It was dark in the audience during Tayari Jones’ appearance at Symphony Space last night or I would have been furiously taking notes and jotting down the gems that were pouring from her mouth. She was interviewed by Darnell L. Moore (No Ashes in the Fire) in a program that got increasingly compelling and intimate as the evening progressed.

Here’s a recent article by her that contains many of the stories she told last night, so you can read what I found so delicious.

I will share another memorable anecdote, but can’t say enough about what a treat it was to hear this accomplished author talk about her being called by Oprah (see link above), and her dynamic relationship with Nikki Giovanni, and how treasured her students are to her.

I’d read An American Marriage in early fall after a word-of-mouth recommendation from a trusted literary friend. I loved it and highly recommend you read it, too. It took Jones 6 years to write this. It flowed fairly steadily for the first 5 years until she hit a wall and didn’t know how the story would conclude. She described that period to a roomful of New Yorkers by saying (not exactly her wording, but the essence of what she said), “You’ll understand this. You’re in a relationship that is over, but because you’re in a rent-controlled apartment and your lease isn’t up for another year, you have to stay. You have nothing to say to each other, but are forced to be in the same environment due to circumstances beyond your control. That’s how it was with my book: stagnant, uncomfortable, but unavoidably present in my life for a year.”

When she finally had a breakthrough in her thinking, the final piece took her under a week to complete.