Media Room
Welcome to my Media Room! Whether you are a journalist, media professional, event planner, podcast host, or a book club member, I’ve gathered information and promotion materials below you can use and download for your programs and marketing.
Thank you, Anita.
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@AnitaGailJones
About Anita Gail Jones & The Peach Seed
Anita Gail Jones Bio
Anita Gail Jones is a visual artist, professional storyteller and writer, born and raised in Albany, Georgia, living in the San Francisco Bay Area.
From her earliest days, she’s been telling stories. Beginning at age five, when she went to school with her sister, Betty, and was allowed to “audit” Mrs. Mary Louise DuBignon Clark’s fifth grade classroom at Hazard Laboratory School in Albany, Georgia, she sat in the back and told stories by drawing pictures.
As soon as Anita started school and could string together enough words to make paragraphs she became a writer: asking and trying to answer questions about her world.
This led to the process of writing her debut novel, The Peach Seed, set in 2012 Southwest Georgia with flashbacks to the 1960s.
The manuscript was selected as a Finalist in the 2021 PEN/Bellwether Prize for Socially Engaged Fiction, and will be published August 1, 2023 by Henry Holt & Company.
In 2002, Anita and her husband, Rob Roehrick, founded the Gaines-Jones Education Foundation, awarding need-based college scholarships to Black students in southwest Georgia and the San Francisco Bay Area in memory of her mother, sister, and father.
The Peach Seed
“The sweeping story of a Black family in the South focuses on resilience and love…Jones is always insightful about family dynamics. And it’s a pleasure to see older people as main characters in a novel, depicted fully and without condescension. Engaging characters keep a complex multigenerational plot moving to embody decades of Black history.”
—Kirkus
SHORT:
Fletcher Dukes and Altovise Benson reunite after decades apart—and a mountain of secrets—in this debut exploring the repercussions of a single choice and how an enduring talisman challenges and holds a family together.
MEDIUM:
Fletcher Dukes and Altovise Benson reunite after decades apart—and a mountain of secrets. Their bond, built on county fairs, sit-ins, and marches, once seemed a sure and forever thing. But their marriage plans were disrupted when the police turned a peaceful protest violent.
Before Altovise fled the South, Fletcher carved for her a special peach seed monkey with diamond eyes—a talisman fathers usually gift their sons on their thirteenth birthday.
An indelible portrait of a family, The Peach Seed shows how kin pass down legacies of sorrow, joy, and strength. This debut explores the repercussions of a single choice and how an enduring talisman challenges and holds a family together. It is a parable of how a glimmer of hope as small as a seed can ripple across generations.
CLICK for LONGER DESCRPTION
Fletcher Dukes and Altovise Benson reunite after decades apart—and a mountain of secrets—in this debut exploring the repercussions of a single choice and how an enduring talisman challenges and holds a family together.
On a routine trip to the Piggly Wiggly in Albany, Georgia, widower Fletcher Dukes smells a familiar perfume, then sees a tall woman the color of paper shell pecans with a strawberry birthmark on the nape of her neck. He knows immediately that she is his lost love, Altovise Benson. Their bond, built on county fairs, sit-ins, and marches, once seemed a sure and forever thing. But their marriage plans were disrupted when the police turned a peaceful protest violent.
Before Altovise fled the South, Fletcher gave her a peach seed monkey with diamond eyes. As we learn via harrowing flashbacks, an enslaved ancestor on the coast of South Carolina carved the first peach seed, a talisman that, ever since, each father has gifted his son on his thirteenth birthday.
Giving one to Altovise initiated a break in tradition, irrevocably shaping the lives of generations of Dukeses. Recently, Fletcher has made do on his seven acres with his daughter Florida’s check-ins, his drop biscuits, and his faithful dog. But as he begins to reckon with long-ago choices, he finds he isn’t the only one burdened with unspoken truths.
An indelible portrait of a family, The Peach Seed shows how kin pass down legacies of sorrow, joy, and strength. This debut explores the repercussions of a single choice and how an enduring talisman challenges and holds a family together. It is a parable of how a glimmer of hope as small as a seed can ripple across generations.
Excerpt from The Peach Seed
LISTEN:
Anita Gail Jones narrates the audiobook for The Peach Seed.
LISTEN to this excerpt (4:50 min) – It’s March, 2012 in Albany, Georgia, a southern city running on country fuel.
READ an Excerpt from The Peach Seed – Chapter 1:
Recent Interviews
✳️ LIVE WITH ANITA AT MALIK BOOKS in conversation with Keonté Turner
✳️ ANITA AT GREEN APPLE BOOKS in Conversation with author Margaret Wilkerson Sexton: An engaging writer-to-writer conversation about The Peach Seed.
