Swag (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9781448643509)

Monica Marie Jones is an author whose published works include The Ups and Downs of Being Round (Fiction/Self-Help), Taste My Soul (Poetry) and FLOSS (Urban Fiction). She is a contributing author in Chicken Soup for the Girls Soul, New Directions for Youth Development, and 44th (A full color coffee table book about President Barack Obama that is a compilation of front page reprints of actual African-American published newspapers and poetry.) She has also contributed to several publications and youth development training materials for the High/Scope Educational Research Foundation. She has worked as a columnist and freelance writer for various publications and websites including the Michigan Front Page Newspaper and is an active member of the Motown Writer's Network where she is the host of her own show, "Marketing and Motivation Mondays with Monica Marie Jones" on the Michigan Literary Network Radio. Monica received her Bachelor's Degree and teaching certificate in Elementary Education from Eastern Michigan University. She also received her Masters of Social Work from the University of Michigan. Monica is a youth development expert that does training and consultation for the Center for Youth Program Quality (a joint venture of the Forum for Youth Investment and The High/Scope Educational Research Foundation.) She is a professionally trained dancer and dance instructor that has danced with Gospel recording artists such as Dorinda Clark-Cole, in several venues around the United States, and a three-city tour in Japan with Kierra 'Ki-Ki' Sheard. Monica uses her gifts, talents and expertise to inform her work as a motivational speaker with a focus on topics including by not limited to self-esteem, empowering women and girls, fitness and wellness, and youth development. Monica's next novel, SWAG (Urban Fiction) will be released in September 2009. Her essay, "Don't Wait for the Weight" and her poem, "Fat Girl" will be published in The Souls of Our Young Sisters: The Next Generation of Women Tell Their Stories, Overcome Their Challenges, and Heal Their Spirits (Souls of My Sisters Inc./Kensington Publishing Corp.) anthology in March 2010. For more information visit her website at http: //www.monicamariejones.com or email her monica@monicamariejones.com