Fiction winner Tayari Jones joins us in celebration of the 2026 Kirkus Prize.

On this special episode of Fully Booked, dedicated to the 2026 Kirkus Prize, we’re joined by Tayari Jones to discuss Kin(Knopf, Feb. 24)­, winner of this year’s Kirkus Prize for Fiction. At the Kirkus Prize ceremony on Oct. 7 in New York City, Jones joined nonfiction winner Pamlea Colloff, author of Catch the Devil: A True Story of Murder, Deception, and Injustice on the Gulf Coast(Knopf, July 14) and young readers’ literature winner Elizabeth Acevedo, author of Anger Is Only a Shadow (Quill Tree Books/HarperCollins, Sept. 15) as recipients of the $50,000 awards and trophies custom made by the U.K.-based design firm Vezzini & Chen.

Jones is the author of five novels, including An American Marriage, which was also an Oprah’s Book Club pick and appeared on Barack Obama’s summer reading list and year-end roundup. It won the Women’s Prize for Fiction, the Aspen Words Literary Prize, an NAACP Image Award, and has been published in two dozen countries. Jones is the C.H. Candler Professor of English and Creative Writing at Emory University and lives in Atlanta.

Her “beautifully written and powerfully compelling” novel is “the story of a lifelong friendship born in hardship and tempered by adversity,” Kirkus writes in a starred review. “This is Jones’ first new novel since An American Marriage (2018), and it’s reminiscent of that critically acclaimed and bestselling work. As in her last book, the author interrogates social injustice through the lens of personal relationships while exploring the ways in which it shapes those relationships, and she does this in language that is intimate, conversational, and musical all at once.”

In a wholehearted conversation, Jones shares her delight at being named a Kirkus Prize winner, her experience of the awards ceremony, and the pleasure of sharing that evening with her fellow finalists. We talk about how she struggled to write a contemporary novel after An American Marriage and how Kin marked a reflowering of her belief in her creative talents. We discuss her unending gratitude to the readers who’ve supported her from the start, why she answers every letter she receives, and much more.

During our interview, Jones recommends a fellow Kirkus Prize finalist’s novel, recently published by Knopf. Follow @kirkus_reviews on Instagram, DM us the title of that novel, along with your email and location, and you’ll be entered in a drawing to receive a $100 Visa gift card, courtesy of Kirkus. The giveaway is open to legal residents of the U.S. who have reached 18 years of age or older at the time of entry.

THANKS TO OUR SPONSORS:

Poor Farm Meadow by Cynthia Centerbar

Frail Blood by Edward Stanton

Under an Indiana Sky by Lynne Hugo

Maybelline Has a Very. Bad. Day. by Dawn Dolan, illus. by Olena Kharkovenko

The Seven by Igor Stefanovic

Fully Booked is produced by Jessica Lockhart and Megan Labrise.