Dolen Perkins-Valdez wants to change readers’ perspective on the Civil War. Her best-selling debut novel, Wench, explored the lives of slave women — not on Southern plantations, but in a resort for slaveowners’ mistresses in Ohio. Her new book, Balm, is set in the post-war period, and it’s also in an unexpected […]
Paradox Lana closed the bedroom door firmly behind her, but it didn’t block out their noise. Even in the elusive moments when screams and screeches and sobbing stopped bouncing off of every solid surface, the reverberation remained. No stranger to self-sacrifice, Lana had done what she was expected to do, until, of course, she discovered […]
This week we’re celebrating the publication of novels by Kimbilio Faculty Members Mat Johnson and Dolen Perkins-Valdez. Here’s an article by Mat from BuzzFeed: Yo, I’m a mulatto. And I have to tell you, it’s great. I was black for most of my life, which is also great, but the thing is I look white […]
Recently, BOMB Magazine published a chapter that had been excised from Kimbilio Faculty Member Jeffrey Renard Allen’s SONG OF THE SHANK. Making Tom (Return): Behind the Scenes by Jeffery Renard Allen He is Tom at the same time that he is too preposterous to be Tom. (Root distinction, difference: Juluster is a rare one, but […]
Today we welcome the long anticipated 2nd novel from Kimbilio faculty member Dolen Perkins-Valdez. Here’s what Publisher’s Weekly says: The elegantly crafted second novel from Perkins-Valdez (after Wench) captures the fierce energy, diversity, and suffering of Civil War–era Chicago. At its heart are three strangers—two black, one white—whose lives intersect after each arrives in their […]
Kimbilio Faculty Member Mat Johnson’s new novel is published this week. Read Mat’s essay in the New York Times on PROVING MY BLACKNESS: I grew up a black boy who looked like a white one. My parents divorced when I was 4, and I was raised mostly by my black mom, in a black neighborhood […]
From All Right, Already: A Completely Unpretentious Literary Podcast
A Hit Dog Will Holler by Selena Anderson Divorce twins, the girls could be cruel. Tiny’s stepdaughters May and Annie were strong beyond her understanding: smart mouthed, sensible, defiant. They had their own private kingdom of science fiction speak and candy jewelry and laughing fits brought on mostly by spelling Mississippi as fast as possible. […]
Novelist Tayari Jones talked with Ravi Howard on the occasion of the publication of his latest book,“Driving the King.” This is their conversation. Tayari Jones: So first off, how is the weather down there? Ravi Howard: I almost hate to say it to people who are not down here, but we got into the 60s […]
Reviewed in the LA Times: With her 2006 fiction collection “Get Down,” Asali Solomon established herself as a short-form artist with a knack for writing misfits in black middle-class Philadelphia. Her first novel, “Disgruntled,” is a fitting follow-up — a smart, philosophical coming-of-age tale featuring a vivid protagonist who battles.. Read More Here: http://www.latimes.com/books/jacketcopy/la-ca-jc-asali-solomon-20150201-story.html
