--- description: Find out why Tayari Jones is one of the 100 most influential people of 2026. title: Tayari Jones: The 100 Most Influential People of 2026 image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt3db6eea036efb00f/69d92939408190ab0b8c59c5/T100-2026-Jones-Web-New.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 --- Apr 15, 2026 # Tayari Jones by Imani Perry  Lloyd Bishop—NBC/Getty Images A daughter of Atlanta and a writer of the world, [Tayari Jones](https://time.com/5434381/tayari-jones-moral-middle-myth/ "undefined") has blazed her own path through American fiction. Her sensitive coming-of-age stories bloom into rich landscapes of Black women’s interior lives. In them, key social issues and important historical moments come alive by way of her characters’ wounds, yearnings, and dreams. Her fifth and most recent novel, [_Kin_](https://time.com/7341767/most-anticipated-books-2026/#:~:text=Kin%2C%20Tayari%20Jones%20%28Feb.%2024%29 "undefined")_,_ is an exquisite journey through a lifelong friendship between two girls born in Louisiana who enter adulthood at the dawn of the freedom movement. In this novel, as in her preceding books, Tayari revels in language that is both literary and vernacular, and she uses her abundant gifts to deeply [contemplate](https://time.com/5646235/toni-morrisons-work-and-legacy/ "undefined") love in all its complexity. Standing in the tradition of civil rights organizers and writers of the late 20th century Black women’s literary renaissance, she wears these inheritances like a crown. Tayari is building a legacy while nurturing her fellow writers and dazzling her readers with grace, charm, poise, and a brilliant smile. _Perry is a professor at Harvard and National Book Award–winning author_ ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"Article","@id":"https://time.com/collection/100-most-influential-people/2026/tayari-jones/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/collection/100-most-influential-people/2026/tayari-jones/"},"headline":"Tayari Jones","datePublished":"2026-04-15T11:00:00.000Z","dateModified":"2026-07-21T07:21:49.566Z","description":"","url":"https://time.com/collection/100-most-influential-people/2026/tayari-jones/","keywords":["TIME 100","list","franchise","Accolades"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt3db6eea036efb00f/69d92939408190ab0b8c59c5/T100-2026-Jones-Web-New.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Imani Perry"}],"creator":"Imani Perry","articleSection":"TIME100","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt3db6eea036efb00f/69d92939408190ab0b8c59c5/T100-2026-Jones-Web-New.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/time100/","name":"TIME100"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-100/","name":"TIME 100"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/collection/100-most-influential-people/2026/tayari-jones/","name":"Tayari Jones"}}]}] ```