Love, H: The Letters of Helene Dorn and Hettie Jones
Hettie Jones is the author of numerous books, including her memoir of the Beat scene How I Became Hettie Jones; the poetry collection Drive; and the young adult Big Star Fallin’ Mama: Five Women in Black Music. She has published in many newspapers and magazines, including the Village Voice, Global City Review, and Ploughshares. She currently teaches in the Graduate Writing Program at The New School, the 92nd Street Y, and the Lower Eastside Girls Club, and she previously taught at several colleges and universities in New York and elsewhere. Jones lives in New York City.
The first Gulf War begins. Hettie copyedits redacted book of the FBI files on Malcolm X; Bedford Hills prison delays production of her book of poems from there. Helene gets a word processor. In August 1991 they see Thelma and Louise together. Helene remembers encountering Jackie Kennedy on Fifth Ave. in New York in the ’60s. Hettie reports a successful reading at feminist bookstore Judith’s Room, and a photo of Lisa Jones appears on the cover of Voice Literary Supplement, with a background shot of Whitfield Lovell painting. Hettie goes to Minneapolis to Walker Art Center for Kellie’s show Interrogating Identity. Helene’s Aunt Kate dies. Hettie proposes writing class for Parsons School of Design, is hired to speak at Middlebury College. Helene gets legacy from Aunt Kate, is finally able to quit her job. Hettie becomes a visiting writer at University of Wyoming, spring 1993.
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