News – Page 6 – Tayari Jones

Silver Sparrow one of O Magazine’s 2011 “Favorite Things.”

Sixteen-year-old Dana Lynn Yarboro lives with her mother in 1980s Atlanta, not far from her father, who visits at least once a week. But in Tayari Jones’s Silver Sparrow (Algonquin), this is not your typical single-parent household: Dana’s dad and mom are married, after all. The thing is, they’re a “secret family” because he’s also married to another woman and has another daughter across town. Written in the voices of Dana and her half-sister, Chaurisse, this buoyant novel never succumbs to TV-movie mawkishness; Dana, despite the situation, is full of perverse wisdom and proud joy. (“Life, you see, is all about knowing things,” she surmises. “Yes, we have suffered, but we never doubted that we enjoyed at least one peculiar advantage… I knew about Chaurisse; she didn’t know about me.”) Even when the two girls meet, the bigamist father is exposed, and lives unravel, Jones’s skill for wry understatement never wavers. As Dana explains: “People say, that which doesn’t kill you makes you stronger. But they are wrong. What doesn’t kill you, doesn’t kill you. That’s all you get.”

— Sara Nelson

Mosaic Literary Magazine: Silver Sparrow a Best of The Year

Clarence V. Reynolds, assistant director at the Center for Black Literature at Medgar Evers College, selected Silver Sparrow for inclusion on Mosaic Literary Magazine’s “Best of 2011” list. Reynolds writes:

Set in contemporary Atlanta, Dana and her mother, Gwen, are the other, secret family of polygamist James Witherspoon. The two teenage “sisters,” Dana Lynn and Bunny Chaurisse, eventually meet, and what starts as a friendship stirred by curiosity ends with a painful blow. The two young girls do, indeed, have their say: the book is divided into two parts, one for each. Through her use of authentic dialogue and headstrong characters, Tayari Jones serves up a dramatic story about an unconventional family relationship—which rings with some uncomfortable reality—complete with all of the laughs, heartache, and truthfulness that inevitably surface.

Silver Sparrow Audio Books an eMusic Best of the Year

The audio version of Silver Sparrow, narrated by Rosalyn Coleman Williams and Heather Alicia Simms, has been selected by eMusic as one of the top audio books of 2011. Critic, Kate Silver, writes:

Familial roots are exposed and tangled in Tayari Jones’s spirited coming-of-age tale, set in mid-’80s Atlanta. Teenagers Dana Yarboro and Chaurisse Witherspoon may be raised on pop music and television, but even a “modern” family like the Bradys can’t prepare them for a harsh reality. When the girls meet in a drugstore and bond over faux hair and handbags, Dana knows Chaurisse is her sister. This is no Parent Trap-style farce, however. James Witherspoon, a car service owner and driver, has kept Dana and her mother out of his daily life for years. James has worked hard to keep the girls apart — he forbids Dana from taking a coveted summer job at Six Flags when Chaurisse applies, and discourages them from choosing the same college. While sweet Chaurisse sees her father at the dinner table every night, the younger Dana is used to feeling slighted. “When most people think of bigamy,” she says in the novel’s opening passage, “if they think of it at all, they imagine some primitive practice on the pages of National Geographic.” Far from a foreign landscape or scripted dramedy, Silver Sparrow tells the story of two working families. Divided into two narratives (told by Heather Alicia Simms and Rosalyn Coleman Williams), the novel offers a funny and affecting glance at haves and have-nots. From Dana’s need for a father’s love (“Who doesn’t want to be loved? Anyone who has been cast off knows the pain of it”), to Chaurisse’s mother’s Scarlett O’Hara fantasies and a desire to run a successful hair salon, the women are feisty and filled with desire. Their stories are fresh and nostalgic as an icy Coca-Cola from the bottle.

Silver Sparrow makes Atlanta Magazine’s 2011 Top Ten

Atlanta Magazine Book Critic, Teresa Weaver, selected Silver Sparrow as one of the top five fiction titles of the year. Weaver writes:

In her third novel, the author of Leaving Atlanta explores two parallel lives on an emotional collision course, told by the very different daughters of a bigamist.
ONE GREAT PASSAGE “It was not love at first sight, at least not on my mother’s part. She didn’t meet my father and feel a shift in her personal chemistry or a change in the rhythm that connected her heart to the rest of
her body . . . What she had with my father was a sort of creeping love, the kind that sinks in before you know it and makes a family of you.”

Slate and Salon Choose Silver Sparrow as one of the Best of 2011

Culture Critic, June Thomas, selected Silver Sparrow for Slate’s best of 2011. Her comments are below:

The most immersive novel I read in 2011, that is, the book that allowed me to forget my own world and fall head first into someone else’s, was Tayari Jones’ Silver Sparrow. It is the story of Dana Lynn Yarboro, who grows up knowing that her father, James Witherspoon, is a bigamist, and her attempt to get to know and understand James’ other, more privileged family, especially her half-sister, Bunny Chaurisse Witherspoon. It’s one of those “just one more chapter” kinds of books that requires much last-minute changing of plans, because real life feels far less amusing, appalling, shocking, and loving than the world of its characters.

Kevin Wilson, author of The Family Fang, chose Silver Sparrow for Salon’s list of favorites for 2011. Wilson writes:

In “Silver Sparrow” — an amazing novel about a man with two families, one hidden and one public — Jones does something breathtaking and difficult: She renders a unique family dynamic with such precision and sensitivity that it becomes universal. It is amazing to watch, time and time again in this book, how Jones reveals the ways in which family both creates and destroys our identity. Jones’ previous novels are fantastic, but this book feels like a masterpiece.

