The Man Asian Literary Prize was an annual literary award between 2007 and 2012, given to the best novel by an Asian writer, either written in English or translated into English, and published in the previous calendar year. It is awarded to writers who are citizens or residents of one of the following 34 Asian countries: Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Cambodia, China, East Timor, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Iran, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Japan, Laos, Macau, Malaysia, Mongolia, Myanmar, Nepal, North Korea, Pakistan, Papua New Guinea, Philippines, Singapore, South Korea, Sri Lanka, Taiwan, Tajikistan, Thailand, The Maldives, Turkey, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Vietnam. Submissions are invited through publishers who are entitled to each submit two novels by August 31 each year. Entry forms are available from May.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dinaw Mengestu</span> Ethiopian-American novelist and writer (born 1978)

Dinaw Mengestu is an Ethiopian-American novelist and writer. In addition to three novels, he has written for Rolling Stone on the war in Darfur, and for Jane Magazine on the conflict in northern Uganda. His writing has also appeared in Harper's, The Wall Street Journal, and numerous other publications. He is the Program Director of Written Arts at Bard College. In 2007 the National Book Foundation named him a "5 under 35" honoree. Since his first book was published in 2007, he has received numerous literary awards, and was selected as a MacArthur Fellow in 2012.

The Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award (ABNA) was a contest sponsored by Amazon.com, Penguin Group, Hewlett Packard, CreateSpace and BookSurge to publish and promote a manuscript by an unknown or unpublished author. The first award was given in 2008 and in 2015 Amazon announced that they would not be continuing the award and would instead focus on the Kindle Scout program.

Four Way Books is an American nonprofit literary press located in New York City, which publishes poetry and short fiction by emerging and established writers. It features the work of the winners of national poetry competitions, as well as collections accepted through general submission, panel selection, and solicitation by the editors. The press is run by director and founding editor Martha Rhodes, who is the author of five poetry collections. Four Way Books titles are distributed by University of Chicago Press. The press has received grants from New York State Council on the Arts, the National Endowment for the Arts, and The Community of Literary Magazines and Presses through their re-grant program.

John Wesley Conroy was a leftist American writer, also known as a worker-writer. He was best known for his contributions to proletarian literature: fiction and nonfiction about the life of American workers during the early decades of the 20th century.

Margot Singer is an American short story writer and novelist. Her book The Pale of Settlement won the Flannery O'Connor Award for Short Fiction in 2006 and her novel Underground Fugue was listed as "one of the most anticipated books by women in 2017" by Elle Magazine.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Idra Novey</span> American novelist, poet, and translator

Idra Novey is an American novelist, poet, and translator. She translates from Portuguese, Spanish, and Persian and now lives in Brooklyn, New York.

The Starr Center for the Study of the American Experience is an institute at Washington College, in Chestertown, Maryland, that promotes the research and study of American history and culture. Founded in 2000, the Starr Center at Washington College is one of many educational initiatives funded by the Starr Foundation, a private foundation with assets of over $1.25 billion. The inaugural director of the Starr Center, Edward L. Widmer, served under Bill Clinton as special assistant to the president for national security affairs; among other accomplishments, he wrote foreign policy speeches and advised the president on topics related to history and scholarship as senior advisor to the president for special projects. Since 2006, Adam Goodheart, a historian, journalist and author of 1861: The Civil War Awakening, has served as director of the Center. In addition to its academic components, the C.V. Starr Center works closely with external groups to sponsor events of public interest, such as the Poplar Grove Project, a recovery and recordation project in collaboration with the Maryland State Archives, and hosts readings and lectures often focused on topics of local interest, such as Chesapeake Bay history.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Taras Grescoe</span> Canadian non-fiction writer

Taras Grescoe is a Canadian non-fiction writer. His debut book, Sacré Blues, won the Edna Staebler Award for Creative Non-Fiction, Mavis Gallant Prize for Non-Fiction, and McAuslan First Book Prize. His fourth book, Bottomfeeder, won the Hilary Weston Writers' Trust Prize for Nonfiction, awarded to the best work of non-fiction by a Canadian writer, in 2008, as well as the IACP Award for Literary Food Writing.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kresnik Award</span> Slovenian literary award

Kresnik is a literary award in Slovenia awarded each year for the best novel in Slovene of the previous year. It has been bestowed since 1991 at summer solstice by the national newspaper house Delo. The awards ceremony is normally held on Rožnik Hill above Ljubljana where the winner is invited to light a large bonfire. The winner also receives a financial award.

Greg Hrbek is an American fiction author and educator.

Robin Oliveira is an American author, former literary editor, and nurse, who is most known for her debut novel, My Name is Mary Sutter, published in 2010. Her second novel, I Always Loved You, was published by Penguin on February 4, 2014.

