Dr. Andy Jones is the poet laureate emeritus of Davis.
Dr. Andy is a poet, MC, faculty member and academic director at UC Davis, radio talk show host, public speaker, and essayist. Andy has taught writing and literature classes at the University of California, Davis since 1990, and has hosted “Dr. Andy’s Poetry and Technology Hour” on KDVS, Wednesday afternoons at 5:00 p.m., since 2000. Among the 1,000 guests he has interviewed on the radio show are Margaret Atwood, Sherman Alexie, Ian MacKaye, and Gary Snyder. In addition to a wide variety of classes on advanced non-fiction writing, writing across media, creative writing, American Literature, poetry, and theory, Andy has taught several freshman seminars on topics such as Jazz and Literature, The Beat Generation in Poetry and Film, Creativity and Technology, Writing About the Future, and Becoming Borg. In 2006, the Associated Students at UC Davis named him Educator of the Year.
His poems have appeared in many small journals and newspapers, including Epicenter, A Light Left On, The Homestead Review, Snakeskin, The Blue Moon Literary and Art Review, and The Sacramento News and Review. Andy is working on a variety of book projects, including a book on putting poetry into prose, a book on creativity and professional development, and a book on parenting (co-authored by his wife, Kate). Andy’s book Where’s Jukie? was published in 2014 and includes essays by his wife, Kate Duren. His book In the Almond Orchard: Coming Home from War represented Yolo County veterans and was supported by the California Arts Council. In 2006, Andy’s book of poetry, Split Stock, was published by John Natsoulas Press.
Andy hosts the Poetry Night Reading Series on the first and third Thursdays of each month at the John Natsoulas Gallery (521 1st Street, Davis, CA), both of which begin at 8 p.m. Readers have included UC Davis faculty Francisco X. Alarcón, John Boe, Joshua Clover, Jack Forbes, Clarence Major, Sandra McPherson, Katie Peterson, Joe Wenderoth, and Alan Williamson, as well as many regional and traveling poets, including Molly Peacock, Dana Gioia, and James Ragan.
In addition to his poetry-centric work on KDVS and serving as Poetry Night host, Andy regularly volunteers his time and talents for educational and literary causes. For many years he chaired the Essay Evaluation part of the Yolo County Academic Decathlon. He has served the California Arts Commission as a judge for the Sacramento “Poetry Out Loud” competitions, is the Chair of the Cultural Action Committee of Davis, co-authored the position of Poet Laureate of the City of Davis, has hosted fundraisers for Haiti disaster relief, Tree Davis, and other local charities (through Davis Sunrise Rotary), and has volunteered as poetry faculty for the San Francisco Writers Conference since 2005.
Andy lives in Davis with his wife and three children. He can be found on Twitter: http://twitter.com/andyojones.
