Hardy Sims Jones Jr.

Hardy—Chip to most—grew up in Pensacola, Florida, and as a teenager moved to Louisiana. After receiving his B.A. from LSU, he headed to Memphis for his M.F.A and to feed his love of the blues. Needing some adventure, he went to Asia for a year where he taught American Literature and Creative Writing, began beaucoup stories, traveled, and fell in love. Then the Cajun half of his lineage longed for a return to the bayous and he found himself at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette pursuing a Ph, D. in Creative Writing.

Chip Jones So Far

Education

M.F.A. Creative Writing, University of Memphis May 2001
B.A. Creative Writing and American Literature, Louisiana State University May 1998

Publications

“Visitin’ Cormierville.” Excerpt from novel Seeking Salvation. The Iconoclast, 2004.

“A Butcher’s Friend.” Excerpt from novel Every Bitter Thing. The Jabberwock

Review, 2001.

“I Got Me a Baby Bull.” Nonfiction. Legions of Light, 2000.

“Ask the Drunk Lady.” Short story. Chips ‘n’ Cheese, 2000.

“Sleepless Bed.” Poem. Chips ‘n’ Cheese, 2000.

“From the Drunk Lady’s Ex-Husband.” Short story. Chips ‘n’ Cheese, 2000.

“Love is Love.” Short story. The Delta, 1998.

“Moving Day.” Short story. The Delta, 1997.

“Time.” Poem. Best Poems of 1996, 1996.

“Love Thy Neighbor.” Poem. Dance on the Horizon, 1994.

Teaching Experience

Graduate Assistant, University of Louisiana at Lafayette, 2003 –

English 205 American Literature I, Fall 2004

English 102 Composition to Literature, Spring & Fall 2004.

English 223 Creative Writing, Spring 2004.

English 101 Rhetoric and Composition, Spring & Fall 2003.

Full-time Instructor, Kyonggi-do Center for Teaching Foreign Language in South Korea, 2001-2002.

Modern American Literature

Creative Writing

Composition and Rhetoric

Manager of the English Learning Center, University of Memphis, 2000

Part-time Instructor, University of Memphis, 2000-2001.

English 1101.

English 1102.

World Literature 2010.

Graduate Assistant, University of Memphis, 1999-2000.

English 1101.

Manager of the English Learning Center, University of Memphis, 1998-1999

Professional Experience

Co-Editor of The Southwestern Review, University of Louisiana at Lafayette, 2005

Reader for The Southwestern Review, University of Louisiana at Lafayette, 2004.

Abstract-Reader for University of Louisiana at Lafayette Graduate Student Conference, 2003

Traveled around Kyonggi-do province and gave lectures on Creative Writing

and American Literature to Korean English teachers, 2001- 2002.

Helped Korean English teachers develop writing projects, 2001-2002.

Part-time English Instructors’ Labor Representative at University of Memphis, 2000-2001.

Interviewed Richard Ford as part of River City Writers Series, 2000.

Associate Editor of Chips and Cheese: A Journal of Satire and Mediocre Wit

and Cynicism, 1999-2001.

Reader for River City Short Story Contest, 1999.

Attended the University of Iowa’s Summer Writing Festival, 1995.

Grants and Honors

Editor’s Choice Award, The National Library of Poetry, 1994.

Dean’s List at Louisiana State University, 1995-1998.

Editor’s Choice Award, The National Library of Poetry, 1996

Graduate Assistantship, University of Memphis, 1998-2000.

Short Story, “Moving Day,” favorably reviewed by Juniot Diaz, author of the story collection

“Drowning” and the novel Negocios, at River City Writers Series, 1999.

Novel, Every Bitter Thing, favorably reviewed by Randall Kenan, author of the story collection

“Let the Dead Bury their Dead,” the novel A Visitation of Spirits, and awarded the American

Academy of Arts and Letters, 2000.

Mini-grant from the State of Louisiana Division of the Arts for nonfiction book People of the

Good God, 2001.

Every Bitter Thing exhibited at the Louisiana Book Festival, 2002.

Honors at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, 2003-2004.

Doctoral Graduate Assistantship, University of Louisiana at Lafayette, 2003-.

Readings

“Mudbug Come Clean.” Nonfiction, excerpt from People of the Good God,

University of Memphis, 2000.

“Love is Love.” Short story. Kyonggi-do Center for Teaching Foreign

Language (South Korea), 2001.

“Moving Day.” Short story. Kyonggi-do Center for Teaching Foreign

Language (South Korea), 2001.

“A New Bike for Little Mike.” Short story. Kyonggi-do Center for Teaching

Foreign Language (South Korea), 2002.

“Stoner’s Sojourn.” Short story. Thursday Night Reading Series at the

University of Louisiana at Lafayette, 2003.

“Mama’s Boy.” Short story. Thursday Night Reading Series at the University

of Louisiana at Lafayette, 2003.

“Mules for Manhood.” Short story. Thursday Night Reading Series at the

University of Louisiana at Lafayette, 2004.

Presentations

“Reclaiming African American Masculinity and Improving Race Relations in

Rural Louisiana.” Popular Culture Association/American Culture

Association Annual Conference, 2005.

“Childhood for Better Fiction.” Kyonggi-do Center for Teaching Foreign

Language (South Korea), 2002.

“The First Time I Spoke Korean, or Getting Over Your Writing Fears.”

Kyonggi-do Center for Teaching Foreign Language (South Korea), 2002.

“Using Memories to Write.” Kyonggi-do Center for Teaching Foreign

Language (South Korea), 2002.

“Introduction to the American Academic Essay’s Structure.” Kyonggi-do

Center for Foreign Language Teaching (South Korea), 2001.

“Describing Place in Writing.” Kyonggi-do Center for Foreign

Language Teaching (South Korea), 2001.

Research and Teaching Interests

Creative Writing (Fiction & Nonfiction)

Early American Literature

Modern American Literature

Modern British Literature

Modern Irish Literature

Modern Latin American Fiction

Modern Caribbean Fiction

Latino/a Literature

Humor

Biography

Autobiography

Chip Jones on UL Lafayette

Lafayette is an interesting and entertaining city for anyone but especially for a writer to live in. There are plenty of artistic outlets – food, music, dancing, and visual arts – to provide you with inspiration and subjects. The Creative Writing professors at UL are extremely accessible. The best feature, however, about the Creative Writing concentration at UL is that you are not overwhelmed with a lot of workshop requirements. This allows you the freedom to write, revise, and experiment without

constantly having to worry about producing with a workshop in mind. This system has allowed me to

produce many short stories as well as focus on my long fiction.

Read a Sample of Chip's Writing

Go to UL-Lafayette Creative Writing Anthology

Creative Writing home Page

English Department Home Page

© 2001, University of Louisiana at Lafayette.
This site designed and maintained by The Creative Writing Concentration of the English Department of the University of Louisiana at Lafayette.
To contact us by mail: Director of Creative Writing, English Department, Box 44691, UL Lafayette, Lafayette LA 70504-4691; by telephone, 337-482-5478;
by email, jlm8047@louisiana.edu.
Last updated:November 10, 2005.