Best-selling author Tayari Jones has returned to her roots by officially moving back to Atlanta, she revealed in a recent Atlanta magazine interview.
» RELATED: Tayari Jones talks about 'An American Marriage'
When the writer began her career, she relocated to New York for publishing opportunities. There, she was able to successfully pump out four books, including the New York Times best-seller "An American Marriage," which was handpicked by Oprah's Book Club earlier this year. But now she's returned home.
“With the success of ‘An American Marriage,’ the biggest gift is that I am able to go home now and not feel like I won’t be able to sustain my career. If I never see a subway again, I’ll be fine with that,” the Spelman graduate told the publication.
She also discussed some misconceptions she’s heard from New Yorkers about The Peach City and how it’s impacted her storytelling.
“I realized how much the urban South is misunderstood. When I’m in New York and tell people I am from Georgia, they act like I came to Brooklyn on the Underground Railroad,” she said. “They don’t understand the South is a vibrant place. They think the South is shorthand for African American misery. I always understood Atlanta to be shorthand for African American prosperity.”
Now that she's back in the South and currently on faculty at Emory University, she's excited to get back to work on her old-fashioned typewriter.
“I’m looking forward to being settled in Atlanta with my roots in the ground. Writing about home from home,” she said. “I missed my family and the people I’ve known all my life. One time, I was in the grocery store, and I ran into my third-grade teacher. I missed things like that. I’m glad to be back in that embrace of the city. I am glad to be home.”
Read Jones full Atlanta magazine interview here.
» RELATED: Tayari Jones' 'American Marriage' a fractured love story
