Southern Lit Alliance will be hosting a Keynote dinner featuring award-winning and New York Times Bestselling author Tayari Jones at the Westin Chattanooga. The dinner will take place on Friday, April 3, at 7 pm. This event also functions as a fundraiser for Southern Lit Alliance.
Ms. Jones is the author of four novels, most recently An American Marriage. Published in 2018, An American Marriage is an Oprah’s Book Club Selection and appeared on Barack Obama’s summer reading list as well as his end-of-the-year roundup.
The novel was awarded the Women’s Prize for Fiction, Aspen Words Price and an NAACP Image Award.
Ms. Jones, a member of the Fellowship of Southern Writers, has also been a recipient of the Hurston/Wright Legacy Award, United States Artist Fellowship, NEA Fellowship, and Radcliffe Institute Bunting Fellowship. She is currently the Charles Howard Candler Professor of Creative Writing at Emory University.
Tickets for the Keynote dinner are $75 each. A table of eight can be reserved for $600.
About the Book: An American Marriage
Newlyweds Celestial and Roy are the embodiment of both the American Dream and the New South. He is a young executive, and she is an artist on the brink of an exciting career. But as they settle into the routine of their life together, they are ripped apart by circumstances neither could have imagined.
In this deft exploration of love, loyalty, race, justice, and both Black masculinity and Black womanhood in 21st century America, Jones achieves that most-elusive of all literary goals: The Great American Novel.
SouthWord Literary Festival
The Keynote dinner with Ms. Jones is taking place as a part of this year’s SouthWord Literary Festival. SouthWord is a two-day event featuring more than 40 members of the Fellowship of Southern Writers who will be sharing their stores and their craft, hosting workshops, participating in panel discussions, signing books and mingling with the public.
Attendees can purchase a ticket to the Keynote dinner in bulk with a 2-day ticket to SouthWord for $150 or at a discounted price of $125 before March 1.
Tickets to the Keynote dinner and to SouthWord can be reserved here: https://www.southernlitalliance.org/southword.