"The purpose of my writing, often, is to express the point where racism and sexism meet." An accomplished playwright, journalist, poet, and novelist, Pearl Cleage probes issues of race, sex, and love in a growing body of literary work while she reveals poignant truths about brave black women.
Born on December 7, 1948 in Springfield, Massachusetts, Pearl Michelle Cleage grew up in Detroit, Michigan. Her father was a prominent minister who ran for governor of Michigan in 1962 on the Freedom Ticket; her mother was an elementary school teacher.
Till You Hear from Me: A
Novel
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Hardcover: 288 pages
Publisher: One World/Ballantine (April 20, 2010)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0345506375
ISBN-13: 978-0345506375
Product Dimensions: 9.5 x 6.6 x 1 inches
From the acclaimed Pearl Cleage, author of What Looks Like Crazy on an
Ordinary Day . . . and Seen It All and Done the Rest, comes an Obama-era
romance featuring a cast of unforgettable characters.
Just when it appears that all her hard work on Barack Obama’s presidential
campaign is about to pay off with a White House job, thirty-five-year-old
Ida B. Wells Dunbar finds herself on Washington, D.C.’s post-election
sidelines even as her twentysomething counterparts overrun the West Wing.
Adding to her woes, her father, the Reverend Horace A. Dunbar, Atlanta civil
rights icon and self-described “foot soldier for freedom,” is notoriously
featured on an endlessly replayed YouTube clip in which his pronouncements
don’t exactly jibe with the new era in American politics.
The Rev’s stinging words and myopic views don’t sound anything like the man
who raised Ida to make her mark in the world. When friends call to express
their concern, Ida realizes it’s time to head home and see for herself
what’s going on. Besides, with her job prospects growing dimmer, getting out
of D.C. for a while might be the smartest move she could make.
Back in her old West End neighborhood, Ida runs into childhood friend and
smooth political operator Wes Harper, also in town to pay a visit to the
Reverend Dunbar, his mentor. Ida doesn’t trust Wes or his mysterious
connections for one second, but she can’t deny her growing attraction to
him.
While Ida and the Rev try to find the balance between personal loyalties and
political realities, they must do some serious soul searching in order to
get things back on track before Wes permanently derails their best laid
plans.
I Wish I Had a
Red Dress
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Paperback: 336 pages
Publisher: Avon A; Reprint edition (January 27, 2009)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0061710342
ASIN: B003A02YC4
Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.3 x 0.9 inches
Bestselling author Pearl
Cleage returns to the site of her Oprah pick novel, What Looks Like Crazy On
an Ordinary Day, to affirm life's precious wonder once again.
Since Joyce Mitchell was widowed five years ago, she's kept herself
mercifully busy by running The Sewing Circus, an all-female group she
founded to provide badly needed services to single mothers and other young
women at risk. But some nights, home alone, she knows something is missing.
And if the state legislature cuts off funding, she'll soon not even have The
Sewing Circus to fill up her life. Then one night, at dinner at the home of
her best friend, Sister, Joyce finds a perfect meal and a perfect man: tall,
dark Nate Anderson, whose unexpected presence touches a chord in Joyce's
heart that she thought it had forgotten how to play.
Suddenly, Joyce feels ready to grab a sexy red dress and the life that goes
with it...if she can somehow keep her girls safe from the dark forces
aligning against them.
Mad at Miles: A
Black Woman's Guide to Truth
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Paperback: 64 pages
Publisher: Cleage Group (November 1990)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0962814202
ISBN-13: 978-0962814204
Product Dimensions: 7.7 x 4.8 x 0.7 inches
Originally published in 1990
With directness, Pearl Cleage takes an unblinking look at the current state of abusive relationships and battered women. Cleage deals with these issues between men and women and comes up with some insights and some solutions that may surprise you, but can also change your life! As timely as the headlines, and filled with concrete ways to raise the level of female/male discussion to a new level of truth, Mad at Miles: A Black Woman’s Guide To Truth is the only guide you really need. This is a funny, angry, lyric piece of theatre that all should see, in order to better understand the realities women have dealt with for decades.
Seen
It All and Done the Rest: A Novel
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Hardcover: 320 pages
Publisher: One World/Ballantine (March 18, 2008)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0345481127
From this New York Times and #1 Essence Bestselling Author Comes a Delicious Novel about Celebrity and Scandal!
