Featured Author Tayari Jones on NPR

Featured author Tayari Jones ("Silver Sparrow") was on NPR's All Things Considered recently to talk about her new novel. In the interview, Jones talks about the novel's genesis, the meaning of its title, and about her career path.

Read -- or listen to -- the interview.

Featured Authors Give Each Other Some Love: Meg Waite Clayton Hosts Tayari Jones on Her Blog

Featured author Meg Waite Clayton ("The Four Ms. Bradwells" and "The Wednesday Sisters") hosted featured author Tayari Jones ("Silver Sparrow") on her blog, 1st Books: Stories of How Writers Get Started.

In response to early negative reactions from publisher to the first 100 pages of the novel, Jones writes:

For months, I wrote nothing at all. It seemed pointless. My characters which I thought were so loveable and complicated had been undressed and shamed. (Some of the rejections were so pointed that I cried. One even suggested that I didn’t “understand fiction yet.”) And this was to be my third novel.

Read the full essay.

GBF Author Q&A with... Tayari Jones

Name: Tayari Jones
Books: Silver Sparrow, Leaving Atlanta, The Untelling,

Jones' Website

Where do you find inspiration?
I often find inspiration from fragments of overheard conversations. I love stumbling across stories from strangers because I don’t feel self conscious about filling in the gaps. I also can get sucked in by the tiniest story in the back of a newspaper. For me, the less information, the better. I just like to borrow a spark.

What advice do you have for aspiring authors?
Don’t be afraid to fail. Safe fiction is boring fiction. Try big and sometimes fail big. But you want to thrill yourself and that way you will thrill readers. Art should be reckless and fun. It should be painful sometimes. It is supposed to make you feel something. Creating art should be an experience that matters.

What are you reading right now?
Pictures of You by Caroline Leavitt. [Editor's note: Caroline Leavitt also will be at the Gaithersburg Book Festival.] It’s a beautiful, beautiful, book. She breaks your heart, and I mean that in a good way.

If you could sit down at dinner with three other authors, living or dead, which three authors would you choose?
Toni Morrison, Toni Morrison, Toni Morrison.

Tayari Jones and Haley Tanner Make ABA's Next Great Reads List for June

Novels by two GBF featured authors -- "Silver Sparrow" by Tayari Jones and "Vaclav and Lena" by Haley Tanner -- made the American Booksellers Association's Indie Next List Great Reads list for June.

About "Silver Sparrow," which garnered the top spot on the list, a bookseller said: "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."

About "Vaclav & Lena: A Novel," a bookseller said: "Seldom have the variables in immigrant experiences been written about so beautifully, resulting in a book that is both a charming love story and a dramatic page-turner. ... A wonderful debut!"

See the full list and read the full reviews.