Jones, Carrie 1971–

PERSONAL:

Born March 1, 1971, in Manchester, NH; daughter of Lew (a truck driver) and Betty (an office manager) Bernard; married; husband's name Doug (a hospital president); children: Emily. Education: Bates College, B.A., 1993; Vermont College, M.F.A., 2007. Politics: Democrat. Hobbies and other interests: Kayaking, sailing, running.

ADDRESSES:

Home and office—Ellsworth, ME. Agent—Edward Necarsulmer IV, McIntosh & Otis, Inc., 353 Lexington Ave., New York, NY 10016.

CAREER:

Author, journalist, and editor. Former reporter and editor for Ellsworth Weekly, Ellsworth, ME, and reporter for Ellsworth American, Ellsworth, and Bar Harbor Times, Bar Harbor, ME. Member of Ellsworth City Council, 2001-03.

MEMBER:

Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators.

AWARDS, HONORS:

Martin Dibner Award for Most-Promising Maine writer; Maine Literary Award for adult nonfiction; Maine Press Association awards for column, editorial, and sports writing; Independent Publishers Book Award for Best Young Adult-Juvenile novel, Maine Literary Award for Children's fiction, and Quick Pick for Reluctant Readers designation, American Library Association, all for Tips on Having a Gay (ex) Boyfriend.

WRITINGS:

NOVELS

Tips on Having a Gay (ex) Boyfriend, Flux (Woodbury, MN), 2007.

Love (and Other Uses for Duct Tape), Flux (Woodbury, MN), 2008.

Girl, Hero, Flux (Woodbury, MN), 2008.

Also editor of poetry journals.

SIDELIGHTS:

Carrie Jones, a former editor and journalist living in Maine, is the author of such critically acclaimed young adult novels as Tips on Having a Gay (ex) Boyfriend and its sequel, Love (and Other Uses for Duct Tape). In an online interview with Cynthia Leitich Smith for Cynsations, Jones noted that "young adult books are about more than an age. They are about an openness to change, about the questioning of personal and political identity as well as the evaluation of cultural mores and practices. There's an amazing freedom in writing for people who are into that."

Jones began Tips on Having a Gay (ex) Boyfriend upon hearing about a local high school student who suffered at the hands of her classmates after they learned that her former boyfriend was homosexual. Set in small-town Maine, the novel concerns Belle Philbrick, a senior who is devastated when her longtime boyfriend, Dylan, announces that he is gay. Belle soon finds herself targeted by a homophobic thug, and she turns to Dylan and another classmate, Tom, for support. Tips on Having a Gay (ex) Boyfriend garnered strong reviews. A critic in Publishers Weekly stated that "the author's poetic prose ably captures her heroine's emotional upheavals," and School Library Journal contributor Amy S. Pattee remarked that Jones "offers an atypical perspective of the coming-out story by legitimizing the love that is not lost, but changed, when young people grow up and apart."

In Love (and Other Uses for Duct Tape), rumors spread when Belle is spotted purchasing a pregnancy test for her best friend, Emily, and she questions the strength of her relationship with Tom. "The story is honest, earthy, and appealing," wrote Claire Rosser in Kliatt.

A musically gifted high school freshman copes with the loss of her stepfather, an abusive brother-in-law, and an untrustworthy best friend by penning letters to John Wayne in Girl, Hero, Jones's third novel. According to a contributor in Kirkus Reviews, teens "will respond to the self-aware but vulnerable Lily as she grows over time into her own unique hero."

"I write for teens because I want to empower them," Jones noted in a Class of 2k7 online interview. "I want to create a world they recognize and legitimize their world by presenting it as truth, but I also want teens to question that world a little bit, shake up that world view, question it. It's only by searching and exploring that we can figure our way back to the truth that is our own."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Bangor Daily News (Bangor, ME), June 30, 2008, "Maine People Inspire Novelist Carrie Jones."

Kirkus Reviews, July 1, 2008, review of Girl, Hero.

Kliatt, May, 2007, Claire Rosser, review of Tips on Having a Gay (ex) Boyfriend, p. 14; March, 2008, Claire Rosser, review of Love (and Other Uses for Duct Tape), p. 16.

Publishers Weekly, June 4, 2007, review of Tips on Having a Gay (ex) Boyfriend, p. 51.

School Library Journal, May, 2007, Amy S. Pattee, review of Tips on Having a Gay (ex) Boyfriend, p. 134.

Voice of Youth Advocates, June, 2007, Jenny Ingram and Kristen Moreland, review of Tips on Having a Gay (ex) Boyfriend, p. 143; June, 2008, Caitlin Augusta, review of Love (and Other Uses for Duct Tape), p. 144.

ONLINE

Carrie Jones Home Page,http://www.carriejonesbooks.com (August 1, 2008).

Carrie Jones Web log,http://carriejones.livejournal.com (August 1, 2008).

Class of 2k7 Web site,http://www.classof2k7.com/ (August 1, 2008), "Carrie Jones."

Cynsations Web site,http://cynthialeitichsmith.blogspot.com/ (September 24, 2007), Cynthia Leitich Smith, interview with Jones.

Writing Life Web log,http://ellsworthmaine.com/ (August 1, 2008), "Carrie Jones."