The truth is about to make her question her every assumption and reevaluate the life she has worked so hard to build for herself.as it sends her reeling in a direction she had no idea she was destined to go. And although relations with her remaining family are strained, she's done her best to establish a solid, normal life for herself, living in Atlanta and teaching literacy to girls who have fallen on hard times.īut now she has a secret that she's not yet ready to share with Dwayne, her devoted boyfriend, or Rochelle, her roommate and best friend: Aria is pregnant. She is considered as not just one of the most renowned Black women writers in the country, she also has few peers in the writing of complex realities of contemporary southern literature.From the author of the Oprah Book Club Selection An American Marriage, here is an emotionally powerful novel that 'succeeds uly a wonderful story' (Boston Globe).Īria is no stranger to tragedy - as a young girl, she and her older sister and mother survived a car crash that took the lives of their father and beloved baby sister. Jones is a graduate of Spelman College, University of Iowa, and Arizona State University. A member of the Fellowship of Southern Writers, she has also been a recipient of the Hurston/Wright Legacy Award, Lifetime Achievement Award in Fine Arts from the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation, United States Artist Fellowship, National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship and Radcliffe Institute Bunting Fellowship. Jones’s writing has appeared in Tin House, The Believer, The New York Times, McSweeney’s and Callaloo.

Named one of TIME’s “10 Best Fiction Books of 2018,” An American Marriage “illuminates the waves of injustice and heartbreak that unravel families entangled in a flawed judicial system.” The New York Times describes An American Marriage as “beautifully written” and “wise and compassionate.” The novel has been compared to James Baldwin’s If Beale Street Could Talk.Īlso highly acclaimed, Jones’ novel Silver Sparrow received a #1 Indie Next Pick by booksellers in 2011 and the National Endowment for the Arts added it to its Big Read Library of classics in 2016. Jones’ other novels include Leaving Atlanta, The Untelling, and Silver Sparrow. She is the best-selling author of An American Marriage, which won the 2019 Women’s Prize for Fiction and was named a 2018 Oprah’s Book Club Selection. Tayari Jones is Professor of English and Creative Writing at Emory University.

Faculty co-host: Riché Richardson (Professor, Africana Studies and Research Center).Faculty host: Ishion Hutchinson (Director, Creative Writing Program).Professor of English and Creative Writing, Emory University.

The Untelling by Tayari Jones