BIOGRAPHY

I started writing stories because I was an eight year old brown skinned girl who stuttered, had a lisp, wore corrective shoes and thick eye glasses and had childhood seizures. Writing was way easier than talking. When I discovered novels at the local public library I was amazed that people were being paid to do what I loved. I vowed then and there that one day I would be a writer. I did the work. I wrote and rewrote—submitted my work and took every workshop or class I could on the craft of writing. When I was fifteen years old a miracle happened. I submitted a not very good poem to Black World Magazine and they sent it back with a standard rejection letter. Being a typical fifteen year old, I sent the rejection letter back to them using the same language they used to reject their rejection letter. They were amused and kind and directed me to a community workshop held on Howard University’s campus every week but because of my age I had to get permission from the administrators to attend. The administrators were poet Sterling Brown and novelist John Oliver Killens. By attending that workshop I was able to not only attend but be a hostess for the annual Black Writers Conference held on Howard University’s campus. As a hostess I assisted and handed out conference credentials and materials to the likes of Toni Morrison, Alice Walker, Imamu Baraka, Haki Matabuti, Audre Lorde, June Jordan, Toni Cade Bambara, Barbra Smith, the list is endless. Some of the workshop participants also travelled to Killens home in Brooklyn where we would stay the weekend and join the Harlem Writers guild for readings. It was an amazing time in my life. I was sure I would be a published writer by my twenties—and then life happened.

It has been a great life, but it is time to keep my promise to that eight year old girl.