Last week I took a staycation train trip to see the Memorial to the Enslaved Laborers on the campus of the University of Virginia in Charlottesville. The memorial is deeply moving and inspiring because it includes not just the names…
This is a photo from the 1998 literary gala and fundraiser hosted by the Hurston/Wright Foundation in Richmond, Virginia at The Jefferson Hotel. It was a spectacular literary event that brought together a stellar cast of writers including Gloria Naylor,…
This is a photo of me and my then five-year-old son Michael at a party celebrating the publication of my first book Migrations of the Heart. That was forty years ago. Check out the Migrations of the Heart cake. I…
Jennifer Baker’s essay (see below) about the erasure of Black women in the publishing industry is unfortunately a very familiar story. As a published writer and literary activist for over 40 years, I have witnessed scores of Black women trapped…
The push for the telling of the real American story continues. I was heartened when I read this news in The Washington Post about a major foundation’s support for a truthful version of American history: The Mellon Foundation has awarded…
