Paper Trail

Tayari Jones wins Women’s Prize; Kristen Arnett on writing about family


Tayari Jones. Photo: Nina Subin

Tayari Jones’s An American Marriage has won this year’s Women’s Prize for Fiction. “The shortlist was so strong and I was honoured to be among them but I had no idea whether I would win,” Jones said in her acceptance. “I didn’t write a speech!”

Mitchell S. Jackson talks to Edie Meidav about becoming a writer, secrets, and his new book, Survival Math.

At Longreads, Tobias Carroll talks to Kristen Arnett about family, taxidermy, and her new book, Mostly Dead Things. “I like thinking about the ways that we hurt each other, and sometimes I think families do that the most,” she said. “The people that raise you — whoever that might be, whatever that family dynamic looks like — the people that know you the best or feel like they know you the best can maybe hurt you the most. Or you can hurt them the most.”

Elle executive editor Emma Rosenblum is leaving the magazine for Bustle Digital Group. Rosenblum will oversee a number of websites as the company’s editor in chief of lifestyle brands.

The Observer’s John H. Tucker looks at the case of Daniel Spence, a conman who almost bought Northside Media Group. After grifting his way through Texas and Tennessee, Spence moved to Brooklyn and “offered to inject millions into Northside in return for becoming CEO.”