Editor’s note: The Baldwin Times welcomes new full-time staff writer Jessica Jones. Her name will be familiar, as she has provided a number of articles for the North Baldwin County publication in recent months. As Jones will become a fixture in the community and even more so in The Times, below is an introduction to readers in her own words.

BAY MINETTE, Ala. — It is my pleasure to take on the position of staff writer at The Baldwin Times in Bay Minette.

My name is Jessica Jones and I live in Stockton — where I spent most of my childhood; my teenage- and young-adult years were spent in Mobile and Chickasaw.

I live with my parents, sister and miniature dachshund named Layla, in a historic home.

I earned a bachelor’s degree in English, with a psychology minor and a master’s degree in English, with a creative writing specialization from the University of South Alabama in Mobile.

I enjoy writing poetry and dabbling in photography in my spare time; I have published six poems in various academic journals and recently published my first book of poetry and photography, “I Am By Nature a Conflagration.”

I was the 2008 poetry editor and event coordinator of Oracle, the University of South Alabama’s fine arts and literary magazine, and served on the poetry editorial board in 2007 and 2009.

I have worked as a district-one director’s assistant for Poetry Out Loud, a high-school recitation scholarship program, for the past three

years.

I won the Shelley Memorial Creative Writing Scholarship in 2007 and am a member of the Alabama Writers’ Forum and the Association of Writers and Writing Programs.

I have instructed English as a second language at the University of South Alabama and taught as a summer-programs reading instructor for the Institute of Reading Development.

I enjoy many types of music and dance, and am fascinated by history and nature.

I was a full-time staff writer for Gulf Coast Newspaper’s Daphne Bulletin from November 2007 until August 2008 and have contributed to the company’s newspapers and magazines ever since.

I am glad to be working full-time once again as a staff writer because I enjoy writing, photography, meeting new people and learning new things.