Library Journal: Silver Sparrow in Top Ten of 2011

Library Journal has selected Silver Sparrow as one the top ten books of 2011.

In its 133rd year of publication, Library Journal is the oldest and most respected publication covering the library field. Considered to be the “bible” of the library world, LJ is read by over 100,000 library directors, administrators, and staff in public, academic, and special libraries. LJ is the single-most comprehensive publication for librarians, with groundbreaking features and analytical news reports covering technology, management, policy, and other professional concerns. Its hefty review sections evaluate nearly 7000 books annually, along with hundreds of audiobooks, videos, databases, web sites, and systems that libraries buy.

See the full top ten list here.

Tayari Jones Awarded A 2012 NEA Literature Fellowship

Tayari Jones has been awarded a 2012 Literature Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts. She is among 40 American writers selected for this distinction. Ms. Jones will use the $25,000 unrestricted grant to research her fourth novel. Read the NEA press release and browse the list of fellows.

Silver Sparrow Chosen as a 2011 “Great Group Read”

Silver Sparrow has been selected by the National Women’s Book Association as a 2011 Great Group Read. Each year, twenty titles are chosen to mark National Reading group Month. To mark the occaision, Tayari Jones will participate in the National Reading Group Month Signature Event to be held in Nashville at the Nashville Public Library Downtown on Saturday, October 15. She will also take part in the Booklist Webinar on October 7.

The full list of 2011 Great Group Reads is here.

Silver Sparrow #1 Today Show Choice for Summer

Jennifer Weiner chooses Silver Sparrow for Summer 2011.

Dishy, twisty, secrets about two daughters: one from her father’s public family, the other from the family on the side. An amazing, amazing read.

Tayari Jones on The Diane Rhem Show

Tayari Jones was a guest on The Diane Rhem Show today on NPR and WAMU discussing Silver Sparrow. You can listen to the show here.

“Every person is legitimate”, Silver Sparrow on NPR

I am delighted to post the link to my recent NPR interview. It was such a pleasure to sit down with Michele Norris, who is just as amazing in person as she is on the air. We talked about bigamy, Girls Write Now, Toni Morrison, “invisible” girls, Spelman College, magic wands, Johnetta Cole, writing, mentoring, and SILVER SPARROW.

Click and listen.

Tayari Jones named 2011-12 Radcliffe Institute Fellow

Tayari Jones will spend the 2011-12 year at Harvard University as a fellow at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study for the academic year 2011-12. Chosen from over 800 applications, she will join a select group of fifty fellows. Each has a record of significant accomplishment and demonstrated interest in participating in the multi-disciplinary environment of the Radcliffe Fellowship Program. Next year’s fellows come from across the country and around the world, women and men at different stages of their careers, representing different academic, professional and artistic fields.

While at Radcliffe, she will work on a new novel.

Silver Sparrow is #1 Indie Next Pick For June

The American Booksellers Association has chosen Silver Sparrow as the #1 Indie Next Pick for the month of June. According to the ABA website, “The Indie Next List, drawn from bookseller-recommended favorite handsells, epitomizes the heart and soul of passionate bookselling. Independent booksellers are and have always been discoverers of the next big thing, the next great read, the next bestseller, and the next undiscovered gem.”

In her endorsement of Silver Sparrow, Libby Cowles of Maria’s Bookshop writes: “The unconventional, morally troubling relationships at the core of Jones’ Silver Sparrow illustrate the universality of the human quest for acknowledgment, legitimacy, love, and loyalty. As Chaurisse and her secret half-sister, Dana, move toward adulthood, they must shed idealistic notions of romantic and familial love to face difficult truths. A complex family drama, a richly crafted coming-of-age story, and a meditation on the nature of love and forgiveness, this is a gripping story with characters you will not soon forget.”

Rutgers Honors Tayari Jones

Tayari Jones, Associate Professor, was honored by Rutgers University today in a ceremony on the New Brunswick campus. She received the Board of Trustees Award for Scholarly Excellence, the Presidential Fellowship for Teaching Excellence, a Leader in Faculty Diversity Award. The awards are accompanyed by research grants which will assist Jones in the completion of her next novel.

THE SILVER GIRL SILVER SPARROW Has Found a Home

I am so happy to tell you that my third novel, ~~THE SILVER GIRL~~ SILVER SPARROW, has been accepted for publication by Algonquin Books! I cannot express how thrilled I am. No word yet on pub date, as I am still working on revisions with my new editor, Andra Miller.
If I am going to take a bow for this acheivement, I have to bring my wonderful agent, Jane Dystel, to the stage. Jane really believes in her clients. She found a home for my odd first novel, Leaving Atlanta, and has stuck by me ever since. So many of my friends’ agents don’t call them back, or blow them off between projects. Jane has hundreds of clients, but treats us all with care and respect. Her co-agent, Miriam Goderich, has a degress in Comp Lit. She really gets deep in the manuscript with my and helps me ready it for submission. (She’s also good for the occaisional word of personal advice: Dump that guy, for example.)
And of course, I would like to thank all of you all for being so helpful to me as I struggled through this process. I tried to keep my head up, but sometimes I was downright discouraged and more than once I worried that the novel would die on the vine. Thanks for your encouragement and your own reports of success and even your honest reports of your own frustrations.
We’ve got a community here and I am very grateful for it.