GRETAGRAM book club: Tayari Jones on 'Kin'
Happy To Be Here
Greta Johnsen
4.6 • 924 Ratings
🗓️ 10 March 2026
⏱️ 30 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Host Greta Johnsen talks to Tayari Jones. Her novel Kin is the GRETAGRAM book club selection for March. It’s about two girls grow up in the 50’s in Alabama. They each lost their mothers in different ways, and those absences shape the trajectories of both of their lives.
Tayari and Greta talk about the power of deep, abiding friendship, the importance of asking for help, and how Tayari stumbled upon writing historical fiction.
UPCOMING BOOK CLUB BOOKS:
April: Vigil, George Saunders
May: Whidbey, T Kira Madden
June: Dear Monica Lewinsky, Julia Langbein
July: Canon, Paige Lewis
SHOW CREDITS
Creator and host: Greta Johnsen
Senior Producer: Ben Goldberg
Composers: Ross Bellenoit and Jeremy Thal
Show art: Mac Maclean
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hello and welcome to Happy to Be Here, the show for recovering perfectionists and the |
| 0:08.1 | perpetually curious about what to read, eat, watch, think about, and delight in wherever you |
| 0:13.7 | may happen to be. I am your host, Greta Johnson, and I am really excited that you are here. |
| 0:24.6 | Today we have an author interview episode for you. This is the author of the March Gretagram Book Club pick, which is called Kin, and I am talking with |
| 0:31.8 | Teary Jones. Tejari has written several novels, including an American marriage, which came out in |
| 0:36.6 | 2018. It was highly acclaimed, and for good marriage, which came out in 2018. |
| 0:40.5 | It was highly acclaimed, and for good reason, it was phenomenal. |
| 0:43.1 | And now, eight years later, Kin is here. |
| 0:47.3 | It's about two girls who grew up in Louisiana in the 50s. |
| 0:50.0 | They have each lost their mothers, though in different ways. |
| 0:53.9 | Annie Kay's mom abandoned her, and Niecy's mother was killed. |
| 0:58.5 | As they grow up, it's almost impossible to describe how close these two girls are. |
| 1:03.6 | They use the words cradle friend, and there's even a scene where Annie Kay is sucking Niecy's thumb. |
| 1:06.5 | As the two grow up, their paths diverge. |
| 1:12.9 | Nisi heads to Spelman and becomes entangled with Atlanta's Black Elite, and Annie Kay travels across Jim Crow South to find her mom in Memphis. As they get older, they keep in touch by writing |
| 1:19.1 | letters, and we see how each of these characters reckons with their grief around the losses |
| 1:24.0 | of their mothers. That is all I'm going to say for now. Terry, welcome to the show. |
| 1:29.6 | Thank you for having me. This book is gorgeous. Oh, thank you. I think it's really interesting. |
| 1:35.6 | You've talked about how, like, you do not consider yourself to be a writer of historical fiction. |
| 1:40.1 | But like, you just did it, you know? I know. And I'm all, I'm just a little stunned by the experience, really, because while I'm not a very controlling writer, |
| 1:49.6 | I do think of myself as a very purposeful and intentional writer. |
| 1:54.0 | Like when I write a novel, I never know how it's going to end. |
... |
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