Bestselling Novelist Tayari Jones Speaks with Huntingdon Creative Writing Students

Montgomery, Ala.— Huntingdon College will host a special Zoom event with New York Times bestselling author Tayari Jones as she speaks with Huntingdon creative writing students Thursday, March 4, 1:30–2:30 p.m. CST. The event is also open to members of the Huntingdon community who are interested in learning more about the writing process or about the author.

Dr. Jennifer Fremlin, professor of English and chair of the Huntingdon College Department of Language and Literature, arranged for Ms. Jones to meet with her creative writing class. “I assigned Tayari Jones’ first novel, ‘Leaving Atlanta’ (2002, Warner Books), in my Creative Writing 302 Fiction Writing class this semester, as I have done before,” said Dr. Fremlin, who originally heard Professor Jones speak at Alabama State University just after the book was published. “Set during the time of the 1980 Atlanta child killings, it has three sections, each from a different fifth-grader’s point of view. It makes a great book for fiction writing students to study: the structure, use of point of view, incredible attention to details, language and theme are all very well handled and serve as a textbook for good writing.”

“We are thrilled to offer this opportunity for members of the Huntingdon community to hear from an author of Ms. Jones’ caliber and immense talent,” said Huntingdon President J. Cameron West. “Small classes that enable students to experience the excitement and lifelong value of learning have been the Huntingdon educational hallmark since the College’s inception. As someone who values books and reading, it is indeed a great privilege every time we can welcome an author to campus—even when that opportunity is virtual.”

Tayari Jones is the author of four novels, most recently “An American Marriage” (2018, Algonquin Books), a New York Times bestseller, New York Times and Washington Post Notable Book; and a Best of the Year selection of NPR; Time; Bustle; O, The Oprah Magazine; amazon.com; and The Dallas Morning News. The novel was awarded the Women’s Prize for Fiction (formerly known as the Orange Prize), Aspen Words Prize, and an NAACP Image Award. It has been published in two dozen countries. A member of the Fellowship of Southern Writers, Ms. Jones has also been a recipient of the Hurston/Wright Legacy Award, United States Artist Fellowship, NEA Fellowship, and Radcliffe Institute Bunting Fellowship. Her third novel, “Silver Sparrow” (2011, Algonquin Boods) was added to the NEA Big Read Library of classics in 2016, while her second novel, “The Untelling” (2005, Warner Books) was acclaimed by such authors as Nikki Giovanni and Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist Robert Olen Butler. Ms. Jones is a graduate of Spelman College, the University of Iowa, and Arizona State University. She is an Andrew D. White Professor-at-Large at Cornell University and the Charles Howard Candler Professor of Creative Writing at Emory University.

Interested members of the Huntingdon community may request the Zoom link for this event by emailing the Huntingdon College Office of Communications at news@hawks.huntingdon.edu.

Huntingdon College continues a legacy of faith, wisdom, and service through a liberal arts academic tradition grounded in the Judeo-Christian heritage of the United Methodist Church.

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