Friday, February 20, 2009

Personal Stories

Sometimes real life is stranger than fiction. So, when I get the chance, I like to write non-fiction. It started in childhood when I filled up diary after diary with notes about being an introverted ham. And it continues today with blogging (although I should blog with as much frequency). Now I’m pleased to announce that my non-fiction essay “The Heart Does Go On” has been published in the new anthology IT’S ALL LOVE.

I’ve written super personal essays before—like when my editors at seventeen convinced me to contribute to the all-about-boobs feature titled “The A, B, C’s of Bra Sizes.” But this one is about the particularly delicate matter of losing three loved ones back to back. IT’S ALL LOVE is a collection of essays (fiction and non) and poems by African-American authors who are both famous (Gwendolyn Brooks and Nikki Giovanni among them!) and up-and-coming. Proceeds from the book go to benefit the Hurston/Wright Foundation.

And speaking of African-American writers, this Black History Month, I have sooo been getting schooled by The Brown Bookshelf and their fabulous roundup of daily interviews with Black authors and illustrators of YA and children’s books. If you haven’t yet checked it out, do head over. But be prepared. Every time I visit, my reading list just keeps getting longer and longer and longer…

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