Tayari Jones is an American author and winner of the Hurston-Wright Legacy Award for Debut Fiction. She was educated at Spelman College, the University of Iowa and Arizona State University.
I'll Be Right Here (2025) Amy Bloom "Once again, Amy Bloom shines her brilliant attention on families bound by love, history. Kin - born and chosen - are the center of this stirring take. Told with humor and heart, I'll Be Right Here reminds us of the sweet profundity of human connection."
Happy Land (2025) Dolen Perkins-Valdez "Dolen Perkins-Valdez has the range, depth, and vision to capture the dreams of a people on the pages of a novel. Happy Land is exactly the novel we need right here, right now. Accompanied by the musical speech of the American south, Perkins-Valdez sings a song to remind us that freedom is worth fighting for."
The Bright Years (2025) Sarah Damoff "THE BRIGHT YEARS is a moving portrait of inheritance and loss. A heart-breaker and heart-mender at once, this is a story that forces us to confront our vulnerabilities and secrets in order to find our strength and truth. A stunning debut!"
The Liberators (2023) E J Koh "Spare, beautiful and richly layered, The Liberators is dazzling."
Above the Salt (2023) Katherine Vaz "Vaz's work is gorgeous at every level - singing sentences and pull-you-in plot. She is the real thing, an American treasure."
Night Watch (2023) Jayne Anne Phillips "Jayne Anne Phillips is a brilliant artist working at the height of her powers. Word by word, and line by line, there is no one better. This novel lives where a startling imagination meets scrupulous research: Night Watch is a tour de force - breathtaking in both its scope and intensity."
Dona Cleanwell Leaves Home (2023) Ana Castillo "Ana Castillo is an American treasure. Fearless, compassionate, and flat-out brilliant - she is the writer we need as we navigate the challenges of our ever-changing world."
Pomegranate (2023) Helen Elaine Lee "Helen Elaine Lee is working at the height of her powers. With empathy, insight, and hope, Pomegranate reveals the hidden heartbreak of the women touched by incarceration. Prepare to be challenged and changed."
Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow (2022) Gabrielle Zevin "An exquisite love letter to life with all its rose gardens and minefields . . . To read this book is to laugh, to mourn, to learn, and to grow."
Harry Sylvester Bird (2022) Chinelo Okparanta "Irreverent and compassionate at once, Okparanta interrogates our current moment. In her hands, humor is a weapon, a tool, and a salve. You will laugh until you cry, or maybe you will cry until you laugh."
Dele Weds Destiny (2022) Tomi Obaro "Fast-paced, glamorous, and bursting with emotion, Dele Weds Destiny is a thrilling debut. The bonds between women - as friends, and across the generations - are the jewels that make this story shine."
We Do What We Do in the Dark (2022) Michelle Hart "A gorgeous storyteller, Hart is gifted with a poet's precision, blending image and idea. Sensual and wise, this novel channels the melancholic exhilaration of dangerous love."
The Dove in the Belly (2022) Jim Grimsley "A rich and complex coming of age tale that manages to be brave and vulnerable at once. Grimsley captures the poetry of everyday life, reminding us that each of our lives is extraordinary, if only because of our capacity to love."
Today a Woman Went Mad in the Supermarket (2021) Hilma Wolitzer "Wit, wisdom and warmth form the foundation of this sparkling collection. Wolitzer is a natural-born storyteller whose rigour, attention and generosity create miracles on each and every page."
If I Had Two Wings (2020) Randall Kenan "Randall Kenan is an American master and If I Had Two Wings is his latest gift to us. These unforgettable characters cannot be confined to a page. They are real; they are flawed; they beautifully human. Each gorgeous story contains a world in miniature and a human spirit in full flower."
The Taste of Sugar (2020) Marisel Vera "Subtle yet arresting, The Taste of Sugar, is a gorgeous feat of storytelling. Marisel Vera melds meticulous research with deep compassion and pure talent to fashion a novel that excavates the pain of the history while drawing hope from the buried stories of our nation. This is historical fiction as its best, using the moral dilemmas of the past to decipher our present conflicts in order to light our way toward a more just future."
Red at the Bone (2019) Jacqueline Woodson "This poignant tale of choices and their aftermath, history and legacy, will resonate with mothers and daughters."
Disappearing Earth (2019) Julia Phillips "Julia Phillips is at once a careful cartographer and gorgeous storyteller. Written with passion and patience, this is the story of a people and the land that shapes them. A mystery of two missing girls burns at the center of this astonishing debut, and the complexity of ethnicity, gender, hearth and kin illuminates this question and many more."
A Cloud in the Shape of a Girl (2018) Jean Thompson "Jean Thompson is a brilliant novelist from the classic school of storytelling. This is a moving tale built upon a foundation of unforgettable characters, drawn with empathy and insight. A Cloud in the Shape of a Girl is a story that illustrates our present moment through a keen and unflinching look at our past. Thompson's work centers on the Midwest, what some call 'fly over' country, but in her hands, we come to see that it is the center."
The Boatbuilder (2018) Daniel Gumbiner "A meditation on love, loyalty, and the shared experiences that turn strangers into family."
Song of a Captive Bird (2018) Jasmin Darznik "Written with the urgent tenderness of a love letter, this soaring novel is a heart-breaker and heart-mender at once—a gorgeous tribute to the brave and brilliant poet remembered in its pages."
Sycamore (2017) Bryn Chancellor "Bryn Chancellor explores the complexities of a small-town girlhood with insight and compassion. A page-turner and a heart-breaker, Sycamore marks the arrival of a shining new voice."
