“Tim Jones-Yelvington doesn’t push the envelope. He kicks the shit out of it. If ever there was a writer who could garner a rock star following, it would be this man.”
“When I think about contemporary poetry and its impossible donut shape — by which I mean continuous, obscure, dazzling, interesting, retreating, arriving — I always think about Tim Jones-Yelvington.”
Tim "TinTim" Jones-Yelvington is a Chicago-based author, multimedia artist, and nightlife personality/drag performer.
Their multi-genre novel "Strike a Prose: Memoirs of a Lit Diva Extraordinaire" published by co•im•press, was a finalist for the FC2 Ronald Sukenick Innovative Fiction contest and the Noemi Press Book Award for Prose, and runner up for the 1913 Prize for First Books. They are the author of two short fiction chapbooks—"Evan's House and the Other Boys Who Live There" (in "They Could No Longer Contain Themselves," Rose Metal Press) and "Daniel, Damned" (Solar Luxuriance Press), and two full-length fiction collections, "This is a Dance Movie!" (Tiny Hardcore Press, selected by Roxane Gay), and “Don’t Make Me Do Something We’ll Both Regret” (Texas Review Press). Their debut poetry chapbook, "Become On Yr Face," was winner of the 2016 DIAGRAM/New Michigan Press chapbook contest, and its follow-up, "Colton Behavioral Therapy," winner of the 2017 Gazing Grain contest, judged by Camille Rankine. Their work has appeared in Black Warrior Review, Puerto Del Sol, Harpur Palate, and others. From 2010-12, he guest edited [PANK]'s annual queer issue.
Their dynamic live readings evolved into their drag/nightlife persona TinTim. TinTim was once well known on Youtube as "America's first drag queen public intellectual.” In live performances, she's a maenad, channeling the occult energy of the nightlife through camp transgression.
By day, Tim works as Program Director for Foresight Prep, a summer leadership development program that empowers sustainability and social equity-interested young people to pursue their social change goals, and contributes to Foresight Design Initiative's multidisciplinary sustainability and systems analysis consulting engagements.
Tim's literary and artistic interests include (but are not limited to): Camp, excess, new narrative, literary "fan fiction," transgression, pop culture, queer evil, glamour, multimedia and multi-form writing and performance. Tim's political interests include youth organizing, social movement building, intersectionality, antiracism, education justice, labor organizing, impact evaluation, leadership development, and others.
Tim is available for readings, multimedia/literary performances, drag bookings, speaking engagements, panel discussions, and more. Connect here.
Download Tim's CV. (slightly out of date—will update soon!)