Herta Burbach Feely is a writer, editor, and child safety activist. She co-founded Safe Kids Worldwide.

The Kerala Sahitya Akademi Award for Story is an award given every year by the Kerala Sahitya Akademi to Malayalam writers for writing a story of literary merit. It is one of the twelve categories of the Kerala Sahitya Akademi Award. 

The Kerala Sahitya Akademi Award for Literary Criticism is an award given every year by the Kerala Sahitya Akademi to Malayalam writers for writing literary criticism. It is one of the twelve categories of the Kerala Sahitya Akademi Award. 

References

  1. ↑ "English Dept. Will Host Aficionados of WWII-era Novelist James Jones Oct. 7-9", University of Memphis, Sept. 27, 2005.
  2. ↑ "James Jones Fellowship Contest", Wilkes University. Retrieved Nov 15, 2011.
  3. ↑ "Fellowship Guidelines" Archived 2012-04-15 at the Wayback Machine , official site. Retrieved Nov 15, 2011.
  4. ↑ "James Jones Society Names Wilkes University Faculty Member Its New President" Archived 2012-04-06 at the Wayback Machine , Wilkes University, 12/8/2009.
  5. 1 2 "Pittsboro writer wins third place in literary magazine writing contest", Chatham Journal , July 11, 2010.
  6. ↑ "Awards", Nancy Flynn official web site, retrieved 2011-11-15.
  7. ↑ "Duty Bound: James Jones First Novel Winner Drawn to 'Eternity'", by John Blades, Chicago Tribune , Oct 28, 1993, page 9.
  8. 1 2 "Manuscripts Pour In For Second Year Of Fellowship Award" Archived 2012-04-15 at the Wayback Machine , James Jones Literary Society Newsletter, Vol. 4, No. 1 Fall 1994. Retrieved 2011-11-16.
  9. ↑ "M.K. Zuravleff's racy read captures crowd" Archived 2012-04-15 at the Wayback Machine , by Sandhira Wijayaratne, The Johns Hopkins News-Letter , February 21, 2009.
  10. 1 2 "Carl Sandburg Awards Bestowed On 4 Local Writers", by John Blades, Chicago Tribune , November 06, 1995.
  11. ↑ "Letter to the Society from Tanuja Desai Hidier, Winner of the 1995 JJLS First Novel Fellowship", James Jones Literary Society Newsletter, Vol. 11, No. 3, Summer, 2002. Retrieved 2011-11-16.
  12. ↑ "Fiction Review: The Hindenburg Crashes Nightly", 06/28/1999, Publishers Weekly
  13. ↑ "Vassar Instructor Receives 1996 First Novel Award" Archived 2011-10-06 at the Wayback Machine , James Jones Literary Society Newsletter, Vol. 6, No. 2, Winter 1996. Retrieved 2011-11-15.
  14. ↑ "Reviews for Jumping the Green", Leslie Schwartz official site. Retrieved 2011-11-15.
  15. ↑ "Judith Barnes Receives 1998 James Jones First Novel Fellowship" Archived 2011-10-06 at the Wayback Machine , James Jones Literary Society. Retrieved 2011-11-15.
  16. ↑ "Wareham Leonard, Louise" Archived 2010-05-23 at the Wayback Machine , New Zealand Book Council. Retrieved 2011-11-15.
  17. ↑ "7th Annual First Novel Award Presented to Louise Wareham" Archived 2011-10-06 at the Wayback Machine , James Jones Literary Society Newsletter, Vol. 9, No. 2, Winter 1999-2000. Retrieved 2011-11-15.
  18. ↑ "An Interview with Stephen Policoff, Author of Beautiful Somewhere Else", by Tim Davis, Feb 10, 2005. Retrieved 2011-11-15.
  19. ↑ "Writing Teacher Wins 2000 James Jones First Novel Fellowship" Archived 2011-10-06 at the Wayback Machine , James Jones Literary Society Newsletter, Vol. 10, Nos. 1 & 2, Fall 2000/Winter 2001. Retrieved 2011-11-15.
  20. ↑ "Prospect resident captures fellowship", Times Leader , December 10, 2001, page 6A.
  21. ↑ "Novel Published by SEMO Press Garnering Awards", Southeast Missourian , January 24, 2005, p8A.
  22. ↑ "Cunningham Wins Fellowship", News & Record , October 26, 2003, page R6.
  23. ↑ "First Novel Fellowship Award Committee" Archived 2011-10-06 at the Wayback Machine , James Jones Literary Society Newsletter, Vol. 13, No. 4, Fall 2004. Retrieved 2011-11-16.
