PERSON: Solomon Jones

Self-employed

Author/host

SOLOMON JONES IS an Essence bestselling author and award-winning journalist who has been featured nationally on NPR’s Morning Edition, CNN Headline News, in Essence magazine, and in a Verizon advertising campaign called Realize, which spotlighted entrepreneurs who overcame adversity to succeed.

Jones is currently an award-winning columnist for the Philadelphia Daily News and morning host for 900 am WURD radio in Philadelphia. In addition, he is a blogger and frequent on-air commentator for NPR-affiliate WHYY.

Jones began his professional writing career in 1993, penning articles for the Philadelphia Tribune while living at the Ridge Avenue Shelter. He graduated cum laude with a journalism B.A. from Temple University in 1997, and went on to be published in Essence, Newsday, the Philadelphia Inquirer, Philadelphia Magazine, and the Philadelphia Weekly. His first novel, Pipe Dream, was published in 2001 by Random House. His subsequent novels include The Bridge, Ride or Die, Cream, Payback, The Last Confession, and The Gravedigger’s Ball. His eighth novel, The Dead Man’s Wife, was published in October 2012 by St. Martin’s Press.

Jones created Words on the Street, which partners educational, corporate, non-profit, and media entities to impact literacy through the power of writing. An instructor at the Philadelphia School District’s Parent University, Jones has served as spokesman for the district’s Read for Your Life program, served on the board of the Philadelphia Committee to End Homelessness, visited each of Philadelphia’s municipal prisons to promote reading, and served on the Community Advisory Board of The Doe Fund, an organization that helps homeless men reclaim their lives. Jones has also taught creative writing at Temple University.

Jones’s award-winning column, the Family Man, is published weekly in the Philadelphia Daily News. The column was selected in 2009 as Philadelphia’s best editorial column by the Society of Professional Journalists. Jones’s blog, the Philadelphia Experiment is published weekly on Newsworks.org.

A married father of three, Jones is a national voice on marriage and fatherhood. His parenting columns have been published by Essence magazine, and a pilot based on Jones’s award-winning Philadelphia Daily News column was optioned by NBC’s Peacock Productions. A recipient of the American Cities Foundation’s “Men Making A Difference” award, the Father’s Day Rally Committee’s “Father of the Year” award, the Knight Foundation’s “Black Male Leadership Award,” and Community College of Philadelphia’s “Distinguished Leadership Award,” Jones has written two books of family humor, and his Clear Channel radio commentaries on relationships and parenthood were produced as a 2005 CD called Wisdom. Jones lives in Philadelphia with his wife and two youngest children, and he is currently at work on his next novel.