✳️ ANITA ON THE WOMEN’S EYE PODCAST in Conversation with Author/Host Laurie McAndish King on Her Passionate Journey to Pen The Peach Seed.
✳️ ANITA INTERVIEW ON BROWN GIRL COLLECTIVE: A delightful conversation about The Peach Seed with Marcie L. Thomas, founder of Brown Girl Collective.
✳️ ANITA ON ABC7-KGO (SF Bay area) JOBINA’S EXCLUSIVE BOOK CLUB: with Jobina Fortson, breaking news & traffic anchor for ABC7-KGO.
Recent Events
Taking a well-deserved break. See you soon!
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📚 Tues. October 8, 2024 ~ ONLINE ONLY
Making Biscuits & Talking Books
12PM PT | 3PM ET
An exclusive Drop Biscuit Virtual Cook-in! Anita’s first in a limited series exploring the intersection of words and food in storytelling.
Special guest author will be Charmaine Wilkerson, author of Black Cake (2022, Random House), joining Anita for a lively, in-depth conversation about their debut novels, writing processes and such morsels as how food can be a language between characters. As we commune, willing participants can bake-along from their kitchens, or simply sit in the grid and visit. For details, recipe and Zoom link go here.
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☯️ Thu. ~ Sun. October 9-13, 2024 ~ Cazadero, CA
Sonoma County Writers Camp
Ratna Ling Retreat Center
Curated by founders and published authors, Ellen Sussman and Elizabeth Stark. Anita will be Special Guest Author and will teach a master class: How Characters are Like an Iceberg: 10% in primary awareness; 90% Below the surface (where story lives)
This retreat will infuse you and your writing with creative energy!
This session will explore the question: What is the story you have to tell? Strengthen access to your deep knowledge, gain complete permission to wield your voice, your insights, your way of looking at the world. Experience the power of tapping into your most urgent, personal passions and obsessions. Celebrate yourself as an instrument of story, finely honed by the life you’ve led, the lessons you’ve learned, the way you see people, places and things. In the contemplative, gorgeous space provided by Ratna Ling, discover the ways a profound and meditative mindfulness deepens the creative work and opens its meanings. In the process, develop scenes and stories that readers, equally, have to read!
To sign up: office@sonomacountywriterscamp.com
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📚 Thu. September 5, 2024 ~ ONLINE ~ 5:30pm PT/8:30pm ET
Anita in Conversation with Jonathan Eig, Pulitzer Prize winner for King: A Life
Had the pleasure of meeting Jonathan at the Sonoma Valley Authors Festival. His book, King: A Life, won the 2024 Pulitzer Prize for Biography. Looking forward to sitting in the grid for a brisk, insightful convo! Join us!
👉🏾 Watch Here on Sept 5th.
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📚 Fri. September 13, 2024 ~ Sisters, OR
Sisters Festival of Books
STORYSLAM
The Belfry
302 E Main Avenue
Sisters, OR 97759
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📚 Sat. September 14, 2024 ~ Sisters, OR
Sisters Festival of Books
Reading & Signing
Tickets: https://www.sistersfob.org/
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📚 Sun. July 30, 2024
Release of The Peach Seed paperback
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New York City Area
📚 Tues. March 26, 2024 ~ New York City
Poets & Writers Gala | In Celebration of Writers
6:00 PM EST ~ Cocktails | 7PM ~ Seated Dinner | 9PM ~ Dessert Reception
Pier Sixty
Chelsea Piers
New York, NY 10011
Anita will be a table host for this festive event.
David Remnick will host. Laurie Halse Anderson, Roxane Gay,
and Nikole Hannah-Jones will receive the 2024 Barnes & Noble
Writers for Writers Award. Mitchell Kaplan will be honored
with the Champion for Writers Award. Nihar Malaviya,
CEO of Penguin Random House, is gala chair.
Purchase Tables or Tickets Here
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Promotion Materials
To be used for event, podcasts, book club and media programs and marketing
Marketing Links/Downloads
Image Downloads
(Click for Hi-Res to Download)
What People are Saying…
The Peach Seed Book Trailer Videos
The Peach Seed Book Trailer
Written & Produced by Anita Gail Jones
The Making of The Peach Seed Book Trailer
Behind the Scenes on Location with Cast & Crew
Assets
Anita in Action: Storytelling, Interviews & More
Anita Gail Jones: Oral Tradition Storyteller
My oral tradition storytelling grew out of an early desire to write and illustrate children’s stories. I’ve loved combining storytelling, visual arts and writing in my K-12 workshops for San Francisco Bay area schools.
Featured in Marin Independent Journal:
Novato storyteller weaves tales inspired by upbringing
Contact Anita
For media, speaking, speaking and interview requests or to invite Anita to join your group for a 20-30 minute call, please complete the form below:
