Bill Gates has selected An American Marriage for his favorite books of 2019. “An American Marriage is a deeply moving read about how one incident of injustice reshapes the lives of a black couple in the South,” Gates writes. Though he wouldn’t characterize the novel as a light read, Gates calls it “so well-written that you’ll find yourself sucked into it despite the heavy subject matter.”
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Jones Awarded Charles Howard Candler Professorship at Emory University
The Charles Howard Candler Professorships are awarded to senior scholars who have shown outstanding teaching ability and productive scholarship in one or more fields of learning, and additionally who have distinguished themselves in long and substantial service to the University and in furthering the causes of higher education. Dear Michael Elliot announced Professor Jones’s appointment this afternoon on the campus of Emory University.
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Jones Joins A. A. Knopf for her Fifth Novel
Alfred A. Knopf has acquired world rights to a new novel by Tayari Jones, the bestselling author of An American Marriage, her critically acclaimed fourth book. The new novel, OLD FOURTH WARD, will be published simultaneously in hardcover and ebook by Alfred A. Knopf, and in audio by Penguin Random House. Jordan Pavlin, Vice President and Executive Editor at Knopf, acquired the book from Jane Dystel at Dystel, Goderich & Bourret.
“Tayari Jones is a master chronicler of the times we live in,” said Jordan Pavlin, “a sharp, sophisticated and prodigiously gifted novelist whose works overflow with wisdom, compassion, and love. Few writers write more compellingly about family and identity, or with more empathy for her characters. We are thrilled to publish her on the Knopf list.”
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Tayari Jones: A.D. White Professor-at-Large, Cornell University
Tayari Jones has been selected as a Andrew D. White Professor-at-Large at Cornell University. She will serve from 2019-2025.
In 1965, the Cornell faculty unanimously recommended, and the Board of Trustees approved, a plan “to revive the office of nonresident professor by appointing as Andrew D. White Professors-at-Large a group of individuals, from both America and abroad, who have achieved high international distinction in the various areas of science and scholarship as well as in the learned professions, public affairs, literature, and the creative arts.” In its interdisciplinary scope, encompassing both knowledge and action, this broadened conception embodies Cornell’s unique qualities as a great university.
At any one time, up to twenty outstanding intellectuals from across the globe hold the title of Andrew Dickson White Professor-at-Large and are considered full members of the Cornell faculty. During the six-year term of appointment, each Professor-at-Large visits campus for about a week in each three-year period while Cornell classes are in session during the academic year. Currently, the Program sponsors up to six visits by different Professors-at-Large per year.
http://adwhiteprofessors.cornell.edu/announcements/ -
Tayari Jones Wins 2019 Clara Johnson Award
The winner of the 2019 Clara Johnson Award for Women’s Literature is Tayari Jones for her bestselling tour de force An American Marriage. The award was established in 2018 to honor women-authored literature that captures the essence of Johnson in being “groundbreaking, purposeful, bold, excellent, and challenging to social constructs.”
Johnson Award judges were impressed by the literary mastery of Jones’s novel and its rich character development, particularly the fullness of its female characters. Judges also noted the social significance of the work as it examines the impacts of unjust incarceration not only on the incarcerated but also on family and friends.
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An American Marriage longlisted for the Orwell Prize for Fiction
Longlists for four 2019 Orwell Prizes were announced today, including the inaugural Orwell Prize for Political Fiction sponsored by Richard Blair and A. M. Heath, and Orwell Prize for Political Writing lists, marking the 70th anniversary of George Orwell’s novel Nineteen Eighty-Four.
Chair of judges for the Political Fiction Prize, Tom Sutcliffe said:
“I’m delighted with our long-list for the first Orwell Prize for Political Fiction. It’s a list which acknowledges that the politics in a book can often be found between the lines, rather than on them, and that making your voice heard can sometimes be the most political act of all.“
To see the longlist in its entirety, click here.
