Cover Girl is Coming to Town!

I'm as excited as Snoopy when he jumps around (you know, when his feet paddle the air?), and here's why:  Tayari Jones, whom the Atlanta Journal-Constitution called "one of the most important writers of her generation," is coming to Lincoln this week!

She's a phenomenal writer, and I'm hardly the first to say so:  Leslie Marmon Silko, Robert Olen Butler, Paule Marshall, and Jewell Parker Rhodes number among her fans, and she's won slews of awards for her lovely novels Leaving Atlanta and The Untelling, which are closely observed, sensitively drawn, innovatively structured works of contemporary realism. 

I can't wait for her next novel to come out (I hear it's almost finished).  

She's giving a reading Thursday, October 23 at 7:30 p.m. in the Great Plains Art Gallery at the corner of Q and 12th.  The reading is free and open to the public.  Tayari will read for about half an hour, after which she'll do Q&A.  Then there'll be books available for signing (and cookies available for eating).  High school students as well as adults seem to be particularly drawn to her work, which is elegantly literary yet still hits the heart, so if you know some young people, invite them along.

Tayari's a dynamite performer, and her work is terrific.  I've seen her read three times and teach twice, and I've always been wowed.  If you can make it, please come!