When Silver Sparrow, her third novel, launched successfully in 2011, critics called Tayari Jones “one of the most important writers of her generation” (The Atlanta Journal Constitution), and “literature’s new ‘It’ Girl” (The Root).

“Jones writes dialogue that is realistic and sparkling,” author Anita Shreve said in a Washington Post book review, “with an intuitive sense of how much to reveal and when.”

Then came the Best of 2011 lists: Six major publications and websites – among them O Magazine, Slate.com, and Library Journal – singled out Silver Sparrow as one of the year’s best books. And recently Jones was named as the recipient of the 2012 Lifetime Achievement Award in the Fine Arts by the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation and the Congressional Black Caucus Spouses.

The citation letter for this most recent award calls Tayari "the voice of a generation" and "one of the most gifted African American writers of our time." She will be honored in September at 16th Annual Celebration of Leadership in the Fine Arts in Washington., D.C.

After working in relative obscurity during the early years of her writing career, the Rutgers academic has taken the accolades in stride.

“I’m making an effort to really enjoy this moment,” Jones said earlier this year after she completed a 40-city publicity tour – an author perk almost unheard of in today’s stressed publishing climate. “As a writer, you have to teach yourself how to enjoy your success. Most writers are used to seeing themselves as the underdogs; it’s hard to snap out of it.”

A professor in the Master of Fine Arts program at Rutgers-Newark since 2007, Jones spent the academic year as a Bunting scholar at Harvard’s Radcliff Institute for Independent Study, lecturing and working on her next book, Dear History.  Set in the author’s beloved Atlanta – a city that claims pride of place in all of her novels –the novel explores society’s obligation to those it imprisons, and to their families.

The book’s characters have taken up temporary residence in her life, as all of her characters do, whether minor or major.

“You’re in their world for three or four years, so you become very invested in their futures,” Jones says of the people who populate her pages. “When I’m working on a novel, and even when I’m not working on it and just standing in line in the grocery store, I’m thinking about them.  It’s important to me that each character has a legitimate voice, and that the reader wants to know what happens to him or her.”

Readers cannot help being swept into the worlds of Dana and Chaurisse, who play pivotal roles as the daughters in Silver Sparrow. Their father is James Witherspoon, the bigamist whose relationship with the girls’ mothers forms the narrative’s core.

Set in a middle-class black neighborhood in Atlanta in the 1980s, the book explores the dynamics of these two families living but a few miles apart: the public family and the “secret” one.

That her fiction has won a huge following is evident from Jones’ intimate relationship with her readers. Fans regularly send her gifts: cookies, a quilt, even hair products (In Silver Sparrow, Chaurisse’s mother Laverne operates a beauty salon out of her home). The novelist returns their affection and keeps them up to date through her blog, Tayarijones.com.

“The audiences for all three of my books so far have been different, but predominantly women are the audience for fiction – crossing lines of race, generation, whatever,” the professor notes. “So my audience is diverse, but I have an amazing black female readership -- they have brought me through tough times. You don’t forget things like that. Critics are good, but what sticks with me are interactions with readers.”

In the spirit of paying it forward, Jones serves as a mentor to emerging writers in the Rutgers MFA program, taking fierce pride when they excel. Some of them, she says, have gone on to win amazing prizes,  among them Chidi Asoluka, a 2008 finalist for the Hurston/Wright Award for College Writers, and Leslie Ann Murray, who claimed the award in 2011.

The achievement was particularly striking for Jones, who won the Hurston/Wright Award for Debut Fiction in 2003 for Leaving Atlanta. The novel recalls the child murders of 1979-1981, when 29 African-American children lost their lives. Having lived through the period herself, Jones chose to tell her story through the eyes of three fifth-graders grappling with the paranoia and fear the serial killings generated.

The Atlanta Journal Constitution and the Washington Post named Leaving Atlanta one of the best books of 2002.

In conjunction with the U.S. State Department and Femrite, a nongovernmental organization that promotes women writers in Uganda, Jones taught a class of 20 women of all ages how to hone their craft, offering a creative environment and empowering them to contribute to the national dialogue.

Similar initiatives took her to Brazil and Ghana. Jones also has served as vice chair of the board of Girls Write Now, which offers guidance, support and opportunities to under-served and at-risk girls in New York City’s public schools.

“It’s important to nurture the next generation of writers because our stories are the record of who we are,” Jones says. “Making sure the next generation has writers is just as vital as making sure the next generation has clean air and water.”