
Constantine Jones is a Greek-American thingmaker raised in Tennessee & housed in Brooklyn. They facilitate creative writing workshops & have displayed or performed work across New York City. They are the author of the novel, In Still Rooms (The Operating System 2020) and a collaborative chapbook with Portuguese visual artist Vicente Sampaio, Baleen: A Poem In Twelve Days (Ursus Americanus 2022).
[Ruins.In.Progress.] is an ongoing multi-modal poetry project combining elements of memoir, research, photography, sound-art & performance to document the collision of various aspects of my own identity as they exist with & further complicate my Queer experience. Landscapes of urban & rural construction sites / demolition zones / gentrification areas serve as the points of collision for these identities while also providing a language for me to explore the strange kinship I feel for other structures & spaces in constant flux.
PUBLICATIONS
Book, IN STILL ROOMS (The Operating System) [2020]
Poem "For the +" included in Hear Me: Voices of the Epidemic, sound & light installation at the NYC AIDS Memorial Park in commemoration of World AIDS Day [2020]
Poems “ABSTRACT—[for potential reality]” & “NAPSALM (for the +)—Book of Isaiah 61” selected for Indolent Books HIV Here & Now countdown to World AIDS Day series. [2019]
Contributor to Joanna C. Valente's #Survivor photo book (The Operating System, 2020) & interviewed for ongoing photo series exploring the aftermath of sexual violence.
Text art piece “Sorry But You Can't Come In” published at Yes, Poetry [2019]
Hybrid photopoem & sound art piece “VOICEOVER—SAPPHO” published in Interim [2019]
Hybrid photopoem “[ island bruise ]” & Poem “A NOTE ON THE TEXT—” published in Bombay Gin [2019]
Poem “ABSTRACT—[for potential reality]” published in Fugue [2019]
Poem “FOOTNOTE TO POLITICS1” & Story “Liver” published in SHIFT [2019]
Hybrid photopoem “[ news from below ]” published in Hematopoiesis [2019]
Hybrid photopoem “[ cloudy sunday ]” published in Stone Pacific Zine [2019]
Hybrid photopoem “[ please hold ]” published in Blood Tree Literature [2018]
Poem “THE GUT” published in The PEN Poetry Series [2018]
Contributor to
HIV Awareness Project, And So It Happened
[2018]
AWARDS / READINGS / WORKSHOPS OFFERED
[2020]
- Poem For You / Stubborn Hope workshop @ Dec. Brooklyn Poets YAWP
- Re-Visioning the Timeline fall poetry workshop @ Brooklyn Poets
- Chorus of Selves summer poetry workshop @ Brooklyn Poets
- Operating System Marathon Reading @ Sala Diaz, AWP San Antonio
- Digital featured reader, Flight Recorder @ The Tank NYC
[2019]
- Poem “Crossroad Blues / O, Deth (Reprisal)” voted Poem of the Year at Brooklyn Poets Annual Smackdown.
- Performance of Deth Medley Blues project as headliner for CCNY MFA Reading Series.
- Performance of “Ordinary Poem” at Walt Whitman Way Street Naming Ceremony in Brooklyn.
- Poem “SCREENING” selected by Mark Doty as 2nd Prize Winner, Brooklyn Poets Walt Whitman Bicentennial Contest.
[2018]
- Multimedia
performance of [ Ruins.In.Progress ] as headliner for
Open Expression Salon, hosted by Lenox Café, Harlem New York.
EDUCATION
M.F.A. City College of New York [2017]
- Discipline: Hybrid poetry / fiction / memoir
B.A. Middle Tennessee State University, Murfreesboro TN [2014]
- Major: Creative Writing
- Minor: German Language & Literature
WORK EXPERIENCE
- Adjunct Assistant Professor, CCNY [2015—present]
- Courses taught: First Year Composition / Writing For the Humanities / Advanced Prose Workshop / Intro to Creative Writing Workshop / Intermediate Creative Writing Workshop / Writing for the Social Sciences
- Managing Editor, Fiction [2016—2020]
- Publishing Assistant, Guernica [2015—2016]