Tayari Jones

Tayari Jones is an Atlanta-based New York Times best-selling author and full-time professor at Emory University. She’s written four books. Her latest novel, “An American Marriage,” was granted an Oprah’s Book Club selection. This book was also awarded the Women’s Prize for Fiction, the Aspen Words Prize, and an NAACP Image Award, and has been published in two dozen countries. Tayari moved to New York City from Atlanta to start her career as a writer, which allowed her to immerse herself in the world of publishing while also giving her the perspective that New York, being publishing’s center stage, was creating a sense of sameness in American literature. She later moved back to the South, where she noticed the landscape had changed dramatically in her home city (creating fodder for her next novel). Tayari is a 2021 Guggenheim Fellow, a recipient of the Hurston/Wright Legacy Award, the United States Artist Fellowship, the NEA Fellowship, and the Radcliffe Institute Bunting Fellowship.

• New York Times best-selling author
• Charles Howard Candler professor at Emory University
• Received a bachelor’s degree in English language and literature from Spelman College
• Received a master's degree in creative writing from Arizona State University