The toast of Europe, Josephine Evans had spent thirty years abroad establishing her reputation as one of the finest actresses of her generation. In Amsterdam, she redefined who and what an African American diva could be, and her legions of loyal fans loved her for it. But when a war she didn't even understand suddenly makes her the target of angry anti-American protests, Josephine is forced to return to America to see if she can find a new definition of home. Camping out with her granddaughter in Atlanta's West End, Josephine tries to reclaim her old life even as she scrambles to shape her new one. An unexpected reunion with an old friend, Abbie Allen Browning, soon offers her a chance to set things right. Rallying with Abbie against an unscrupulous land developer who threatens to tear the community apart, Josephine finds herself playing the most important role of her life.
We Speak Your Names:
A Celebration
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with Zaron W. Burnett
ISBN: 0345490274
Format: Hardcover, 64pp
Pub. Date: April 11, 2006
Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
For centuries, African American women have been remaking the world, giving testament to the power of hope, courage, and resilience. But it took the inspired generosity of Oprah Winfrey to honor fully the many gifts of sisterhood. For three amazing days�from May 13 to 15, 2005�a distinguished group of women was invited to celebrate the enduring achievements of twenty-five of their mentors and role models�and in the process pay tribute to the long, glorious tradition of African American accomplishment.
The brilliant centerpiece of the weekend was the reading aloud of Pearl Cleage's poem �We Speak Your Names,� written especially for the occasion and appearing here for the first time in this beautiful keepsake book. As deeply moving in print as it was during that weekend of love and praise, the poem names each of the women honored: Dr. Maya Angelou, Coretta Scott King, Diahann Carroll, Toni Morrison, Nikki Giovanni, Rosa Parks, Katherine Dunham, and other legends of the brightest magnitude. With heartfelt eloquence, Pearl Cleage (herself a luminary of the younger generation) celebrates her distinguished elders' strength, their magic, their sensuality, their loving kindness, their faith in themselves, and the priceless example of their lives. In her introduction, the poet shares: �My sisters, here, there, and everywhere, this poem is for you. Use it, adapt it, pass it on. . . .�
Destined to become a classic, We Speak Your Names is a treasure to keep forever and a precious, inspiring gift for the ones you love.
Baby
Brother's Blues
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ISBN: 0345481100
Format: Hardcover, 288pp
Pub. Date: February 28, 2006
Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
When Regina Burns married Blue Hamilton, she knew he was no ordinary man. A
charismatic R&B singer who gave up his career to assume responsibility for the
safety of Atlanta's West End community, Blue had created an African American
urban oasis where crime and violence were virtually nonexistent. In the
beginning, Regina enjoyed a circle of engaging friends and her own work as a
freelance communications consultant. Most of all, she relished the company of
her husband, who never ceased to be a source of passion and delight.
Then everything changed. More and more frightened women were showing up in West
End, seeking Blue's protection from lovers who had suddenly become violent. When
the worst offenders begin to disappear without a trace, the signs-all of them
grim-seem to point toward Blue and his longtime associate, Joseph "General"
Richardson. Now that Regina is pregnant, her fear for Blue's safety has become
an obsession that threatens the very heart of their relationship.
At the same time, Regina's friend Aretha Hargrove is desperately trying to
redefine her own marriage. Aretha's husband, Kwame, is lobbying for them to
leave West End and move to midtown. Aretha resists at first, but finally agrees
in an effort to rekindle the flame that first brought them together.
Regina and Aretha have no way of knowing that what they regard as their private
struggles will soon become very public. When Baby Brother, a charming con man,
insinuates himself into the community, it becomes clear that there is more to
his handsome fa�ade than meets the eye. He carries the seeds of change that will
affect both women in profound and startling ways.
Returning to the vividly rendered Atlanta district of her last two novels, New
York Times bestselling author Pearl Cleage brilliantly weaves the threads of her
characters' intersecting lives into a story of family, friendship and, of
course, love. Baby Brother's Blues is full of wit and warmth, illumination the
core of every woman's hopes and dreams.
Babylon
Sisters
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ISBN: 0345456092
Format: Hardcover, 304pp
Pub. Date: March 2005
Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
Read an Book Review of Babylon Sisters
Catherine Sanderson seems to have it all: a fulfilling career helping immigrant
women find jobs, a lovely home, and a beautiful, intelligent daughter on her way
to Smith College. What Catherine doesn't have: a father for her child- and she's
spent many years dodging her daughter's questions about it. Now Phoebe is old
enough to start poking around on her own. It doesn't help matters that the
mystery man, B.J. Johnson-the only man Catherine has ever loved-doesn't even
know about Phoebe. He's been living in Africa.
Now B.J., a renowned newspaper correspondent, is back in town and needs
Catherine's help cracking a story about a female slavery ring operating right on
the streets of Atlanta. Catherine is eager to help B.J., despite her heart's
uncertainty over meeting him again after so long, and confessing the truth to
him-and their daughter.
