Press Releases

November 9, 1999
Author Kaylie Jones to Read at Duke Lecture Hall

Contact:
Darren Johnson
(516) 287 8313
Fax: (516) 283 4081

Southampton, NY -- Novelist and screenwriter Kaylie Jones will read from her work in the Duke Lecture Hall at Southampton College of Long Island University on Thursday, November 11, at 8 p.m. This Honors Lecture Series event is free and open to the public.

The daughter of famed author James Jones ("From Here to Eternity," 1951), Kaylie Jones was born and raised in Paris. She received a B.A. from Wesleyan University, an M.F.A. in creative writing from Columbia University and attended the Pushkin Institute of Russian Language Study in Moscow. She currently teaches in the MFA in Writing program at Southampton College.

She notes, "Since I am a teacher of creative writing, it is difficult to pinpoint exactly what writing has been most influential to me. John Gardner's "On Moral Fiction" and Flannery O'Connor's essays on the art of writing come to mind. Every book on the art of writing I have read has somehow come in handy. I take the approach that no story is boring or unimportant, that characterization and motivation are crucial to a story. I always ask my students, 'Who is telling this story?' This obliges them to concentrate on the narrative voice. Most important, I would say my reading of fiction, the primary source, is most helpful, and I choose stories for my students to read and study. 'Does this move you?' is my primary question."

This past summer Kaylie Jones had organized a symposium at Southampton College in memory of her father, who died in 1977. An extraordinary convergence of literary talent -- including Norman Mailer, Joseph Heller, Budd Schulberg, Peter Matthiessen and many other well-known writers -- talked about the elder Jones' contributions to American letters.

Regarding Kaylie Jones' writing, The New York Times wrote: "Although we've got used to second-generation actors equaling or surpassing the accomplishments of their parents, the same hasn't happened with second-generation novelists. Nonetheless, there are a few, like Martin Amis and Susan Cheever, who are making names for themselves and added to their small number ought to be Kaylie Jones, the daughter of James Jones."

Kaylie Jones' books include "A Soldier's Daughter Never Cries" (Bantam Books, 1990), "Quite the Other Way" (Doubleday, 1989) and "As Soon as It Rains" (Doubleday, 1986). She has just completed her fourth novel.

Jones will also be a part of the Writers Talk series at Southampton College, hosted by English Professor Kit Hathaway, on February 23 at 7 p.m. On December 1 at 7 p.m., best-selling author Dava Sobel ("Longitude") will speak. On December 8 at 7 p.m., poet Edward Field will read from his work. The events are in the Duke Lecture Hall, free and open to the public.