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Tayari Jones

Goodreads Author

Born

in Atlanta, Georgia, The United States

Website

http://www.tayarijones.com/

Genre

Literature & Fiction, Contemporary, Fiction

Member Since

May 2010

URL

https://www.goodreads.com/tayari

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Tayari Jones is the author of the novels Leaving Atlanta, The Untelling, Silver Sparrow, and An American Marriage (Algonquin Books, February 2018). Her writing has appeared in Tin House, The Believer, The New York Times, 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, NEA Fellowship and Radcliffe Institute Bunting Fellowship. Silver Sparrow was named a #1 Indie Next Pick by booksellers in 2011, and the NEA added it to its Big Read Library of classics in 2016. Jones is a graduate of Spelman College, University of Iowa, and Arizona State Univers ...more

464 posts
Tayari Jones's Blog

The American Academy of Arts & Sciences elects Tayari Jones

Emory Professor Tayari Jones has been elected to the American Academy of Arts & Sciences, one of the nation’s oldest and most prestigious honorary societies and a leading independent public policy research center.

View more on Tayari Jones's website »

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Published on April 21, 2026 13:27

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Tayari Jones’s books

Average rating: 3.95 · 490,150 ratings · 44,026 reviews · 26 distinct works • Similar authors

	An American Marriage 3.93 avg rating — 391,688 ratings — published 2018	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Silver Sparrow 3.90 avg rating — 47,095 ratings — published 2011 — 48 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Kin 4.28 avg rating — 25,501 ratings — published 2026 — 15 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Leaving Atlanta 4.06 avg rating — 7,270 ratings — published 2002 — 18 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Untelling 3.72 avg rating — 4,951 ratings — published 2005 — 19 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Half Light by Tayari Jones (Goodreads Author), Bahni Turpin (Narrator) 3.72 avg rating — 2,524 ratings — published 2020 — 4 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Dispossession by Tayari Jones (Goodreads Author), Gabrielle Union (Narrator) 3.86 avg rating — 1,928 ratings — published 2021 — 5 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Atlanta Noir (Akashic Noir) 3.54 avg rating — 423 ratings — published 2017 — 7 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	An American Marriage & Silver Sparrow By Tayari Jones 2 Books Collection Set by Tayari Jones (Goodreads Author) 3.99 avg rating — 80 ratings	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	LaKeisha and the Dirty Girl (McSweeney's 28) 0.00 avg rating — 0 ratings	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

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Tayari Jones is currently reading

Never Caught, the Story of Ona Judge: George and Martha Washington's Courageous Slave Who Dared to Run Away; Young Readers Edition

by Erica Armstrong Dunbar

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May 13, 2019 03:32PM

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Tayari’s Recent Updates

Tayari Jones wrote a new blog post TIME 100 Most Influential People of 2026 Tayari Jones joins Pope Leo XIV, Mayor Zohran Mamdami, Olympian Hilary Knight, and actor Claire Danes as one of TIME Magazine’s 100 most influential p Read more of this blog post »
Apr 24, 2026 12:11AM · 1 like · like

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Quotes by Tayari Jones (?)

“But home isn't where you land; home is where you launch. You can't pick your home any more than you can choose your family. In poker, you get five cards. Three of them you can swap out, but two are yours to keep: family and native land.”
― Tayari Jones, An American Marriage

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“Much of life is timing and circumstance, I see that now.”
― Tayari Jones, An American Marriage

117 likes

“There should be a word for this, the way it feels to steal something that’s already yours.”
― Tayari Jones, An American Marriage

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Polls

Our July Book Selection will be:

I'll Be Gone in the Dark: One Woman's Obsessive Search for the Golden State Killer

3 votes 50.0%

The Darkest Minds

1 vote 16.7%

Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI

1 vote 16.7%

The Orphan's Tale

1 vote 16.7%

An American Marriage Tayari Jones

0 votes 0.0%

6 total votes

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