WENCH featured in Essence Magazine

Make sure to pick up a copy of the January ESSENCE magazine. WENCH, my forthcoming novel, is featured in there.

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Karibu Books, R.I.P.

Click here for Alan W. King's moving tribute to Karibu Books.

By the way, he mentions Reginald Dwayne Betts (pictured to the left) whose memoir A Question of Freedom: A Memoir of Learning, Survival, and Coming of Age in Prison is out now and receiving rave reviews. Betts is the former manager of the Karibu bookstore. Click here to buy it. Read more!

Asha Bandele

Over the years, I have often thought of Asha Bandele. I first fell in love with the words of this talented writer when I read The Prisoner's Wife back in 1999. I couldn't forget this heartbreakingly honest memoir about a young poet-intellectual who falls in love with a guy, Rashid, in prison. While recently browsing in Busboys & Poets bookstore in DC (wonderful place, by the way), I saw that Bandele has a new book out. It's called Something Like Beautiful: A Single Mother's Story. I am eager to read it and see what happened to her! From the reviews, I know that they had a beautiful daughter together and he was denied parole. In the meantime, I recommended The Prisoner's Wife to my mother who was with me at the time. She bought it and read it in one night. She, too, was moved by this story.

Click here to buy Bandele's latest book. Read more!

Sara Tavares

I have been meaning to write about a positively magical concert I went to a little over 10 days ago. Sara Tavares is a Portuguese singer of Cape Verdean descent with a unique voice and a very international sound. I was already loving her CD "Balancé." But I have to say, I knew that I was in for a treat when she asked for a show of hands of people in the audience of Cape Verdean descent and there was a significant smattering of applause!

Sara took the audience and wrapped us up in her lovely dreadlocks. She spoke to the audience in charming English between songs and really engaged everyone in the room. I heard the guy behind me say to his date that he didn't know much about Sara, but if she was good he would get them backstage to meet her. Before the end of the encore, he and his date were racing down to the stage door. The concert venue was a rather formal university performing arts stage, but people were dancing in the aisles and on their feet during the last numbers.

Sara is one of those musicians that oozes music from her pores. A talented performer, instrumentalist, songwriter, and producer, she mixes a little bit of Caribbean reggae, African rhythm, Cape Verdean morna, and jazzy riffs in a smooth fusion of influences. Yes, smooth is a good word to describe her sound. But she can also be funky. The blend of her musical complexity and alluring on-stage aura made this one of the best concerts I've been to in recent years. If you get a chance to see her, go. Read more!

All That Work and Still No Boys (2009)

I blogged here when my friend Kathryn Ma won the Meyerson Prize for fiction for her story "All That Work and Still No Boys." Well, imagine the delight Curtis Sittenfeld must have had when she picked up Kathryn Ma's manuscript of short stories of the same title while judging the 2009 Iowa Short Fiction Award.

I have just finished this 2009 Iowa Short Fiction Award- winning collection, and while I already respected the author's work after reading the above story as well as an earlier unpublished version of "Prank" which appears in the book, I must say that my admiration has increased. This does not feel like a first book at all! Kathryn's level of craft is very well-executed. But more than that...in Kathryn's stories, the stakes are high. It took me a while to read the collection because each story had such an impact on me. I had to digest it. This writer has something to say. And what she has to say will stay with you.

I thought about trying to run through a few of the story plots, but I find that one-liners just don't do them justice. Let me try: In "Second Child" parents of an adopted Chinese child return to the country to visit the orphanage on what they call a "reunion visit" and the tour guide finds an emotional journey of her own through this experience; in "The Scottish Play" two widows veil a deep connection with one another through competitively traded quips (Ma's wit is extremely apparent in this one); in "For Sale By Owner" a young Chinese American boy feels outraged when his parents discriminate against his African American teacher; in "Dougie" (my favorite perhaps) a woman whose brother has crossed a sexual boundary with her during their childhood continues to seek unhealthy affection from him.

Yes, these one-liners feel decisively inadequate. There is so much going on in each story. The lines are not clearly drawn. The characters are not easily boxed. And this book will not easily let you go. I highly recommend. Click here to buy.
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WENCH (2010)

Just a reminder that we are less than 2 months away from the launch of my debut novel WENCH.

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“In her debut, Perkins-Valdez eloquently plunges into a dark period of American history…Heart-wrenching, intriguing, original and suspenseful, this novel showcases Perkins-Valdez’s ability to bring the unfortunate past to life.”
— Publishers Weekly

“A striking debut intimately limns a Southern slave’s complicated relationship with her master. . . . Compelling and unsentimental.”
— Kirkus Reviews Read more!

Roy DeCarava (1919-2009)

Do you know Roy DeCarava's work? If not, I recommend that you take a look here.

On Oct. 27, photographer Roy DeCarava died at the age of 89. He co-authored a book with Langston Hughes called The Sweet Flypaper of Life (love that title, btw). He is known for having rejected the photojournalism espoused by so many photographers of the period, instead reaching for an artistic visual imagery that used shadows and movement so beautifully that his photographs were like exquisite paintings.

In an interview with the NYT in 1982, he said, "One of the things that got to me was that I felt black people were not being portrayed in a serious and in an artistic way."

I am sure that many photographers are mourning the loss of this great pioneer. As am I.

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