About Tayari Jones: Tayari Jones is an African-American author and winner of the Hurston-Wright Legacy Award for Debut Fiction. She was educated at Spelman College, the University of Iowa and Arizona State University.
It's funny how three or four notes of anger can be struck at once, creating the perfect chord of fury.
I am neither religious nor superstitious, but there is something otherworldly about the space where two roads come together. The devil is said to set up shop there if you want to swap your soul for something more useful. If you believe that God can b...
I wanted to live in a house with walls painted in various shades of blue and green, instead of the eggshell hue that screamed renter.
People say, that which doesn't kill you makes you stronger. But they are wrong. What doesn't kill you, doesn't kill you.
But in truth, I was different now, burning and anointed.
I do have a sister - I have two sisters.
I was kind of an invisible girl when I was young.
I like straightforward names for my characters. When I get too symbolic with names or places, I start feeling like the characters and the story are less read, and I lose interest.
My first novel, 'Leaving Atlanta,' took at look at my hometown in the late 1970s, when the city was terrorized by a serial murderer that left at least 29 African-American children dead.
I don't mind expressing my opinions and speaking out against injustice. I would be doing this even if I wasn't a writer. I grew up in a household that believed in social justice. I have always understood myself as having an obligation to stand on the...
Secret families are really the bedrock issue of Western literature.
Adolescence is a modern construct and very American in so many ways.
I am always urging my students to honor their writing practice, to set up a schedule.
The adolescent protagonist is one of the hallmarks of American literature.
I think the NAACP isn't recognized enough for all of the work it does, especially in the field of law. They may have faded from view over the last couple of decades, but they are fighting the good fight.
When I am writing a story it feels as real as the life I am experiencing off the page. It's an emotional illusion, I guess.
I take mentoring very seriously and I am on the board of an organization called Girls Write Now, where we match teen girls and writing mentors because it changes their lives.
When it comes to memoir, we want to catch the author in a lie. When we read fiction, we want to catch the author telling the truth.
I take mentoring very seriously and as a result I hardly get any work done during the school year.