Meanwhile, Catherine's hands are more than full since she's taken on a new
client. Atlanta's legendary Miss Mandeville-a housekeeper turned tycoon-is eager
to have Catherine staff her housekeeping business. But why are the steely Miss
Mandeville and her all-too-slick sidekick Sam so interested in Catherine's
connection to B.J.? What transpires is an explosive story that takes her
world-not to mention the entire city of Atlanta-by storm.
From the New York Times bestselling author of What Looks Like Crazy on
an Ordinary Day . . . comes another fast-paced and emotionally resonant
novel, by turns warm and funny, serious and raw. Pearl Cleage's ability to
create a gripping story centered on strong, spirited black women and the
important issues they face remains unrivaled.
Some
Things I Never Thought I'd Do
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ISBN: 0345456068
Format: Hardcover, 273pp
Pub. Date: August 2003
Publisher: Random House, Incorporated
Depending on the time of day, Regina Burns is a woman on the edge of a nervous breakdown or an overdue breakthrough. One shattered heart and six months of rehab have left her wary and shell-shocked - especially with the prospect of taking a temporary consulting job in Atlanta, a move that would allow Regina to rescue the family home that she borrowed against when she was "a stomp down dope fiend." Her stone-faced banker has grudgingly agreed to give her sixty days to settle her debts or lose the house.
Returning to Atlanta is a big risk. Last time Regina was there, she lost track of who she was and what she wanted. There's a lot of emotional baggage with her new employer, Beth Davis. Can she really forgive Beth for breaking up her wedding plans on New Year's Eve because she just didn't think Regina was good enough to marry her son?
Meanwhile, Regina's visionary Aunt Abbie has told her to be on the lookout for a handsome stranger with "the ocean in his eyes" who has a bone to pick and a promise to keep. Then a blue-eyed brother appears on the streets of Afro-Atlanta wearing a black cashmere overcoat, flashing a dazzling smile, and lending a helping hand when Regina needs it most. But between falling for Blue Hamilton and dealing with Beth, secrets will emerge that will threaten to send Regina's life twisting in surprising new directions.
I
Wish I Had A Red Dress
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Amazon
Format: Hardcover, 288pp.
ISBN: 0380977338
Publisher: Morrow,William & Co
Pub. Date: June 2001
Oprah Winfrey recommended Pearl Cleage's previous novel to her vast television audience, and soon readers�and listeners�were reveling in the joys�and aching over the sorrows�of life in tiny Idlewild, Michigan. Now Cleage brings back the characters�but this time, Ava's big sister, Joyce, will sparkle. Unlike her younger sister, Joyce has never been flamboyant; has never owned a red dress or the kind of life that goes along with it. But now, after many years of selfless service to others, she feels it's time to do something special for herself�especially since there's the unmistakable hint of romance on the wind�
What
Looks Like Crazy on an Ordinary Day
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Publisher: Avon Books
Date Published: September 1998
Format: Trade Paper
Oprah's Book Club selection, a New York Times bestseller, and a BCALA Literary Award winner
As a girl growing up in Idlewild, Michigan, Ava Johnson had always heard that, if you were young, black, and had any sense at all, Atlanta was the place to be. So as soon as she was old enough and able enough, that was where she went -- parlaying her smarts and her ambition into one of the hottest hair salons in town.
In no time, she was moving with the brothers and sisters who had beautiful
clothes, big cars, bigger dreams, and money in the bank. Now, after more than a
decade of elegant pleasures and luxe living, Ava has come home, her fabulous
career and power plans smashed to bits on one dark truth. Ava Johnson has tested
positive for HIV. And she's back in little Idlewild to spend a quiet summer with
her widowed sister, Joyce, before moving on to finish her life in San Francisco,
the most HIV-friendly place she can imagine. But what she thinks is the end is
only the beginning because there's too much going down in her hometown for Ava
to ignore. There's the Sewing Circus -- sister Joyce's determined effort to
educate Idlewild's young black women about sex, drugs, pregnancy,
whatever...despite the interference of the good Reverend Anderson and his most
virtuous, "just say no" wife. Plus Joyce needs a helping hand to make a loving
home for Imani, an abandoned crack baby whom she's taken into her heart. And
then there's Wild Eddie, whose legendary background in violence combined with
his Eastern gentility has stirred Ava's interest...and something more.
Deals
with the Devil: And Other Reasons to Riot
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Amazon
ISBN: 0345382781
Format: Hardcover, 304pp
Pub. Date: July 1993
Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
Cleage's powerful and provocative African-American feminist perspective will touch an even wider audience in this paperback edition--featuring three new essays. Her pieces discussing politics, culture, mass media, emotional and physical survival are equal parts eloquence and anger, challenging readers to see that the personal and the political are one.
