Royes, Gillian
Gillian Royes was born in Jamaica and furthered her education in the United States, completing a doctorate in communications at Emory University, where she initiated her love affair with Atlanta. She is the author of the cozy mystery novels in the Shadrack Myers series published by Simon & Schuster, and her film script
Preciosa was recently shot in St. Croix. She is currently working on a film adaptation of her novel
The Man Who Turned Both Cheeks.
Poissant, David James
David James Poissant is the author of
The Heaven of Animals: Stories and winner of the GLCA New Writers Award and a Florida Book Award. He was long-listed for the PEN/ Robert W. Bingham Prize, and was a finalist for the
Los Angeles Times Book Prize. His stories and essays have appeared in the
Atlantic, Glimmer Train, the
New York Times, Playboy, Ploughshares, and the
Southern Review. He grew up in Gwinnett County, Georgia.
Parker, Alesia
Alesia Parker, a native Atlantan, is a happy chemist by day and closeted writer by night. She has honed her craft through various writing workshops in the Atlanta area over the past decade. Her story in this volume, "Ma'am," is excerpted from her manuscript-in-progress,
Always Watching. This is her first published story.
Jasper, Kenji
Kenji Jasper wrote the best-selling novel Dark in Atlanta just after finishing his degree at Morehouse College. His articles for
Creative Loafing, Upscale, and
Rappages helped to take the careers of groups like Outkast, Goodie Mob, and Arrested Development national. His novel
Cake, written under the pseudonym D, takes place on his college stomping grounds. Jasper's next novel,
Nostrand Avenue, will be published by Kensington Books in 2018. He lives in Los Angeles.
Holman, John
John Holman is the author of
Triangle Ray, Luminous Mysteries, and
Squabble and Other Stories. His fiction has appeared in the
New Yorker, Mississippi Review, and
Oxford American, along with other journals and several anthologies. He is a Whiting Award recipient, and has taught at Georgia State University in Atlanta since 1993.
Grimsley, Jim
Jim Grimsley has lived in Atlanta for over thirty years, having debuted his first play in the city in 1983. He is the author of a dozen books, including
Winter Birds and
Dream Boy. In 2005 he was awarded the Academy Award in Literature from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. He teaches at Emory University.
Due, Tananarive
Tananarive Due's short story collection
Ghost Summer won a British Fantasy Award in 2016. The novelist and screenwriter has also won an American Book Award and an NAACP Image Award. She lives in the Los Angeles area, but she spent three years in Atlanta while her mother was ill, where she served as a distinguished visiting scholar at Spelman College. During that time, she was awarded a Lifetime Achievement Award in the Fine Arts from the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation.
Black, Daniel
Daniel Black is professor of African American Studies at Clark Atlanta University. He is also the author of several novels, including
They Tell Me of a Home, Perfect Peace, The Coming, and
Listen to the Lambs. Alice Walker said, "
Perfect Peace is a spellbinding novel that kept me reading late into several nights . . . It is a gift to have so much passion, so much love, so much beautiful writing so flawlessly faithful to the language of ancestors . . ."
Grooms, Anthony
Anthony Grooms has lived in Atlanta's Inman Park neighborhood for nearly thirty years. When he isn't teaching, he writes novels in his spider-ridden cellar. His novel
Bombingham, set during the Birmingham civil rights movement, won both a Lillian Smith Book Award and a Hurston/Wright Legacy Award. His novel
The Vain Conversation, about redemption for race crimes, will be published in 2018. For more information, go to anthonygrooms.com.
Joseph, Sheri
Sheri Joseph is the author of two novels,
Where You Can Find Me and Stray, and a cycle of stories,
Bear Me Safely Over. She has been awarded an NEA fellowship and the Grub Street National Book Prize in fiction, as well as numerous residency fellowships including MacDowell and Yaddo. She lives in Atlanta, where she teaches in the creative writing program at Georgia State University and serves as fiction editor of
Five Points.
Harlow, Jennifer
Jennifer Harlow earned a BA in psychology from the University of Virginia. She has worked as a bookseller, radio deejay, lab assistant, and government investigator. She is the author of the F.R.E.A.K.S. Squad Investigation series, the Galilee Falls Trilogy, and the Iris Ballard series. She lives in Atlanta and is hard at work on her next book.
Massey, Brandon
Brandon Massey has lived in Atlanta since 1999. He is the author of several novels, including
Dark Corner, The Other Brother, and
Don't Ever Tell. Visit www.brandonmassey.com for the latest news on his publications.
Hudgens, Dallas
Dallas Hudgens is a native of Atlanta and a graduate of Duluth High School and Georgia State University. He is the author of the novels
Drive Like Hell and
Season of Gene and the short story collection
Wake Up, We're Here. He is the founder of Relegation Books, a small press based in Washington, DC.
Jones, Tayari
Tayari Jones was born and raised in southwest Atlanta. A graduate of Spelman College, she is the author of three novels, including
Silver Sparrow, an NEA Big Read selection. Her work has been supported by the National Endowment for the Arts, Radcliffe Insitute for Advanced Study, and the United States Artist Foundation. She is on the MFA faculty at Rutgers-Newark University.
