Jones won the Pulitzer Prize for his first novel,
The Known World (2003), which critics describe
as an “exceptional,” “powerful,” “fascinating”
debut novel of epic proportions that ranks with
the works of Faulkner, TONI MORRISON, and Ga-
briel Garcia Marquez. The Known World is set in
Manchester County, Virginia, in 1855, and centers
around the life and death of black Virginia farmer
and former slave Henry Townsend, who gains his
freedom, acquires 50 acres of farmland, and be-
comes a slave master to 33 slaves, whom he treats
as a white master would. After Townsend dies,
the “known world” that centers on his Virginia
plantation gradually disintegrates: Freedmen are
reenslaved, slaves run away to freedom, his mis-
tress consorts with servants, and white men get
away with murder. According to St. John, “By fo-
cusing on an African American slaveholder, Jones
forcefully demonstrates how institutionalized slav-
ery jeopardized all levels of civilized society so that
no one was really free” (131).
Commenting on the writing of his carefully
researched book, which was also selected for the
Today Show Book Club, Jones stated during an
interview:
I was trying to find out how these people sur-
vived in these horrifying conditions. I think
one way the slaves survived was through the
strength of their families. In many ways, we
are facing the same problem: the unraveling
and destruction of our families and the con-
sequences of that. Families indicate we have a
love for something beyond ourselves and that
is the key to our survival. (Fleming 254)Jones is the recipient of the Lannan Founda-
tion Grant (1994, 2003), the Cleveland Founda-
tion Anisfield Wolf Book Award (2004), and a
National Endowment for the Arts fellowship. His
stories and articles have been published in numer-
ous journals and magazines, including ESSENCE,
CALLALOO, Ploughshares, Paris Review, and The
New Yorker.
Jones continues to build his oeuvre, capturing
the attention of American readers across racial and
educational lines. Heralded as a new talent, Jones
takes his writing seriously. When asked about the
current popular trends of African-American lit-
erature, Jones answered: “I refuse to write about
ignorance, despair and weakness, [or] about peo-
ple going to clubs and doing dumb things. I don’t
want to write about ‘you go, girl’ people. I want to
write about the things which helped us to survive:
the love, grace, intelligence and strength of us as a
people” (Fleming, 254).BIBLIOGRAPHY
Fleming, Robert. “Just Stating the Case Is ‘More than
Enough’ ” (Interview with Edward P. Jones). Pub-
lishers Weekly 250, no. 32 (August 11, 2003): 254.
Grossman, Lev. “On Top of the World.” Time, 19 April
2004, p. 74.
Jackson, Lawrence P. Interview with Edward P. Jones.
African American Review (Spring 2000): 95.
Review of Lost in the City. Publishers Weekly 239, no.
15 (March 23, 1992): 59.
Review of The Known World. Kirkus Review 71, no. 14
(July 15, 2003): 928.
St. John, Edward. Interview with Edward P. Jones. Li-
brary Journal 128, no. 13 (August 2003): 131.
Loretta G. WoodardJones, Gayl (1949– )
Although Gayl Jones has only recently received
critical and public attention, she has distinguished
herself over the last 25 years as a teller of intense
psychological tales. Early in her career she wrote of
violence and madness in the lives of African Amer-
icans, especially women, in vivid detail. She did so
by allowing the victims to speak for themselves. In
her early work, the stories focus on physical and
sexual abuse and its psychological effects; the later
poetic narratives present the historical experience
of slavery, especially in Brazil. More recently, her
novels have emphasized the possibility of healing
within the context of personal and social prob-
lems. In all the work, the voices of the speakers fol-
low the black oral tradition.
Both the oral tradition and the desire to tell
stories emerged from Jones’s childhood in Lex-
ington, Kentucky. She found the languages of both286 Jones, Gayl