Acclaimed Novelist Returns to Campus With Special AAMU Family Connection
AAMU to Welcome Best-Selling Author Tayari Jones During Homecoming Week
Alabama A&M University, in partnership with the Huntsville-Madison County Library Foundation, will welcome acclaimed novelist and New York Times best-selling author Tayari Jones back to campus for a special literary event during Homecoming Week.
“An Evening with Tayari Jones” will be held Tuesday, Oct. 13, at 6 p.m. in the Clyde Foster Multipurpose Room at Alabama A&M University. A book signing will follow the conversation.
Two ticket options are available: $15 for event admission only and $35 for event admission plus a copy of Jones’ latest novel, “Kin.”
Jones previously visited Alabama A&M in 2018 for an event celebrating “An American Marriage,” her acclaimed fourth novel and an Oprah’s Book Club selection. Her return to campus comes as she receives national recognition for “Kin,” her fifth novel, published in 2026.
“Kin” was selected for Oprah’s Book Club and has earned widespread acclaim. The New York Times named it among its best books of 2026 so far, while Amazon editors selected it as their No. 1 book of the year at midyear. Former President Barack Obama also included “Kin” among his Summer 2026 favorites.
For Jones, the return to AAMU also carries a personal connection.
“Our partnership to host this event on campus is significant, particularly during Homecoming Week,” said Dr. Charlotte C. Teague, associate professor and chair of AAMU’s Department of English and Modern Languages. “There is also a meaningful AAMU connection that many may not know. Her mother, Dr. Barbara Jones, retired from AAMU after serving for many years as a faculty member and dean of the College of Business and Public Affairs.”
Tayari Jones is the author of five novels: “Leaving Atlanta,” “The Untelling,” “Silver Sparrow,” “An American Marriage” and “Kin.” “An American Marriage” received the Women’s Prize for Fiction, the Aspen Words Literary Prize and an NAACP Image Award and has been published in more than two dozen languages.
Jones’ literary honors include a 2021 Guggenheim Fellowship, a United States Artists Fellowship, a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship and the Hurston/Wright Legacy Award. Her novel “Silver Sparrow” was added to the National Endowment for the Arts’ Big Read library in 2016.
In 2026, Jones was named to the TIME100 list of the world’s most influential people and elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
A graduate of Spelman College, the University of Iowa and Arizona State University, Jones is an Andrew D. White Professor-at-Large at Cornell University and the Charles Howard Candler Professor of Creative Writing at Emory University.
Jones’ return to Alabama A&M brings together literary excellence, community partnership and a family connection to the University during one of AAMU’s most celebrated weeks.
Tickets are limited and going fast for this special Homecoming Week event. Reserve your seat now.