 |
| I love my work and I wouldn't trade
the travel that comes with it, but every now and then it's
nice to be home so I can smell the roses Zaron planted
in the backyard or eat some fresh tomatoes from his garden. |
Pearl
Cleage is an Atlanta based writer whose work has won commercial
acceptance and critical praise in several genres. An award winning
playwright whose Flyin' West was the most produced
new play in the country in 1994, Pearl is also a best selling
author whose first novel, What Looks Like Crazy On An
Ordinary Day, was an Oprah Book Club pick
and spent nine weeks on the New York Times bestseller
list. Her subsequent novels have been consistant best sellers
and perennial book club favorites. I Wish I Had A Red
Dress, her second novel, won multiple book club awards
in 2001. Some Things I Never Thought I'd Do,
was a "Good Morning America!" book club pick
in 2003, and Babylon Sisters made the ESSENCE Magazine
best seller list in 2005. Her most recent novel, Baby
Brother's Blues, was the first pick of the new ESSENCE
Book Club and an NAACP Image Award winner
for fiction in 2007. In the March 2007 issue of ESSENCE,
Pearl had two books on the best seller list, Baby Brother's
Blues and We Speak Your Names, a poetic
celebration commissioned by Oprah Winfrey and co-authored with
her husband, writer Zaron W. Burnett, Jr. The poem was also
an NAACP Image Award nominee in 2007. Pearl was a popular
columnist with The Atlanta Tribune for ten years and
has contributed as a free lance writer to ESSENCE,
Ms., Rap Pages, VIBE and Ebony.
Her recent play, A Song for Coretta, played
to sold out audiences during its Atlanta premiere in February
of 2007 and will be produced at Atlanta's Seven Stages Theatre
in February of 2008 in preparation for a national tour.
Pearl's work
occupies a unique niche in contemporary African American fiction.
Her characters are as complex and multi-faceted as her readers
lives and their balancing of work, love and family (not necessarily
in that order!) ring true to those who eagerly await each novel.
She balances issues as challenging as AIDS, domestic violence
and urban blight, but the distinguishing features of her books
are her optimism, her commitment to positive change and transformation,
and her unwavering faith in the possibility and power of romantic
love. The creation of good, believable, desirable men -- as
well as the women who love them! -- is a hallmark of Pearl's
fiction and her readers are quick to mention their fondness
for Eddie Jefferson, the dread locked hero of What
Looks Like Crazy On An Ordinary Day, Nate Anderson, the weight lifting
high school principal in I Wish I Had
a Red Dress, Burghardt
Johnson, the globetrotting journalist in Babylon
Sisters, or
their all time favorite, the mysterious Blue Hamilton, a former
R&B singer
turned neighborhood godfather,who is at the center of both
Baby Brother's Blues and Some
Things I Never Thought I'd Do,
where his character is first introduced. This character, with
his amazing blue eyes and remembrance of past lives, not only
keeps the peace, but falls deeply in love and isn't afraid
to show it. His relationship with Regina Burns is at the heart
of both books and has made him one of Pearl's most popular
characters.
Pearl is married to Zaron W. Burnett, Jr., with
whom she frequently collaborates. She has one daughter, Deignan,
and two grandchildren, Chloe and Michael. |
