In an essay for The New York Times, Tayari Jones celebrates the luminary but oft-forgotten Ann Petry, who, as a black female author in 1946, sold over 1.5 million copies of her seminal novel, The Street. In arguing for a Petry revival, and for the timelessness of The Street’s heroine, Lutie, Tayari writes, “Petry engages the issues of her day, which sadly are the issues of our day as well. At every turn, Lutie confronts that many-headed hydra of racism, sexism and classism….For Lutie there is no #MeToo movement. Ronan Farrow will not be calling her for a quote. Her experience more than fifty years ago is very similar to that of women today who are poor and of color. She must save herself, understanding that there will be devastating consequences for standing her ground.”

To read “In Praise of Ann Petry” its entirety, click here.

In an IDEAS essay for TIME Magazine, Tayari Jones discusses America’s current political moment, and the dangerous obsession behind a moral middle. On finding common ground in the wake of school shootings, family separation, and more, Tayari writes, “The middle is a point equidistant from two poles. That’s it. There is nothing inherently virtuous about being neither here nor there. Buried in this is a false equivalency of ideas, what you might call the ‘good people on both sides’ phenomenon. When we revisit our shameful past, ask yourself, Where was the middle?”

“There’s Nothing Virtuous About Finding Common Ground” appears in the November 5, 2018 print edition of TIME Magazine. To read the essay in its entirety online, click here.

An American Marriage has been selected as a finalist for GoodReads’ 10th Annual GoodReads Choice Awards in the 2018 Best of Fiction Category. Voting is open until November 4th, and votes can be cast once each day until online voting closes.

For online voting and the complete list of nominees, click here.

Tayari Jones is honored to have been selected for Ebony Magazine’s 2018 EBONY Power 100 List. On the significance of this year’s honorees, Forbes writes, “[the list recognizes] and celebrate[s] the most inspiring and influential leaders of color who are impacting and shaping our world today. This year’s list includes brilliant women who are Crusaders, Disruptors, Entrepreneurs and Innovators – women who have had made a significant impact in creating movements, changing culture and bettering society.”

Among this year’s honorees are Atlanta mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms, Gubernatorial candidate Stacy Abrams, First Lady Michelle Obama, and #MeTooFounder Tarana Burke. To read the list in its entirety, click here.

An American Marriage has been selected for the 2019 Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction Longlist. A six-title shortlist (three fiction titles, three nonfiction titles,) will be announced on October 24, 2018. The two winners (fiction, nonfiction) will be announced in Seattle on Sunday, January 27, 2019.

To read the list in its entirety, click here.

Tayari Jones joins The New York Times‘ Lauretta Charlton for a conversation on Black Sisterhood, Anita Hill, and Christine Blasey Ford in the wake of the Kavanaugh Hearings. On Black Feminism, Ms. Jones remarks: “Black women’s feminist contributions are very often erased. But at the same time, I am reminded that the influence of black women — black sisterhood — is everywhere.”

To read the article in full, click here.

Tayari Jones is honored to have delivered remarks at the 2018 Rona Jaffe Foundation Writers’ Awards–the only national literary foundation dedicated to awarding exclusively female writers with outstanding contributions to fiction, creative nonfiction, and poetry.

In her remarks to this year’s recipients, Ms. Jones writes, “Alice Walker famously urged us to ‘be no one’s darling.’ I would like to expand on this and push you to be no one’s darling, not even your own.”

To read Tayari Jones’s speech in full, click here.

 Literacy Partners provides excerpts of over two hundred books, poems, and short stories to New Yorkers on and off the subway. For an excerpt of An American Marriage, click here.

http://www.facebook.com/TheView/videos/10155605130031524/

Tayari Jones will join Emory University’s renowned Creative Writing Program this fall as a member of the English faculty in Emory College of Arts and Sciences.  She will be on sabbatical for the fall semester, but will begin teaching in January 2019.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D6twWBvZVnQ

“An American Marriage Came Together After A Trip To The Mall”

Find the full transcript here.

Oprah Winfrey chooses An American Marriage for 2018 Oprah’s Book Club.