183Have youmet Ms Jones?The literary world is no stranger to fairy tales, but Tayari Jones’s
journey from the sidelines to bestselling author beloved of
Oprah and Obama is one for the books, finds Olivia Marks.
Photographs by William Waterworth. Styling by Kate PhelanIt took a near altercation with a stranger at
Heathrow Airport to finally convince Tayari Jones
she was a world-renowned author. No matter
that Oprah Winfrey had already picked Jones’s
fourth novel, An American Marriage, for her
career-making Oprah’s Book Club 2.0 or that
Barack Obama had named it one of his picks of
the year, it was only when Jones tried to steal
a businessman’s copy as they went to board a plane that
it hit home. “I was gathering my things, saw a copy of
An American Marriage and thought, ‘How did it get all the
way over there?’” Jones recalls, smiling. “I went over and
the person reading said, ‘That’s my book!’ It blew my mind.
That was the moment when I was like, ‘Oh my goodness,
my book is an international bestseller.’”
Thanks to her unforgettable tale of a wrongfully imprisoned
man, and the impact his incarceration has on his marriage, life
has changed immeasurably over the past couple of years for
the 49-year-old author from Atlanta, Georgia. For a long time
she was a writer cut adrift, her first two books out of print by
the time An American Marriage was published in 2018. Now,
with the film rights sold to Winfrey, the Women’s Prize for
Fiction under her belt, and endorsements from the great and
good, she’s just about managed to squeeze in an interview with
Vogue around several sold-out appearances in the UK.
Jones, luminous in spite of an exhausting schedule, is
nursing a strong coffee as she sits across the table from me
in a photo studio in London’s Hackney to talk about the
publication of her next novel, Silver Sparrow. Strictly speaking,
this is not a new work (it was written in 2011), but until now
it has only been published in America. “The greatest gift you
can give your earlier books is a new book,” Jones says sagely
in her soft, Southern tones as afternoon turns to evening.
“Because of An American Marriage it has a new life. In my
view, a book is not like a carton of milk. It doesn’t expire.”
If Jones sometimes sounds like a woman with all the
answers, I suspect that is because she often is. She has her
hands loosely clasped together, warm yet businesslike, as she
delivers her thoughts – on everything from abortion laws to
the prison system to that icon of young-adult literature Judy
Blume (more of whom later) – in fluid, fully formed sentences.
Hers is a wisdom that bears the hallmarks of a teacher (she
has been a professor of English and creative writing for many
years, and in 2018 joined the faculty of Emory University
in Atlanta), but one that also comes from experiencing years
of perceived failure as an author.“When I wrote my first book, I remember I went to this
writers’ conference,” Jones says. “These young hotshot writers
were talking about what they had worn to their luncheon
to meet the media. I did not know other people were having
luncheons to meet the media, let alone what they had worn.
I had an interview in the local paper, and I was so proud
of it I cut it out.
“I just thought, ‘I’m so far behind,’” she continues. “I went
to my little room and sat on the small single bed, and I just
cried. In a weird way, that moment was the greatest gift to
me as a writer. Because I believed I would never catch up,
I stopped trying to, and just started to write the books that
mattered to me. I think that has served me well through my
career. But let me tell you, when I was that young debut,
crying there, I felt such despair.”
By the time she started writing Silver Sparrow, both her
debut (Leaving Atlanta, 2002) and its follow-up (The Untelling,
2005) had fallen out of print. The arrival of a new program,
Nielsen BookScan, meant publishers could see sales figures
in an instant and it made many quiet authors, such as Jones,
unattractive prospects. Still, as a teacher, she told her students
to write for themselves, not the market, and so she finished
the novel (not being able to “face those kids” if she didn’t).
She printed one copy for herself, which she put in a drawer,
and sent one to her sister. And that, she thought, was that.
Then, in an echo of her early career, Jones once again found
herself at a writers’ conference, “embarrassed because my
career was in shambles. Everyone else there was so famous.
I was just humiliated. But I read my little thing and a woman
said, ‘I think I could help you.’ I didn’t know who she was.”
Placing Jones hand-in-hand with a publisher, the woman
smiled and left them to talk. The publisher asked: “‘How do
you know Judy?’ I said, ‘I don’t know anyone named Judy.’
She said, ‘I mean Judy Blume, who just introduced us.’ And
I looked to tell Judy thank you and she had vanished. Like
a real-life fairy godmother. It really happened. True story.”
Thanks to Blume – an author Jones has loved forever –
Silver Sparrow found its way on to bookshelves. Set in Atlanta
in the 1970s (although it also rewinds to the early 20th century
and ends in the year 2000), it follows two families joined
together by one man, who is husband and parent in both.
It is a poignant tale of secrets and betrayal, told through the
eyes of half-sisters Dana and Chaurisse, with only Dana
knowing the full extent of their father’s double life.
On the surface, Silver Sparrow is centred around a relatively
TAYARI WEARS SHIRT, SUNFLOWER, AT BROWNS. SKIRT, PLAN C, AT MYTHERESA.COM. EARRINGS AND NECKLACE, WINTERSON rare situation – a man with a secret second family – but the >04-20-Well-TayariJones_1952352.indd 183 13/02/2020 09:59