Bookmark with Don Noble: Madison Jones (1999)

Madison Jones, one of Alabama’s most distinguished fiction writers, was originally from Tennessee but lived and worked in Alabama for much of his literary career. A novelist deeply rooted in the Southern literary tradition, Jones wrote fiction marked by moral seriousness, classical and biblical imagery, and a powerful sense of place. In this episode of Bookmark with Don Noble, Don Noble speaks with Madison Jones following a remarkable year of recognition for his Civil War novel Nashville, 1864: The Dying of the Light. The novel, Jones’s eleventh work of fiction, received three major honors: the Michael Shaara Award for Civil War Fiction, the T. S. Eliot Award, and the Harper Lee Award for Alabama’s Distinguished Writer. Born in Nashville, Tennessee, Jones studied at Vanderbilt University and later taught for many years at Auburn University. His novels include An Exile, A Cry of Absence, and Nashville, 1864: The Dying of the Light. Through a long and respected career, he became known as a major voice in Southern fiction and an important figure in Alabama letters. Bookmark with Don Noble features conversations with writers whose work has shaped Alabama, the South, and American literature.