The Oprah Podcast Tayari Jones: “Kin” | Oprah’s Book Club
Feb 24, 2026
Tayari Jones, acclaimed novelist and professor behind An American Marriage and Kin, joins to discuss friendship, motherlessness, and chosen family. She talks about using letters as storytelling, midcentury settings, mentors who shaped her, and the eight-year gap between books. The conversation highlights craft moments like word doodling, title choices, and finishing the novel.
AI Snips
Chapters
Books
Transcript
Episode notes
Letters Create Intentional Emotional Records
- Tayari uses letters to preserve an intentional, durable record of emotion that differs from speech or texts.
- She keeps family letters (grandfather courting grandmother) and revives the form to reveal what characters will put on the record.
Spelman Mentors Who Anchored Her Writing Path
- Tayari enrolled at Spelman College at 16, forged a signature to take a writing class, and was mentored by Pearl Cleage and Dr. Jannetta Cole.
- Cleage asked 'what are you thinking about? Write it down,' which made Tayari take herself seriously as a writer.
How Kin Emerged During An Eight Year Pause
- Tayari Jones wrote Kin after an eight-year gap filled with grief, illness, and sudden fame following An American Marriage.
- She began by 'word doodling' in a ballpoint notebook, discovering Annie and Niecy as backstory that demanded a full novel.
