IN 2009, four years after the release of her second novel, The Untelling, Tayari Jones found herself without a publisher. Her sales numbers were hardly strong—in fact, she says, she had become “radioactive.” “I was so depressed,” Jones, 47, says. At the time, she had begun work on a new novel, which would eventually become the best-selling Silver Sparrow. “The only reason I kept working on Sparrow was because I tell my students that you write a book for you and not your publisher. I couldn’t face them every day if I were to give up on that project.” She finally completed the manuscript with the help of a grant from the United States Artists Foundation; later, at a reading in Florida at the Key West Literary Seminar, an admirer came up to Jones to express outrage that she still didn’t have a publisher. The admirer introduced Jones to an executive at Algonquin Books, which would go on to publish Silver Sparrow and Jones’s latest book, An American Marriage. After inquiring about her novel, the executive asked, “But how do you know Judy?” Jones’s admirer had been none other than literary icon Judy Blume.

The statistics on wrongful convictions and race are damning; justice, as imperfect as it already is, definitely isn’t colorblind in America. According to the National Registry of Exonerations, African Americans make up 47 percent of known wrongful convictions in America, despite being only 13 percent of the population. On sexual assault convictions, a black prisoner serving time is 3.5 times more likely to be innocent than a white person convicted of sexual assault charges; among those exonerated, African Americans still spend 4.5 years longer in prison than their white counterparts.

Nick Hornby, John Hodgman and Meg Wolitzer will be among the writers featured at the second Believer Festival in Las Vegas.

The author of “An American Marriage” likes to bring hardcover books with her when she flies: “I accepted a gig in Dubai just for 18 hours of luxurious reading time.”

Oprah Winfrey Network and O, The Oprah Magazine announced today the newest Oprah's Book Club selection, An American Marriage by Tayari Jones. An American Marriage centers around a recently married young African American couple living the dream of the New South in Atlanta, Georgia, and tackles themes of race, loyalty, resilience and love. Additionally, Harpo Films is attached to produce the adaptation of An American Marriage.

The best fiction writers build worlds. This is why story collections are so challenging: With novels, writers inhabit and animate a single world — no small accomplishment, to be sure — but with short stories the writer strives for the same emotional and intellectual impact in a fraction of the word count. A collection must work this magic in rapid succession, offering up numerous worlds each with its own population, settings, mood and meaning.

Black Mountain Institute at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas has named a new group of Diana L. Bennett fellows for 2017-18.

ZZ Packer donned a judge’s robe and banged the gavel for a trial argument-themed reading inside an old federal courthouse. Later, Miranda July read aloud the sexual fantasies of 30 women in her audience. And before each of those, Luís Alberto Urrea shared psalms about his Tijuana childhood as hummingbirds bobbed, a coyote yipped, and the sun fell behind sandstone bluffs at Red Rock Canyon, where the first reading took place.

The Las Vegas literary scene is building on good bones. UNLV’s 10-year-old Black Mountain Institute has long been a force, from developing voices in the MFA program and hosting Pulitzer- and Nobel-winning authors to sheltering foreign writers from persecution. And for 16 years, the Vegas Valley Book Festival has celebrated “written, spoken and illustrated word” with readings, workshops and keynotes by the likes of John Irving, Chuck Palahniuk, Sarah Vowell and Michael Chabon.

There is renewed faith in the Believer. The arts and culture magazine, whose youthful and idiosyncratic ethos reflect its San Francisco roots, has a new owner. Black Mountain Institute, a literary center at the University of Nevada Las Vegas, has acquired the publication, which had been struggling for years. Beset by financial difficulties that have afflicted much of the publishing industry, the magazine has not published an issue since the summer of 2015. It has 5,600 subscribers.

A highly praised and proudly off-beat literary magazine, where contributors have ranged from Nick Hornby and Anne Carson to Leslie Jamison and Daniel Handler, is changing ownership.

The Beverly Rogers, Carol C. Harter Black Mountain Institute at UNLV has purchased the arts, literature and culture magazine The Believer. Joshua Wolf Shenk, BMI’s executive director and writer-in-residence, said BMI now is seeking a managing editor for the bimonthly journal, whose editorial operations will move from San Francisco to Las Vegas.