Dolen Perkins-Valdez





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Dolen Perkins-Valdez

Goodreads author profile


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gender
female

member since
November 2009


About this author

Dolen Perkins-Valdezs fiction and essays have appeared or will appear in The Kenyon Review, StoryQuarterly, African American Review, PMS: PoemMemoirStory, North Carolina Literary Review, Richard Wright Newsletter, and SLI: Studies in Literary Imagination. She is a 2009 finalist for the Robert Olen Butler Fiction Award. A graduate of Harvard and a former University of California Presidents Postdoctoral Fellow, Dolen lives in Washington, DC.


It is a strange feeling to publish a novel and have it take on a life of its own. The Washington Post ran a story yesterday profiling my novel Wench, a story that explores the complexities of the sexual relationships that existed between slave women and white men. It mentions the people who have shared their own family histories of such unions in the context of reading the book. I do not know m... Read more of this blog post »
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Published on January 26, 2011 06:15 • 655 views • Tags: african-american, historical-fiction, novel
Average rating: 3.63 · 8,070 ratings · 1,437 reviews · 1 distinct work · Similar authors
Wench
3.64 of 5 stars 3.64 avg rating — 8,095 ratings — published 2009 — 10 editions

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“My children ain’t the only thing I love. If I was allowed, I reckon I’d love myself, too.”
Dolen Perkins-Valdez, Wench

“The woman had told the truth. The flowers were the color of sunset. And not the yellowish tinge of a lazy sun either, but the intense orange of a sun refusing to set on anyone else’s terms.”
Dolen Perkins-Valdez, Wench

“At night, before she went to sleep in her cabin down in the quarters, she remembered Mawu’s story and told herself that she was a god, a powerful god. Each and every day, she reminded herself of this so that she wouldn’t fall backward. She was more than eyes, ears, lips, and thigh. She was a heart. She was a mind”
Dolen Perkins-Valdez, Wench

Polls

Which book would you like to see as the selection for our Winter 2011 Group Reads category African American Literature?

 
  37 votes 29.6%

 
  30 votes 24.0%

 
  17 votes 13.6%

 
  10 votes 8.0%

 
  7 votes 5.6%

 
  7 votes 5.6%

 
  6 votes 4.8%

 
  5 votes 4.0%

 
  4 votes 3.2%

 
  2 votes 1.6%

125 total votes
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Topics Mentioning This Author

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The Next Best Boo...: Wench 16 30 Apr 11, 2010 03:47am  
The Next Best Boo...: The Book Ref 37 149 Apr 12, 2010 02:53pm  
6593 Authors On The Rise — 831 members — last activity 19 hours, 43 min ago
Dee Dee M. Scott, Nadia Janice Brown and Diva Long welcomes all authors and non authors to this group. We will discuss African American fiction, non-f...more
13030 Nia Virtual Book Tours — 235 members — last activity Dec 15, 2012 05:39pm
Nia Virtual Book Tours is a book tour featuring African-American literature in all genres—e.g., Fiction, Romance, Christian-Fiction, Non-Fiction, and...more
5594 Mahogany Book Club — 204 members — last activity May 10, 2013 06:28am
An African-American reading group. Please join our social book network. A community that connects readers with the authors they love.
Groups_nophoto-25x33 Afro Literature — 107 members — last activity Aug 07, 2012 07:16am
A forum for discussion of Literary Fiction by African Americans. The Aim is to spread the word about new and old authors of African or African America...more
Groups_nophoto-25x33 The African American Book Critics — 65 members — last activity Nov 18, 2012 08:33pm
Members will discuss and recommend books by african american writers and\or african american themes and topics.
Groups_nophoto-25x33 historical fiction fans — 111 members — last activity Apr 23, 2012 04:56pm
Anyone who likes historical fiction should consider joining.
12483 The Historical Fiction Reading Challenge 2009 — 77 members — last activity Jul 30, 2009 05:05pm
Read 3 historical fiction books in 3 months from 1st Jan 09 - 31st March 09. Historical fiction will be counted as anything set or written prior to Wo...more
19127 Ebony Readers Book Club — 210 members — last activity May 19, 2013 07:31am
This group is for those who love reading books that are written by African Americans.
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Comments (showing 1-6)    post a comment »
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message 6: by Jaree

Jaree Francis


Free sample of the There's No Tomorrow
http://www.goodreads.com/story/show/3...


Lawrence Thank you for accepting my friendship.


message 4: by Dolen

Dolen Perkins-Valdez Thanks, Pamela!! I'm writing another book. It isn't like Wench, but it is historical. Happy holidays. :-)


Pamela Hey Dolen...Thanks for accepting my friendship...I love your book "Wench"...I love the subject matter...do you plan on coming out with another book like that one?


message 2: by Jaree

Jaree Francis Hello there =)

- Jay


message 1: by Liane

Liane Spicer Great to 'meet' you, Dolen. Greetings from the Caribbean!


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