Author Entertainment Series – Tayari Jones
November 3 @ 6:00 pm – 6:30 pm
In partnership with the Flint River Regional Library System, UGA Griffin welcomes two-time Oprah’s Book Club selectee Tayari Jones in conversation with acclaimed author Dolen Perkins-Valdez!
A magnificent new novel from the bestselling, award-winning author of An American Marriage, Tayari Jones was just named a 2026 Oprah’s Book Club Selection! She has written an unforgettable novel that sparkles with wit and intelligence and deep feeling about two lifelong friends whose worlds converge after many years apart in the face of a devastating tragedy.
“Kin is the kind of all-encompassing reading experience I’m always hoping to find: smart and funny and deftly profound. This is Tayari Jones’s very best work.” – Ann Patchett, author of Tom Lake.
Meet the Author
Known for her powerful storytelling and acclaimed works, Tayari Jones has engaged audiences world-wide with inspiring discussion and reflections on the themes that have captivated millions of readers!
Tayari Jones is the Charles Howard Candler Professor of English and Creative Writing at Emory University and A.D. White Professor At Large at Cornell University. She is the best-selling author of An American Marriage, which won the 2019 Women’s Prize for Fiction – she was also named both a 2026 and 2018 Oprah’s Book Club Selection. An American Marriage was an instant New York Times bestseller that allowed the Times to say that she “emerged as one of the most important voices of her generation” (Essence). 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.” An American Marriage was also awarded the Aspen Words Prize, and an NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Literary Work in Fiction. It has been published in over 20 countries, with over a million copies in print around the world. In this “moving portrayal of the effects of a wrongful conviction on a young African-American couple” (Barack Obama, on selecting the novel for his summer reading list), Jones introduces us to Celestial and Roy, a newlywed couple standing on the threshold of the American Dream. When Roy is arrested and sentenced to 12 years in prison for a crime he didn’t commit, their lives implode.
“It’s among Tayari’s many gifts that she can touch us soul to soul with her words.” — Oprah Winfrey
Jones’ other novels include Leaving Atlanta, The Untelling, and Silver Sparrow. Jones’ writing has appeared in Tin House, The Believer, The New York Times, McSweeney’s and Callaloo. 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. Tayari Jones is a graduate of Spelman College in Atlanta, the University of Iowa, and Arizona State University. In her talks at campuses, libraries, and literary festivals across the country, Jones speaks on her many books, her life and career, and the South.
Meet the Interviewer
Dolen Perkins-Valdez is the acclaimed author of the bestselling novels Wench, Balm, Take My Hand, and Happy Land. Her novel Take My Hand received the 2023 NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Literary Work, the American Bar Association’s Silver Gavel Award, and the Fiction Award from the Black Caucus of the American Library Association. A respected scholar and literary leader, she serves as an Associate Professor at American University and has served as Chair of the PEN/Faulkner Foundation. Widely recognized for bringing overlooked chapters of American history to life, Perkins-Valdez has become one of today’s most celebrated voices in historical fiction.
Join us as these two extraordinary literary voices engage in a compelling conversation about storytelling, history, the creative process, and the enduring power of fiction. Don’t miss this unique opportunity to hear from two of America’s most distinguished contemporary authors!