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October 2, 2006
Tayari Jones to deliver this year's Phillis Wheatley Reading

BY Paula Vitaris

Novelist Tayari Jones, author of “Leaving Atlanta” and “The Untelling,” will give the second annual Phillis Wheatley Reading on Tuesday, Oct. 3 at 6 p.m. in the Woodruff Library Jones Room.

The event, sponsored by the Creative Writing Program Reading Series and the African American Studies Department, will be followed by a book signing. Jones also will give a colloquium Wednesday, Oct. 4, at
2 p.m. in N301 Callaway Center. Both events are free and open to the public.

Jones was born and raised in Atlanta, and her first novel, “Leaving Atlanta”—a coming-of-age story set during the city’s infamous child murders of 1979-81—received many awards and accolades, including the Hurston/Wright Award for Debut Fiction.

While she has not lived in her hometown for more than a decade, much of her writing centers on the urban South. “Although I now live in the Northeast,” Jones explains, “my imagination lives in Atlanta.” Her second novel, “The Untelling,” which won the Lillian Smith Award for New Voices, is the story of a family struggling to overcome the aftermath of a fatal car accident.

For more information, contact the Creative Writing Program at 404-727-4683 or visit www.creativewriting.emory.edu/series/index.html.

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