Peter Manso profile of black novelist Gayl Jon, who took part standoff wh police that end wh suici of hband, Bob Higgs; holds nvictn that racist society doomed them to repeat their forebears' vlent history uned uple; photos (L)a
Contents:
- GAYL JON’S NOVELS OF OPPRSN
- GAYL JON
- GAYLE N. HIGGS
- GAYLE JON LOUISIANA
- OLIVIA GAYLE JON
- HELENE GAYLE, M.D.
GAYL JON’S NOVELS OF OPPRSN
In search of Gayl Jon, whose new novel breaks 22 years of silence. * gayle higgins jones *
Source photograph by Thomas search of Gayl Jon, whose new novel breaks 22 years of by PS Spencer. Source photograph by Thomas 17, 2021I knew om the begng that I would not meet Gayl see a recent photograph of her.
GAYL JON
* gayle higgins jones *
Lucille, her mother, read stori she herself had wrten to Gayl and Frankl Jr. Gayl started wrg around send gra.
Wh Gayl’s support, Lucille Jon published stori and novels late life, and Lucille’s wrg we n see how much the dghter mt have learned om the mother: They each e vernacular language, along wh the Southern gothic tradn, as the raw stuff of art.
GAYLE N. HIGGS
When her first novels were published, the mid-1970s, Gayl Jon’s talent was hailed by wrers om Jam Baldw to John Updike. Then she disappeared. * gayle higgins jones *
They were peers, and Gayl’s life has been a harvt of and homage to Lucille’s. Gayl Jon would achieve great regnn yet follow directly her mother’s footsteps: a quiet terr geni. She told me that childhood neighbors scribe Gayl and her brother as never playg wh the other kids, though they sometim passed a ball over the fence between the Jon home and theirs.
GAYLE JON LOUISIANA
Gayl Jon, thor rmatn, bgraphy, photograph, list of published books, vio, terview, articl, book reviews, and more. * gayle higgins jones *
Gayl Jon vised her grandmother there often and benefed om both a formally ted muny and a rich body of fay lore, cludg stori about a great-grandfather who found a settlement after Renstctn bearg his name, Warthumtown.
When me to high school, however, Lucille sent Gayl and her brother to be among the handful of Black stunts at Henry Clay High School.
There, acrdg to an English teacher, Sue Anne Allen, Gayl was a iendls stunt of exceptnal tellect. Her Spanish teacher and mentor, Anna Dodd, alerted the tablished wrer and Lexgton native Elizabeth Hardwick about Gayl.
OLIVIA GAYLE JON
Complete orr of Gayl Jon books Publitn Orr and Chronologil Orr. * gayle higgins jones *
Hardwick turn facilated Gayl’s admissn to the small, ele Connecticut College, where she studied wh the distguished poets William Meredh and Robert Hayn. This is what I me to know, too, as I pored over fdg aids of multiple librari, lookg for Gayl Jon. I found through the Connecticut College special llectns that Jon rrpond regularly wh Meredh, and found that he, a gay whe Frost scholar, was a part of a Black lerary muny.
” My first enunter wh Gayl Jon was through “Corregidora. Gayl Jon answered back: Hope won’t get out of the funk of history that we live wh today. ” Gayl Jon was not jt shy, but her shyns ma her difficult his ey.
As Tarana Burke, the founr of #MeToo and thor of the newly released memoir “UnBound, ” said, “Like Ntozake Shange and Maya Angelou, Gayl Jon mak you s the realy of sexual vlence the liv of Black women, not jt the moment but the nflictg emotns, the guilt, the shame, and even the attachment survivors n feel to those who have harmed them. She highlighted what was, her view, the “very real, upsettg acplishment of Gayl Jon this, her send novel: sister misrmatn about women — about women, general, about black women particular, and pecially about young black girls forced to al wh the sexual, moltg vlatns of their mds and bodi by their fathers, their mothers’ boyiends, their s and uncl.
HELENE GAYLE, M.D.
Gayle N. Higgs is a Pediatric Nurse Practner Philalphia, PA. Fd Higgs's phone number, addrs and more. * gayle higgins jones *
Gayl Jon met her partner, Bob Higgs, when she was an assistant profsor at the Universy of Michigan the late 1970s. But they moved to her mother’s hoe after Gayl’s father died.
View Gayle Jon rults Louisiana (LA) cludg current phone number, addrs, relativ, background check report, and property rerd wh Whepag. * gayle higgins jones *
Bob and Gayl red for her.