Bernice L. McFadden

Wednesday, February 20, 7:30 PM Akashic Books and Mosaic present a Black History Month event Bernice L. McFadden, author of Nowhere Is a Place Courttia Newland, author of The Gospel According to Cane Hosted by Ron Kavanaugh of Mosaic Magazine

In celebration of Black History Month, Greenlight is proud to partner with Akashic Books and Mosaic Magazine to present a reading and discussion with two important black authors whose fiction engages with the burdens of history and the hopes of the present. Brooklyn author Bernice L. McFadden is the author of eight critically acclaimed novels including the classic Sugar, Gathering of Waters (a New York Times Editors' Choice), and Glorious, which was a finalist for the NAACP Image Award. Nowhere Is a Place is the long-awaited reissue of McFadden's classic novel about a young woman on a journey of self-discovery, teasing out her family’s history of amazing survival and abundant joy. Courttia Newland is the author of the novel The Scholar and other books, and has had short stories featured in many anthologies. He is co-editor of IC3: The Penguin Book of New Black Writing in Britain and Tell Tales 4: The Global Village. His new novel The Gospel According to Cane is a story of inner-city youth in contemporary London, as well as a meditation on pain and loss, the demands of heritage, and how the past can blur the present. The reading and discussion will be introduced and moderated by Ron Kavanaugh, publisher of Mosaic, an online and print magazine which explores the literary arts created by writers of African descent.

Location: Street: 686 Fulton Street City: Brooklyn, Province: New York Postal Code: 11217 Country: United States (added from IndieBound)… (more)

UNFORTUNATELY, BERNICE IS VERY ILL AND WILL NOT BE ABLE TO MAKE IT TO OXFORD FOR HER EVENT THIS FRIDAY. WE STILL HAVE PLENTY OF COPIES OF HER BOOK, Gathering of Waters. Bernice L. McFadden is the author of seven critically acclaimed novels including the classic Sugar and Glorious, which was featured in O, The Oprah Magazine, selected as the debut title for the One Book, One Harlem program, and was a finalist for the NAACP Image Award. She is a two-time Hurston/Wright Legacy Award finalist, as well as the recipient of two fiction honor awards from the BCALA. Her sophomore novel, The Warmest December, was praised by Nobel Prize-winning author Toni Morrison as "searing and expertly imagined." McFadden lives in Brooklyn, New York.

"The rich text is shaped by the African American storytelling tradition and layered with significant American histories. Recalling the woven spirituality of Toni Morrison’s Beloved, this work will appeal to readers of mystic literature." --Library Journal

"McFadden makes powerful use of imagery in this fantastical novel of ever-flowing waters and troubled spirits." --Booklist

Location: Street: 160 Courthouse Sq City: Oxford, Province: Mississippi Postal Code: 38655-3914 Country: United States (added from IndieBound)… (more)

Bernice L. McFadden reads from Gathering of Waters.

“In her new novel, Gathering of Waters, Bernice McFadden brings her own special vision to the unfortunate story of Emmett Till and his murder in Money, Mississippi. This moving and magical novel, which traces the generations leading up to and away from that horrible night in 1955, drew me in immediately and swept me along through its richly imagined world. I couldn’t stop reading, caught up as I was in that enticing place between truth and fantasy, the here-and-now and the what-was, the living and the dead, the ugliness and the beauty, the hatred and the love. What a rich chorus of voices Bernice McFadden has fashioned from this place called Money.” —Lee Martin, author of Break the Skin and The Bright Forever Told from the point of view of the town of Money, Mississippi, Benice L. McFadden's new novel Gathering of Waters retells the tragic story of Emmett Till. At this event, the author will read and talk about her new novel. Bernice L. McFadden is the author of seven critically acclaimed novels including the classic Sugar and Glorious, which was featured in O, The Oprah Magazine, selected as the debut title for the One Book, One Harlem program, and was a finalist for the NAACP Image Award. She is a two-time Hurston/Wright Legacy Award finalist, as well as the recipient of two fiction honor awards from the BCALA. Her sophomore novel, The Warmest December, was praised by Nobel Prize–winning author Toni Morrison as “searing and expertly imagined.” McFadden lives in Brooklyn, New York. (queenazsa)… (more)