  24. ↑ Smith, Rich (August 30, 2017). "Meet John Smelcer, Native American Literature's "Living Con Job"". The Stranger. Retrieved 7 January 2020.
  25. ↑ Flood, Alison (30 August 2017). "John Smelcer dropped from YA award amid 'concerns' over integrity". The Guardian. Retrieved 7 January 2020.
  26. ↑ "Anne Campisi Wins First Novel Fellowship On Her Third Try" Archived 2011-10-06 at the Wayback Machine , James Jones Literary Society Newsletter, Vol. 14, No. 2, Summer 2005. Retrieved 2011-11-16.
  27. ↑ "Herta Feely named recipient of Jones First Novel Fellowship Archived 2012-04-15 at the Wayback Machine , James Jones Literary Society Newsletter, Vol. 15, No. 2, Summer 2006. Retrieved 2011-11-16.
  28. ↑ "Reading Guide: My Name is Mary Sutter" Archived 2011-11-27 at the Wayback Machine , Penguin Group USA . Retrieved 2011-11-27.
  29. ↑ "Landry’s ‘Blue Moon’ is shining", Telegram & Gazette , October 23, 2008.
  30. ↑ "James Jones First Novel Fellowship Awarded by Wilkes University Graduate Creative Writing Program, James Jones Society" Archived 2012-04-06 at the Wayback Machine , Wilkes University, 10/20/2009. Retrieved 2011-11-16.
  31. ↑ "Names and Faces" Archived 2010-10-18 at the Wayback Machine , Times Leader , October 14, 2010.
  32. ↑ "First prize greets novelist’s debut", by Richard Duckett, Telegram & Gazette , October 11, 2011.
  33. ↑ "Shakespearean witch inspires 1st novel winner" Archived 2013-09-21 at the Wayback Machine , JJLS Journal, Volume 18, Issue 2, Fall 2012.
  34. ↑ "James Jones Fellowship Contest", Wilkes University, retrieved 2012-09-19.
  35. ↑ "JJLS fellow wins Historical Novel Society's New Novel Award". James Jones Literary Society. 18 April 2016. Retrieved 11 April 2022.
  36. ↑ Mayk, Vicki. "Josie Sigler '99 Wins James Jones First Novel Fellowship". College of the Atlantic . Retrieved 11 April 2022.
  37. ↑ "2016 James Jones First Novel Fellowship recipient named". James Jones Literary Society. 6 November 2016. Retrieved 11 April 2022.
  38. ↑ "2017 James Jones First Novel Prize Awarded to Minneapolis writer". James Jones Literary Society. 7 September 2017. Retrieved 11 April 2022.
  39. ↑ Stanich, Samantha (18 September 2018). "Alicia Upano of Wahiawa, Hawai'i, Wins 2018 James Jones First Novel Fellowship Competition". Wilkes News. Retrieved 11 April 2022.
  40. ↑ Lissner, Caren (6 January 2020). "Maplewood Author Wins $10K Prize For Unpublished Novel". Maplewood, NJ Patch. Retrieved 11 April 2022.
  41. ↑ "Morgan M.X. Schulz wins 2020 James Jones First Novel Fellowship Competition". Times Leader . 7 August 2020. Retrieved 11 April 2022.
  42. ↑ D'Amico, Gabrielle (31 August 2021). "Rose Whitmore of San Leandro, Calif., Wins 2021 James Jones First Novel Fellowship Competition". Wilkes News. Wilkes University . Retrieved 11 April 2022.
  43. ↑ "Illinois Emerging Writers Competition" Archived 2012-04-25 at the Wayback Machine , Illinois Center for the Book, official site. Retrieved Nov 15, 2011.
  44. ↑ "Jesse White Announces 2010 Illinois Emerging Writers Competition" [ permanent dead link ], Secretary of State of Illinois Jesse White, press release, March 29, 2010.
  45. ↑ "EIU to establish World War II studies chair", Herald & Review , June 4, 2007.
  46. ↑ "James Jones Literary Society embraces EIU" Archived 2012-07-29 at archive.today , by Katey Mitchell, The Daily Eastern News , September 20, 2007.
  47. ↑ "Area High School Students Win James Jones Literary Society Essay Contest" Archived 2012-04-01 at the Wayback Machine , James Jones Literary Society web site. Retrieved Nov 15, 2011.
  48. ↑ "Banned Valentine", by C. D. Stelzer, Illinois Times , February 20, 2008.
  49. ↑ "Jones essay winners named", by Randy Harrison, Daily News, 4/18/2011.
  50. ↑ "Illinois students excel in James Jones essay contest", Tribune-Star , March 10, 2010.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.