tayarijones:

Judy Blume. [sigh]. I still get a little thrill.  See the video of our conversation here.

you two should do a convo with all of your future books. and hers. i would def come again.

i attended a barnes and noble event last night featuring tayari jones and judy blume in conversation about tayari’s latest work, silver sparrow, and it was greatness. a recap:

• judy blume is adorable. she was this comforting entity to me as a girl, a hallowed chunk of childhood that i kept tucked away for safekeeping during the late-teen and college eras, and then she just naturally morphed into a personal icon. last night i got to sit and listen to one of my icons and it was a treat.
• judy blume is a huge tayari jones fan. huge. and it makes my heart swell.
• the story of how they met is so charming and kind of unheard of. i have even more respect for judy for seeing her talent and taking her under her wing.
• although judy was only there to boost up tayari, there were still of course ppl who came just for judy. what i loved though was that judy never let anyone off easy. she continually swayed questions back around to tayari during the q&a, encouraged more ppl to buy silver sparrow, kept the signing line moving like a drill sergeant to try to alleviate the bottleneck surrounding her. her fascination with tayari was genuine and on full tilt. i think i was expecting them to know each other to some degree, but moreso as acquaintances. judy referred to her as family very early on in the event.
• the writing community is a complex place. but at its best, it’s very tight-knit and supportive and i find it all really interesting. not enough to reverse the indefinite hiatus on my own writing, but i’ll always stay tapped into that world because it fascinates me. they talked a lot about how they craft and their writing process and i grinned like an idiot and sat in rapt attention the entire time
• judy has fans for days. judy’s work is still drawing in young fans and fostering young readers.
• judy gave a shoutout to her “tweeps in the audience.” goodness, i’m not sure if anything can make me like twitter again, but the fact that she’s active on there kinda makes me wish i did. also, she referred to spoilers. omg judy, stop.
• someone in the audience compared silver sparrow to the bluest eye. i hadn’t made that connection yet, but their feels are now officially my feels.
• tayari names her typewriters (all manual, of which she has 9). i approve. 
• tayari would love silver sparrow to be made into a movie. she asked the audience member who brought it up for casting suggestions and they didn’t have any. then tayari and judy talked about the fact that it would probably need to be unknowns since the lead characters are so young, and that by the time the movie is done they wouldn’t be young anymore. i still steadfastly see amber riley playing highschool!chaurisse and keke palmer playing highschool!dana while reading, but then i think about amandla stenberg and china anne mcclain, and have to believe there are a bevvy of possible younger starlets out there who could and would audition.
• i didn’t really get to speak to judy because i was near the end of the line and the people in charge were saying that she had to leave soon. but she signed my well-worn, throwback edition of my fave book of hers and that is enough for me.
• i got to speak for awhile to tayari, and was geeked at how much she brightened when i said i was from atlanta, too. i thanked her so much for writing silver sparrow and specifically for her depiction of our city. she said that she’d just never seen the atlanta she knows represented anywhere. i agreed whole-heartedly and said i really appreciated her for righting that wrong. i wish i could’ve talked to her longer, but i did fit in that i follow her on tumblr and love her posts.

i don’t know, there is just something about the seminal author of your childhood legit fangirling a young, black, female author on the rise who shares your hometown and is ridiculously talented. it does things to me. so glad i went to this event.

insert biggest fangirl squeal possible. like, so intense, that the 10-yo version of me is squealing. i didn’t really get to talk to her bc it was so hectic, but judy is amazing. and she’s as big a fan of tayari as i am. also, my throwback edition of this book got lots of kudos. thanks @teenaglos for sending it to me in time! (Taken with Instagram)

going to this tuesday. my fangirl levels are on tilt in anticipation.