Praised at Denver’s East High School for her agility as a writer, Traci L. Groff Jones, whose novel “Standing Against the Wind” won the 2007 Coretta Scott King/John Steptoe Award, nearly surrendered her ambitions to be an author when a college professor denounced her Shakespeare papers.
“Sucked my confidence and ripped me apart,” Jones said.
Daughter of former state Sen. Regis Groff and sister of Colorado Senate President pro tem Peter C. Groff, Jones was uncharacteristically chastened.
She gave up the idea of majoring in English, and turned to more pragmatic studies that eventually led to a career in bookkeeping.
Still, she kept some hope alive. Five years ago, Jones enrolled in a creative-writing certification class at the University of Denver. There, she began the story that grew into her debut novel, “Standing Against the Wind” (Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 192 pages, $16).
Instead of succumbing to defeat when her classmates criticized her manuscript, Jones used the comments to make her story stronger. When fellow writers told Jones that her story’s narrator, Patrice, was “too perfect,” she rewrote Patrice to make her more vulnerable.
Patrice’s story remained unfinished when the DU class ended. With two stepchildren, a son entering grade school and a complicated pregnancy, Jones had little time to write.
More complications arose when Jones was 28 weeks pregnant. Ordered to bed rest, she borrowed her brother’s laptop computer and picked up the threads of Patrice’s story.
“I made the best of a scary situation,” she said.
“I couldn’t do anything except go up the stairs once, and down the stairs once, each day. So I wrote in two-hour chunks, and watched the Winter Olympics in between. Wrote a little, and watched curling. I didn’t realize how fortunate I was to sit and write, and not worry about laundry or groceries. Now I’m lucky if I get two hours a week.”
Jones’ daughter, Brooke, was born shortly before Patrice’s story was finished. Jones found a publisher, the prestigious firm Farrar Straus and Giroux, and “Standing Against the Wind” went on bookshelves last September.
The respected youth literature review The Horn Book praised Jones’ novel, calling the dialogue “unforced and authentic,” and the characters “vividly portrayed.” Winning the Coretta Scott King/John Steptoe New Talent Author Award earlier this month sealed Jones’ reputation as a distinguished writer.
Today, she is finishing a second novel, set in Colorado during the 1970s, the period of Jones’ own adolescence at Gove Middle School, in the tumultuous aftermath of court- ordered busing desegregation.
“Strange things stick out in my memory,” she said.
“Like the Anglo kids, the white kids, describing someone to me and saying, ‘He’s black, no offense.’ I was like, ‘None taken,’ but it was mildly insulting. I think it’s an interesting period to write about.”
Staff writer Claire Martin can be reached at 303-954-1477 or cmartin@denverpost.com
