University of Iowa

Jeremy B. Jones

Jeremy B. Jones is the author of Bearwallow: A Personal History of a Mountain Homeland, which was awarded the 2014 Appalachian Book of the Year in nonfiction and a gold medal in the 2015 Independent Publisher Book Awards for memoir. His essays appear in Oxford American, Brevity, The Iowa Review, and elsewhere. Jeremy serves as an associate professor of English at Western Carolina University and the series co-editor of In Place, a literary nonfiction book series from Vandalia Press. 

Instructor Events

From Family History to Literary Nonfiction

Weeklong July 15 to July 20 2018

Likely we’ve all sat through relatives’ long-winding journeys through photo albums full of long-forgotten second cousins; we all have our own quirky great uncles and larger-than-life forefathers; we’ve all heard of the romance of Granddaddy and Mamaw, of the old homeplaces full of closets of skeletons. But how does one take these passed-around stories and move them beyond family reunions? How do we, as writers, determine what is the stuff of artful literary nonfiction and what is best relegated to family history?

Writing about Nowhere

Weekend July 21 to July 22 2018

This course will examine the rich tradition of nonfiction writing about place; however, it will immediately detour onto the road less traveled. We don’t all have stories of Paris or Kilimanjaro. Some of us care about Paducah or desolate prairies. What does a writer need to capture the tiny towns and empty spaces, the everyday Main Streets and failing factories to create engaging, layered essays that reach far-flung readers?