Hettie Jones was born Hettie Cohen in Brooklyn, New York, in 1934. She received a BA in drama at the University of Virginia, and like many of the Beat Generation, did her postgraduate studies at Columbia University. Her best known work, "How I became Hettie Jones" is a memoir of the beat scene in the late 50's and through the 60's during her marriage to LeRoi Jones. Together, her and LeRoi established Yugen (1957-1963), a magazine that published poetry and writings by William Burroughs, Allen Ginsberg, Jack Kerouac, Philip Whalen, and others of the beat generation. She also launched Totem Press, which published poets such as Ginsberg, Gregory Corso, Frank O'Hara, Edward Dorn, and Gary Snyder. She is currently involved with PEN American Center's Prison Writing committee and runs a writing workshop at the New York State Correctional Facility for Women at Bedford Hills.
"Nesting in a succession of lofts and flats, Hettie and Roi became prominent figures in the downtown bohemian scene. Roi got international media attention as a member in good standing of the Beat Generation. As a prototypical beatnik chick - now she can marvel at it - Hettie wore regulation black tights, preferred uppers to pot and worked at stultifying straight jobs so her man could stay home and write. The Joneses gave rollicking parties that won the admiration of Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg; they were dirt-poor, generous hosts to a roster of itinerant poets and painters who needed places to sleep." (Brownmiller, NYTimes).

Bibliography:
"Drive"- her first collection of poems
"How I Became Hettie Jones" -autobiography
"Big Star Fallin' Mama: Five Women in Black Music"
And several childrens books.
Her fiction, poems, and prose have appeared in Essence, Frontier: A Journal of Women Studies, Hanging Loose, Heresies, IKON, Ploughshares, Village Voice Literary Supplement, the Washington Post, and other periodicals

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