About Delta Pearls

Delta Pearls won the 2007 William Rockhill Nelson Award in fiction. Margot Livesey, noted fiction writer and writer in residence at Emerson College, judged the fiction category. She stated that Jones' stories "had a hard-edged tenderness and a feeling for the past that I found both moving and engaging." Written by Judith Bader Jones, Delta Pearls is an anthology of very brief stories—most only a few pages long—set in the Missouri Delta. Ordinary men and women facing challenges from poverty, racism, loss, and their own personal demons populate the pages, and Jones' capture of the Missouri Delta dialogue, as well as Southern culture, atmosphere, and daily life, is exquisite. A treasury of prose gems to savor one at a time or all at once. Midwest Review Jones views life thorugh a positive lens--an unusual posture in our overly ironic, even cynical age. Through the course of the collection, we discern that this nonjudgmental view of life fits her interpretation of the mid-century period and the resilience of her characters--farm and small town folk, dealing with material losses and spiritual gains, while the Great River rolls by. Catherine Browder "Tales from Missouri Bayou Country," New Letters 73.3, 159. (visit www.newletters.org) The people of Delta Pearls are as real as members of your own family, as thoroughly fascinating as only real people can be. The author . . . gently reminds us that even the worst of us has redeeming qualities, even the best of us carries sins we'd prefer buried. Judith Bader Jones is a master storyteller and this is an eloquent collection of her work. --Jacqueline Guidry, author of The Year the Colored Sisters Came to Town Delta Pearls is a quiet jewel, rich with a lyrical magic . . . these stories sink into you, rich, sweet, and true. They beguile your spirit and fill your heart. --Deborah Shouse, author, editor and motivational speaker These characters meet life head on and cope in ways that resonate with the most fundamental fears and strengths in all of us. --Sally Whitney, author and editor of Best's Review In a world where technological innovation and mass media are homogenizing American English, Judith Bader Jones preserves the beauty of the vernacular language distinctive to the Missouri Delta--that "mosquito infested backdrop of civilization"--and captures the heart of people in the process of loving and losing, being and becoming. --Editors.

Amy Thiltges' Review of Through Eyes of Stone

In Through Eyes of Stone, the humor and sensitivity of young Michael Hobbs is captivating, and undoubtedly the book's strong point. His image of war is real, not heroic. It is the farthest one could get from a Hollywood movie. There's no poetic justice, only the painful loss of innocence, as the writer conveys in the book's opening poem, "In my eyes there is nothing. . . I have lost my soul." The unapologetic, sometimes bitter, and often perplexing older Hobbs is seen through the book's preface and appendix. I found him somewhat less intriguing than the younger (perhaps because his humor and confusion are replaced by so much certainty), yet the contradictions, rationalizations and angry outbursts of this complex person (both young and old) can't help but draw in the reader and make him contemplate his own humanity. {Editors' note: The book has been reprinted and the graphics are now good, but the following paragraph is included for accuracy.] It is unfortunate that this edition does not do the text justice. It could look a bit nicer. The photographs didn't print well and the cover is devoid of color and contrast. But like the words within, the images are stripped down. There is nothing fancy about Through Eyes of Stone, just a raw look at a hostile world from the point of view of a compelling and dynamic narrator. [Warrensburg Free Press 3.1, April 3-21, 2004: 14.]

Amy Thiltges' Review of The Spring Branch

As a metaphorical journey through the mind of a fisherman over the course of one year, The Spring Branch clearly references Edmund Spenser (an English Renaissance poet whose Shepherd's Calendar like The Spring Branch is cyclical and structured in the form of a calendar). As Shaffer points out in one telling line, however, this narrator is wholly American "never to be construed or confused as being/related to the anglophile." He is clearly inspired by the American Romantic poet Walt Whitman, and one can see Whiteman's influence in Shaffer's emphasis on the senses, nature, and his depiction of the poet as philosopher. . . . Like the pastoral and romantic poets who precede him, Shaffer is clearly concerned with the natural world. His mistrust of advancement, both technologically and economically, is in keeping with his role as philosopher-poet. In order to remind us that "The true gold in the creek is not the soft metal/but the glorious reflection of the sun from the flanks," we need the Tony Shaffers of this world. [Warrensburg Free Press 3.l,April 8-21, 2004: 15-16.]

From Orman Article on Shaffer

Excerpts from "After 20 years of thought, a book is born" by Chuck Orman. "His [Shaffer's] book is not one you will read straight through, but will dip into from time to time and come out feeling better." [Quoting Leroy Van Dyke] "'Tony is multi-talented--a musician, a teacher, a philosopher and he has studied the human animal. He has a sage comment for everyone.'" (Sedalia Deomocrat, Friday Jan. 21, 2005, p.7)