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Photo by Bill Cardoni
The author of the critically acclaimed novels
Tumbling, Tempest Rising, Blues Dancing, and Leaving Cecil
Street, Diane McKinney-Whetstone is the recipient of
numerous awards, including the Black Caucus of the American
Library Association's Literary Award for Fiction. She teaches
fiction writing at the University of Pennsylvania and lives with
her husband, Greg, in Philadelphia.
 Trading
Dreams at Midnight: A Novel
Click to order via
AmazonHardcover: 320
pages
Publisher: Harper (June 24, 2008)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0688163866
Read an AALBC.com Book Review
Fifteen-year-old Neena and her younger sister, Tish,
are certain their mother will return, flush with the
promise of a new man. But Freeda's disappearance on the
cold February morning in 1984 soon stretches from days
to months and from months to years. Raised by their
stern grandmother Nan, the two sisters quickly learn to
look after themselves, fiercely reinventing their lives
in the wake of Freeda's absence.
Two decades later, at age thirty-six, Neena has moved
away from Philadelphia and supports herself by
blackmailing married men. When one of her stings goes
terribly wrong, she decides to return to her childhood
home. Unable to face her grandmother, Neena attempts to
pull one last hustle on a prominent local lawyer. But
when she learns that her younger sister has been
hospitalized with pregnancy complications, she must
decide how to come to terms with the woman who raised
her. Reunited, Neena, Tish, and Nan each confronts her
own memories of the past, and together reveal their
dreams for the future.
Shifting seamlessly through time, Trading Dreams at
Midnight is the story of three generations of women
bound to each other by shared joy and pain. In the
evocative prose that has become her signature, Diane
McKinney-Whetstone captures in exquisite detail our
lingering, ever-hopeful desires for redemption and
rebirth—and reminds us of the possibilities the future
may still hold. |
 Tumbling
Click to order via
AmazonPaperback: 352
pages
Publisher: Touchstone; 1st Scribner Paperback Fiction Ed
edition (April 9, 1997)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0684837242
Diane McKinney-Whetstone's lyrical first novel,
Tumbling, vividly captures a tightly knit
African-American neighborhood in South Philadelphia
during the forties and fifties. Its central characters,
Herbie and Noon, are a loving but unconventional couple
whose marriage remains unconsummated for many years as
Noon struggles to repossess her sexuality after a brutal
attack in her past. While she seeks salvation in the
church, Herbie gains sexual gratification in the arms of
a bewitching jazz singer named Ethel, a woman who
profoundly affects both Noon's and Herbie's lives when
she leaves with them, first, a baby girl and then later,
a five-year-old named Liz.
When a road planned by the city council threatens to
break up this South Philadelphia neighborhood, the
community must band together. Unexpectedly, Noon rises
up and takes the lead in the opposition, fighting for
all she's worth to keep her family and community
together.
Tumbling is a beautifully rendered, poignant story about
the ties that bind us and the secrets that keep us
apart. With striking lyricism, Diane McKinney-Whetstone
keenly guides us through the world of community, family,
and the human heart |
 Leaving
Cecil Street: A Novel (P.S.)
Click to order via
AmazonPaperback: 320
pages
Publisher: Harper Paperbacks; 1 edition (March 1, 2005)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0060722894
In one West Philadelphia neighborhood, families come
together in celebration of unity and togetherness. Their
block parties provide a union that serves as a backdrop
for discovering the truth about themselves and the
people they think they know.
Best friends Neet and Shay have depended on each
other for most of their lives. However, their friendship
will be tested when Neet becomes pregnant by one of the
corner boys and Shay arranges an abortion that goes
terribly wrong.
To Shay's horror, Neet is left unable to bear
children and embraces her mother's esoteric yet
sometimes impractical religious beliefs as punishment
for her sins.
Meanwhile, Shay is left to struggle with her own
growing maturity, the grief of losing a cherished
friendship, and the disintegration of her parents'
marriage. The two girls eventually choose their own
separate paths. Leaving Cecil Street invokes those
things that are most important -- family, friendship,
and love. |
 Tempest
Rising: A Novel
Click to order via
AmazonMass Market
Paperback: 400 pages
Publisher: HarperTorch (March 29, 2005)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0060750308
Set in west Philadelphia in the early sixties,
Tempest Rising tells the story of three sisters, Bliss,
Victoria, and Shern, budding adolescents raised in a
world of financial privilege among the
upper-black-class. But their lives quickly unravel as
their father's lucrative catering business collapses. He
disappears and is presumed dead, and their mother
suffers an apparent breakdown. The girls are wrenched
from their mother, and as the novel opens they are
living in foster care in a working-class neighborhood in
the home of Mae, a politically connected card shark.
Though Mae is filled with syrupy names like "pudding"
and "doll face" for the foster girls, she is abusive to
her own child, Ramona, a twenty-something stunning
beauty. As Ramona struggles with Mae's abuse and her own
hatred for the foster children, she also tries to keep
at bay a powerful attraction she has for her boyfriend's
father.
Diane McKinney-Whetstone richly evokes the early 1960s
in west Philadelphia in this spicy story of loss and
healing, redemption and love. |
 Blues
Dancing: A Novel
Click to order via
AmazonMass Market
Paperback: 400 pages
Publisher: HarperTorch (March 29, 2005)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0060750316
From the beloved author of Tumbling and Tempest
Rising comes a new novel, Blues Dancing--a richly spun
tale of love and passion, betrayal, redemption, and
faith, set in contemporary Philadelphia.
In the early seventies, Verdi, a pampered, cloistered
daughter of a southern preacher, heads to Philadelphia
to enroll at the university. There she meets Johnson, a
city boy. Their differences draw them together--he loves
her gentility, she is seduced by his charisma. Their
relationship is pure sweetness until Johnson teaches her
the one thing that will change her life irrevocably--how
to love heroin.
Enter Rowe, the conservative black professor who rescues
Verdi from her overwhelming addiction and then falls
desperately in love with her, leaving his sophisticated
wife for this confused southern girl. Rowe and Verdi
live a comfortable existence for twenty years, even
though he attempts to strain Verdi's relationship with
her first cousin and dearest friend, Kitt. As the novel
opens, Kitt tells Verdi that Johnson is back in town and
Verdi feels her safe and protected world teeter off
balance. Once they lay their eyes on each other, they
realize that the years have not dulled their passion as
they skid uncontrollably toward the desires of their
youth. Blues Dancing makes for rich interplay as the
author allows time to inform her characters' lives in
provocative ways. In the early seventies, Verdi, a
pampered, cloistered daughter of a southern preacher,
heads to Philadelphia to enroll at the university. There
she meets Johnson, a city boy. Their differences draw
them together--he loves her gentility, she is seduced by
his charisma. Their relationship is pure sweetness until
Johnson teaches her the one thing that will change her
life irrevocably--how to love heroin.
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