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Tayari Jones Joins the Faculty of Emory University
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. -
An American Marriage Chosen For Oprah’s Book Club
Oprah Winfrey chooses An American Marriage for 2018 Oprah’s Book Club. -
Jones Elected to Georgia Authors Hall of Fame
Five authors comprise the 2018 class of Georgia Writers Hall of Fame inductees: Michael Bishop, Tayari Jones and Cynthia Shearer will be admitted at the November ceremony; Furman Bisher and Frances Newman will be honored posthumously.The Georgia Writers Hall of Fame was established in 2000 as part of the Hargrett Rare Book and Manuscript Library to honor Georgia writers and to introduce the public to the library’s rich collections for research into Georgia literature and cultural history. -
Tayari Jones Elected To The Boards of Directors of Two Arts Organizations
Tayari Jones has assumed exciting new roles in two arts organizations.
Teachers & Writers Collaborative (T&W) seeks to educate the imagination by offering innovative creative writing programs for students and teachers, and by providing a variety of publications and resources to support learning through the literary arts. T&W programs include writing workshops for students, professional development for educators, managing the New York Poetry Out Loud competition, and publishing Teachers & Writers Magazine and other resources about the teaching of creative writing.
The Center for Southern Literary Arts cultivates the rich and diverse stories of the Memphis region and encourages and supports innovations in the literary arts. Through community programs, education initiatives, artist residencies, and creative economic development, the CSLA expands beyond the traditional boundaries of the literary arts to capture and reclaim stories as a pathway to repair, equity, and justice in the city, the South, and the nation.
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Tayari Jones Named Black Mountain Institute Shearing Fellow
The Diana L. Bennett Fellows Program at UNLV’s Beverly Rogers, Carol C. Harter Black Mountain Institute (BMI) awards Tayari Jones a fellowship for the academic year 2017-18. She will be in residence in Las Vegas to accept this opportunity and begin work on her fifth novel. Each year, BMI offers the Bennett Fellowship to three critically acclaimed writers who, for one or two semesters, contribute to the cultural landscape of UNLV and the larger Las Vegas community. Jones is the 2017-18 Shearing Fellow. More. -
AN AMERICAN MARRIAGE: EW Cover Reveal
The cover of Tayari Jones’s new novel, An American Marriage, is revealed today on Entertainment Weekly. Read an excerpt. -
ATLANTA NOIR is Available for Pre-Order
Order from:
B & N,
Amazon.com
A Capella Books (Atlanta)“People who don’t know Atlanta don’t understand the codes and contradictions of the New South. Yes, Margaret Mitchell imagined the plantation Tara within the city limits, but it’s also the home of OutKast. Atlanta has captured the imagination of trash TV with Todd Chrisley’s magnolia-cream accent but also the decidedly urban antics of Love & Hip Hop. The ashes of the Civil War still hang in the air, but immigration is turning the South into the Global South.
With Atlanta Noir, my hope was to find the writers who could show the city in all of its dizzy complexity. These fourteen writers represent the city’s many neighborhoods and demographics—from the Southern punk scene of Little Five Points to the Junior League world of Peachtree City, where things are not always as they seem. There is more going on at the local Waffle House than just scattering, smothering, and chunking. This is a major international city but it’s still the Bible Belt. A megapreacher’s past catches up with him, and gentrification cannot tame the outlaw spirit of the city too busy to hate. Our airport boasts that it is the busiest in the world; locals declare that even on the way to heaven, you have to change planes at Hartsfield-Jackson. Let us think of Atlanta Noir as an after-hours welcome to the city where we serve our sweet tea with a shot of bourbon.”
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NEA Big Read Grants Announced
The following organizations received grants from the NEA Big Read to plan programming around Silver Sparrow. Dates and times will be posted on this “Appearances” page.Black Storytellers of San Diego, Chula Vista, California
Brooklyn Public Library, Brooklyn, New York
Chatanooga State Community College, Chattanooga, Tennessee
Essex County Library Directors, Newark, New Jersey
Jefferson Madison Regional Library, Charlotesville, Virginia
Peoria Public Library, Peoria, Illinoiis
Troy University Rosa Parks Library, Montgomery, Alabama