Shawn R. Jones is co-owner of Tailored Tutoring LLC and Kumbaya Academy, Inc. Shawn graduated summa cum laude from Rutgers-Camden with a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology. While at Rutgers, she was the recipient of the Rutgers-Creative Writing Award and member of the Alpha Sigma Lambda Honor Society. She is the author of two poetry chapbooks, Womb Rain (2008) and A Hole to Breathe (2015). She is also the author of the daily devotional, Pictures in Glass Frames (2011). Her poetry has appeared in New Ohio Review, TriQuarterly, River Heron Review, Guesthouse, Essence, and elsewhere. She has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize and holds an MFA from Rutgers-Camden. Her poetry collection, Date of Birth, has won the 2022 Lexi Rudnitsky First Book Prize in Poetry and is forthcoming from Persea Books, 2023.
Shawn is also a dance instructor for Halliday Dance, a member of the Langston Hughes Society, and a member of No River Twice, a poetry performance troupe. When she is not writing or teaching, Shawn enjoys spending time with her family and lucky pit bull, Ross.