On September 23, 2023, Patricia Spears Jones, adjunct associate professor of English, was named a New York State Poet and awarded the Walt Whitman Citation of Merit for Poetry.
Jones’ creative career has been incredibly expansive, from poetry to playwriting and from teaching to activism. She has published poems in several prestigious publications, including The New Yorker, The Brooklyn Rail, and Plume. Her work has also been included in several anthologies, including African American Poetry: 250 Years of Struggle and Song and Why To These Rocks: 50 Years of Poems from the Community of Writers. Her fifth (and newest) poetry collection, The Beloved Community, which was published on September 26, 2023, “interrogates the necessity and fragility of human bonds.”
The state poet award, alongside the state author award, was established in 1985 by former Governor Mario Cuomo and is presented once every other year by the New York State Writers Institute. Honorees receive $10,000 and retain the position for two years.