Tayari Jones wins the Aspen Words Literary Prize

Congratulations to author Tayari Jones, who was unanimously chosen as the winner of this year’s Aspen Words Literary Prize!

Samrat Upadhyay, a contender last year who served as the chair of this year’s panel, called Jones’s An American Marriage “a book for the long haul” that will “have a place in the literary imagination for a long time.”

The prize honors a work that focuses on critical social issues; in the case of An American Marriage, those themes are mass incarceration (done wrongfully, in the novel) and racial discrimination.

Jones and the four other novelists considered for the award discussed their works with Renee Montagne, video of which is posted with NPR’s article on Jones’s victory.