Meet the Author: Tayari Jones

Award-winning author Tayari Jones presents her third novel, Silver Sparrow, a compelling story of two young girls and the bigamist father they share. Selected by Library Journal, O Magazine, Salon, and Slate as one of the best novels of 2011, the American Booksellers Association featured Silver Sparrow as the #1 Indie Next Pick for June 2011. Jones is also the author of the acclaimed novels Leaving Atlanta and The Untelling.

Tayari Jones has written for McSweeney’s, The New York Times, and The Believer. A graduate of Spelman College, The University of Iowa, and Arizona State University, Jones is an Associate Professor in the MFA program at Rutgers-Newark University. She is completing the 2011-12 academic year at Harvard University as a Radcliffe Institute Fellow, researching her fourth novel. Registration begins May 18. Books available for purchase and signing.

Critical praise for Silver Sparrow:

• Populating this absorbing novel is a vivid cast of characters, each with his own story… Jones writes dialogue that is realistic and sparkling, with an intuitive sense of how much to reveal and when…thus laying the groundwork for one of literature’s most intriguing extended families. – Anita Shreve, The Washington Post
• A story of sisters and secrets, Silver Sparrow will break your heart before you even know it. Tayari Jones has written a novel filled with characters I’ll never forget. This is a book I’ll read more than once. – Judy Blume

In partnership with Columbia Festival of the Arts.