WriterTayari Jones

Tayari Jones was born and raised in Atlanta, Georgia
where she spent most of her childhood with the exception of the one year she
and her family spent in Nigeria, West Africa.  Her first novel, Leaving
Atlanta, is a coming of age story set during the city's infamous child
murders of 1979-81.  Leaving Atlanta received many awards and accolades
including the Hurston/Wright Award for Debut Fiction. She has received
fellowships from organizations including Illinois Arts Council, Bread Loaf
Writers Conference, The Corporation of Yaddo, The MacDowell Colony, Arizona
Commission on the Arts and Le Chateau de Lavigny ( Switzerland.)  Her second
novel, The Untelling, published in 2005, is the story of a family struggling
to overcome the aftermath of a fatal car accident.  In 2005, The Southern
Regional council and the University of Georgia Libraries awarded The
Untelling with the Lillian C. Smith Award for New Voices.  Her work has
appeared in The Believer, McSweeny's, Callaloo, and The New York Times.
Tayari Jones is an Assistant Professor in the MFA program at Rutgers-Newark
University.