Tayari Jones

I like straightforward names for my characters. When I get too symbolic with names or places, I start feeling like the characters and the story are less read, and I lose interest.

I am always urging my students to honor their writing practice, to set up a schedule.

My first novel, 'Leaving Atlanta,' took at look at my hometown in the late 1970s, when the city was terrorized by a serial murderer that left at least 29 African-American children dead.

Children, even infants, are capable of sympathy. But only after adolescence are we capable of compassion.

Well, I actually wrote her a letter a couple of days ago congratulating her. The tone I tried to convey in the letter is, look, you are a part of a great American historical process.

I love designing costumes that I can actually construct, working to create an environment that people want to be in.