Atlanta’s own Tayari Jones has a new book, KIN, that is already a New York Times Bestseller, and her book tour hasn’t ended. KIN celebrates the lives of women. Two friends, Annie and Niecy, are brought to life, and this story takes us “outside of the Perimeter,” according to Jones.
If you want to know about women, specifically Black women, you need to read KIN. Jones brings the intimacy to life in the story of two friends, Annie and Niecy. These motherless girls grow up as “cradle friends” in a small town; one escapes to Memphis and the other to Spelman College in Atlanta. We get to know the women who raised them, an aunt and a granny, both working, raising other people’s children to provide stability to the young friends. Jones provides peeks into the lives of other women as they interact with the young friends at various points along the way.
The friends share their lives with each other through letters. Jones mentions that she and her mentor Pearl Cleage, have been writing letters for a few decades now. I asked if she thought those letters might one day be published.
Tayari Jones is a graduate of Spelman College, the University of Iowa, and Arizona State University. KIN is her fifth novel. She is an Andrew D. White Professor-at-Large and the Charles Howard Candler Professor of English and Creative Writing at Emory University.