Southern Lit Alliance bringing author Tayari Jones to town

Get a price break on festival tickets if purchased by March 1

Tayari Jones’ books have won a Lifetime Achievement Award in Fine Arts from the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation and been selected as a National Endowment for the

Arts’ Big Read.

Among her four books, “Silver Sparrow,” her 2011 novel, was No. 1 pick on the American Booksellers Association’s Indie Next list.

Oprah Winfrey chose her 2018 release, “An American Marriage,” for her book club, and it was also the winner of the 2019 Women’s Prize for Fiction.

Even former President Barack Obama had “An American Marriage” on his 2018 summer reading list.

Now the award-winning author is coming to Chattanooga, where she will be the featured speaker at the Keynote dinner, a fundraiser for Southern Lit Alliance.

The dinner will take place Friday, April 3, at 7 p.m. in The Westin. It is part of this year’s SouthWord Literary Festival, a two-day event that features more than 40 members of the Fellowship of

Southern Writers.

These authors will be talking about their craft, hosting workshops, participating in panel discussions, signing their books and mingling with festival guests.

Tickets for the Keynote dinner alone are $75 each. A table of eight can be reserved for $600.

However, a ticket for the Keynote dinner is also included in the price of a two-day ticket to the festival. Those tickets are $125 if purchased by Sunday, March 1; $150 after that date.

Jones is a member of the Fellowship of Southern Writers, 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 to the Keynote dinner and to SouthWord can be reserved online at https://www.southernlitalliance.org

PHOTO BY WILLY SANJUAN/INVISION/THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Author Tayari Jones will be the featured guest at Southern Lit Alliance’s Keynote dinner on April 3. She is shown at the 2018 Ebony Power 100 Gala in Beverly Hills, California.