AViD Presents: Tayari Jones at the DSM Book Festival

Tayari Jones is the author of four novels, including her most recent book, 2018's bestseller An American Marriage. The novel, which explores the dissolution of a middle-class marriage in the aftermath of an arrest and wrongful conviction of an African American husband, was an Oprah’s Book Club pick and appeared on President Barack Obama’s year-end reading roundup. It was awarded the Women’s Prize for Fiction (formerly known as the Orange Prize), Aspen Words Prize, and an NAACP Image Award, and it was a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Fiction. With nearly a million copies in print domestically, it has been published in more than two dozen countries. After its publication, Essence magazine called Jones, "one of the most important voices of her generation."

The event is being held in partnership with the DSM Book Festival.

Our moderator for the discussion will be Teree Caldwell-Johnson, the president and CEO of Oakridge Neighborhood in Des Moines, and a member of the Des Moines Public School Board. In addition, she serves on the board of directors for the National Civic League, Community Foundation of Greater Des Moines, Capital Crossroads, Polk County Housing Trust Fund, Planned Parenthood North Central States, and The Directors Council. Teree is the recipient of numerous awards including the Faith and Freedom Community Leader Award in 2018, A Arthur Davis Distinguished Community Leadership Award in 2017, President’s MLK Drum Major for Service Lifetime Volunteer Award, 2014, Iowa African American Museum’s 2010 History Maker, Business Publications 2002 Women of Influence, Black Ministerial Alliance 2002 Leadership Award, Business Record Best Female Business Leader, 2001 and the YWCA 1999 Women of Achievement.

The 2021 season of AViD is sponsored by the Des Moines Public Library Foundation with support from these generous donors: Nationwide Foundation, Union Pacific Foundation, Kelly and Brad Edmister, Principal, Humanities Iowa and the National Endownment for the Humanities, Mary K. and Daniel M. Kelly Family Foundation, Karen Shaff and Steven Jayne, Pamela Bass-Bookey and Harry Bookey, Cultivating Compassion: The Dr. Richard Deming Foundation, Dr. Katherine and Andrew Hauser, Douglas and Deborah West, Cynthia O’Brien and Michael Fitzpatrick, Mary M. Riche, Shelley and Martin Brody, Dawn Taylor, Judy Blank, Jann Freed and John Fisher, Barbara and Jon Yankey, and The Des Moines Register (in-kind) and Iowa Public Radio (in-kind).