Dead on, to the point, fearless. A third-generation black nationalist feminist, Pearl Cleage recognizes the pure power of telling the truth � about African-American life and about the fate of the race in racist America. This book will incite any and all thinking people to ponder, argue, rage, reflect, and maybe even riot . . . .
Age Ain't Nothing but a Number: Black Women Explore
Midlife
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Carleen Brice Editor & Pearl Cleage Contributor
ISBN: 0807028231
Number Of Pages: 252
Publication Date: May 15, 2003
Publisher: Beacon Press
"Age Ain't Nothing but a Number is my roadmap."�Iyanla Vanzant
Forty-five black women writers�known and new�discuss midlife in the first anthology of its kind.
Finally, a collection that celebrates, considers, contemplates, even criticizes "midlife" from a black woman's point of view. Age Ain't Nothing but a Number ranges over every aspect of black women's lives: personal growth, family and friendship, love and sexuality, health, beauty, illness, spirituality, creativity, financial independence, work, and scores of other topics.
Midlife today isn't your grandmother's "change of life." Today, black women call hot flashes "power surges," and menopause, the "pause that refreshes." These days, middle-aged women may be newlyweds or new mothers, as well as grandmothers or widows. They may experience the empty-nest syndrome and then the "return-to-the-nest syndrome" as adult children move back home. They may navigate the field of Internet dating, travel the world, teach homeless women, take up pottery, or study international business.
This anthology captures all of these aspects of midlife as
experienced by some of the finest voices in African-American writing
today. Featuring
the work of Maya Angelou, J. California Cooper, Pearl Cleage, Nikki
Giovanni, Susan L. Taylor, Alice Walker, and dozens of others, Age Ain't
Nothing but a Number will make readers think, laugh, and cry and will be
the perfect gift
book for spring.
Proverbs For The
People: Contemporary African-American Stories
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Amazon
Paperback: 512 pages
Publisher: Kensington (July 1, 2004)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0758202873
Forward by Jewell Parker Rhodes, Edited by Tracey Price Thompson and TeRessa Stoval with Pearl Cleage, Donna Hill, Parry "Ebony Satin" Brown, Omar Tyree and others
If you can walk, you can dance. If you can talk, you can sing."
"Don't start none, won't be none." "If you don't stand for something
you'll fall for anything." Whether it was in the church on a hard-shined
wooden pew, or around the kitchen table after, listening to the wisdom
of mothers and fathers, aunts and uncles, grandparents, friends, and
leaders, the messages of the proverbs resonate in the souls of most
African-Americans�a sweet refrain heard through striving, reaching,
loving, and living. In this powerful collection of stories based on
African, African-American, and Biblical proverbs, some of today's most
exciting new African-American writers tackle the unifying themes,
delicious wit and undeniable wisdom of the proverbs, making them sing
for a whole new generation.
In the moving "Love Can Move Mountains," author Elizabeth Atkins Bowman
explores the meaning of the African-American saying, "Mountain, get out
of my way!" in a story about the miraculous, mysterious power of a
mother's stand-firm love. In Arethia Hornsby's "My Momma Said�," two
friends go out on the town and get schooled in a life lesson that proves
the truth behind the ages-old African-American proverb, "Never judge a
book by its cover." Town gossip gets the best of a loyal wife and gives
credence to C.F. Pope's saying, "Never declare war unless you mean to do
battle," in Gwynne
Forster's wry tale of comeuppance, "First Thing Monday Morning." And
in the flirty short story, "Something Special," Venise Berry shows what
the Cape Verde Islands maxim, "Every week has its Friday" really means
as one woman's weekly ritual promises seven days' worth of sensual
satisfaction.
In addition to such established writers as Pearl Cleage, Omar Tyree,
Margaret Johnson-Hodge, Timmothy McCann,
Brandon
Massey, Kambon Obayani, Earl Sewell, Maxine Thompson, and others,
here, too, are rising stars in the African-American literary world,
including fourteen-year-old Kharel Price and fifteen-year-old Tierra
French, proving that the wisdom of the past lives on in the next
generation.
From the struggle to break the chains of the past, (Pat
G'Orge-Walker's "The Consequence") to the fight to keep hope alive
in the face of injustice, (Robert
Fleming's "A Crisis of Faith"), from the joys of loving an older
woman (Parry "Ebony Satin" Brown's "Ain't Nobody's Business If I Do"),
to an African man's discovery of his own America (Chimamanda
Ngozi Adichie's "Women Here Drive Buses"), this triumphant, stirring
anthology is a glorious reminder of the power of proverbs to heal, to
provoke, to unify, and to inspire.
