This interview originally appeared on TheRoot.com in edited form. The full length interview appears below.
With the publication of her third novel, Silver Sparrow, things are happening to author Tayari Jones that rarely happen to writers, especially writers who are women. And these things that are happening to Tayari Jones, almost never happen to writers who are African American women.
Even before Silver Sparrow was bound and ready to be bought, her publishing company, Algonquin Books, hosted a series of luncheons, filled the room with booksellers, and brought in just one author ? Jones ? to meet the people who decide which books to place on prominent display, recommend to readers, and sell. Another unheard of in publishing: Algonquin then sent Jones on a tour of not 3, not 10, not 20 ? but 40 cities around the country.
Silver Sparrow will be submitted for consideration for the two most prestigious literary awards in the country, both the National Book Award and the Pulitzer Prize. And Jones has already won one of the most prestigious fellowships, the Bunting, an award that helped launch the career of writers like Zadie Smith. With that prize, Jones will work on her 4th novel, a book she?s already sold even though it hasn?t been written ? another anomaly in fiction, where only finished manuscripts are selected for possible publication.
Jones? publicist, Lauren Cerand, says ?This is someone that people really do see as the next Toni Morrison in publishing.?
This is most certainly the year that Jones takes her rightful place as one of our most gifted Gen X writers ? indeed, one of our most gifted American writers. Silver Sparrow is rich, substantive, meaningful. It is also, at turns, funny and sharp, haunting and heart-breaking. That her work examines the interior lives of two Black women characters places Jones in a literary tradition that includes Zora Neale Hurston and Alice Walker as well as Toni Morrison. Silver Sparrow manages to be both a contemporary page-turner and a literary triumph, as it examines the lives of two daughters fathered by the same man – but raised by different mothers.
The novel devotes a whole section to Chaurisse, the sister who can publicly claim the father she unknowingly shares with a girl almost exactly her age. But the real Silver Girl is Dana Lynn, the outside child, the shadow-dweller, the secret daughter.
Dana Lynn grows up in a veil of silence. From the time she is 5 and uses classroom Crayolas to draw her father?s two wives for her kindergarten teacher, she is hushed. Her daddy tells her, ?You are my baby girl, and I love you, and I love your mama. But what we do in this house has to be a secret, okay?? Dana Lynn obeys until the inevitable chance encounter between two adolescent blood sisters in 1980s Atlanta, a place her father says ?ain?t nothing but a country town,? changes everyone?s lives forever.
Jones? renderings of class and color in Black communities, Black life across generations, the interiority of her female characters and the ways we relate to each other and our mothers are beautiful. She even got our relationship with our hair just right.
1. Let?s start with the question every writer gets: Where did you get the idea for this novel?
I am not a writer who has a sort of lightning bolt moment when a book just comes to me. I often write a hundred or so pages as I figure out where the story is. People often think of this as a novel about bigamy, and it is, but I wrote it thinking about sisterhood and separated sisters. Like many people, I have sisters with whom I share a father, but we have different mothers. So all my life I grew up knowing I had sisters that lived far away. Since I grew up in a house of boys, I always longed for that female companionship. That longing is at the heart of this book.
2. Your novel features a short stutterer with coke bottle glasses who gets two women to commit their lives, and their daughters? lives, to him. How do so many flawed men manage to be Baby Daddies ? and not just in the Black community?
Flawed people become parents all the time. Being a parent is just part of the human condition– it’s not a merit prize. It’s funny, I never think of James as a “Baby Daddy”. I think of him as the father of these two girls. He isn’t a great dad, but he is their father.
I remember when the term “Baby Daddy” first came into vogue. I think there was a song where the singer says “that ain’t nobody; he just my baby daddy” (B Rock and the Bizz, “My Baby Daddy”). It’s such a dismissive way to talk about a very serious relationship. As Dana says in Silver Sparrow, “It matters what you call things.” James may be short with glasses, but he is a human being and he makes a human connection with Gwen. I think there are many people who are flawed, who are not right for us, but with whom we make a human connection. That’s why life is complicated.
3. Even before your novel was published, women were sending you email that read. ?I?m a Silver Sparrow.? Now that you?re on tour, how have readers been responding to your work?
I meet Silver Sparrows at every stop. I also meet the people who grew up as the accepted child and struggle with the guilt that comes along with privilege. It’s a hard conversation to have, but I am glad that we are talking about it. This is a pain that must be healed. Every child is legitimate.
4. Any responses from men?
I have received responses from men who are Silver Sparrow sons. Most people who read this book think about their own position in their families. They think of themselves in relationship to their own fathers, their own siblings. There are so many Silver Sparrow kids out there– not just daughters. That stigma of “illegitimacy” is pain that men feel, too.
5. All three of your novels are set in Atlanta and explore the lives of middle class African Americans coming-of-age in the 1980s. Why is this place and time so central to your work?
A lot of writers mine the experiences of their generation for subject matter. I am very interested in the lives of those of us who came of age post civil rights. And Atlanta is my hometown. I really feel like the cultural rubber hits the road in the urban south. History is right there on the surface, but all the changes that happen in the country are layered right over that history. My first novel, Leaving Atlanta, is about growing up during the child murders. That’s history that impacted ordinary lives. And even in Silver Sparrow– Gwen and James fall in love on the day MLK was buried. That’s how history intertwined with people’s real lives.
6. Does the promotion of Black Gen X women writers like Edwidge Danticat, ZZ Packer, and yourself signal a new era of inclusion in the books publishing industry?
Honestly, I don’t like to spend too much time scrutinizing the careers of other writers. When I am writing, I really need to keep my head down and my eyes on my own pages. I have books to write and it doesn’t really matter what’s going out there in publishing. Of course, I am delighted to see Gen X black writers getting attention. Delighted. But is it a new era? Maybe. And how new? Toni Morrison won the Nobel 20 years ago. I mean, she really opened doors. Are younger writers walking through those doors? Absolutely.
7. What, exactly, do you see happening in Black books and the relationship between African American writers and mainstream publishing?
This question is hard for me to get my arms around. There are many black writers with many different projects with different relationships to publishing. I am not even sure anymore where the lines are between mainstream publishing and some other stream of publishing. Things are fluid these days. We are going to have to get some new language to talk about it. There are some really great books out there. Sharifa Rhodes-Pitts’ Harlem is Nowhere blew me away. Mat Johnson’s PYM is really exciting. And when I go to book festivals, I often pick up a couple of books by self-published authors. It’s a really exciting time in literature for black writers– all of us.
8. You?ve worked hard to give more Black and female voices a space to be heard. Talk about your relationship with Girls Write Now.
Girls Write Now is a fantastic non-profit that matched teen girls with writing mentors. When I first heard about the project, I was stuck by what an obvious idea it was. Just something so simple is so effective. I think we all can think back on our teen years and say, What if I had a mentor?
9. You?ve maintained one of the most popular blogs by Black writers. What role has social media played in your career?
It’s hard to say. I believe I have connected with a lot of readers via my blog and even twitter. How has this affected my career? You know, it’s really hard to say. I know that it has affected my life because when you write a book, you’re pretty much alone. You don’t know if it’s reaching anyone. But with social media, I feel connected. There is always someone holding my hand.
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