Jewell Parker Rhodes

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Jewell Parker Rhodes
D03 9521 Jewell Parker Rhodes.jpg
BornPittsburgh, Pennsylvania
OccupationNovelist, professor
Alma materCarnegie Mellon University
Website
jewellparkerrhodes.com

Jewell Parker Rhodes (born 1954 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania) is an American bestselling novelist and educator.

She is the author of seven books for children including the New York Times bestsellers Black Brother, Black Brother and Ghost Boys which has garnered over 30 awards and honors including The Walter Award, the Indies Choice/EB White Read-Aloud Award, and the Jane Addams Children’s Book Award for Older Readers. Jewell is also the author of Towers Falling and the celebrated Louisiana Girls Trilogy which includes Ninth Ward, winner of a Coretta Scott King Honor Award, Sugarand Bayou Magic. Her forthcoming novel, Paradise on Fire, will be published in September 2021.

Rhodes has written six adult novels: Voodoo Dreams, Magic City, Douglass’ Women, Season, Moon, and Hurricane, as well as the memoir Porch Stories: A Grandmother’s Guide to Happiness, and two writing guides: Free Within Ourselves: Fiction Lessons for Black Authors and The African American Guide to Writing and Publishing Non-Fiction. A reissue of Magic City, a novel about the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre, was released in 2021 in recognition of the 100th anniversary.

Jewell is a regular speaker at colleges and conferences. The driving force behind all of Jewell’s work is to inspire social justice, equity, and environmental stewardship.

Jewell is the Founding Artistic Director of the Virginia G. Piper Center for Creative Writing and Narrative Studies Professor and Virginia G. Piper Endowed Chair at Arizona State University. She was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters from Carnegie-Mellon University.


Early life[]

Rhodes was born and raised in Manchester, a largely African-American neighborhood on the North Side of Pittsburgh. As a child, she was a voracious reader. She began college as a drama major, but switched to writing when she discovered African-American literature for the first time.[1] She received a Bachelor of Arts in Drama Criticism, a Master of Arts in English, and a Doctor of Arts in English (Creative Writing) from Carnegie Mellon University.

Writing[]

Her work has been published in China, Korea, France, Germany, Italy, Canada, Turkey, and the United Kingdom and reproduced in audio and for NPR's "Selected Shorts."[2] She has been a featured speaker at the Runnymeade International Literary Festival (University of London-Royal Holloway), Santa Barbara Writers Conference, Creative Nonfiction Writers Conference and Warwick University, among others.

Her recent fiction and essays have been anthologized in Rise Up Singing: Black Women Writers on Motherhood (ed., Berry), In Fact: The Best of Creative Nonfiction (ed. Gutkind), Gumbo (ed., Golden and Harris), and Children of the Night: Best Short Stories By Black Writers (ed., Naylor), among others.

Bibliography[]

Middle Grade Novels[]

  • Ninth Ward (2010)
  • Sugar (2014)
  • Bayou Magic (2015)
  • Towers Falling (2016)
  • Ghost Boys (2018)[3]
  • Black Brother, Black Brother (2020)
  • Paradise on Fire (2021)

Adult Novels[]

  • Voodoo Dreams (1993)
  • Magic City (1997)
  • Douglass' Women (2002)
  • Season (Formerly Voodoo Season) (2005)
  • Moon (Formerly Yellow Moon) (2008)
  • Hurricane (2011)[4]

Nonfiction[]

  • Free Within Ourselves: Fiction Lessons for Black Authors (1999)
  • The African American Guide to Writing and Publishing Non-Fiction (2001)
  • Porch Stories: A Grandmother's Guide to Happiness (2006)[4]

Awards & Honors[]

References[]

  1. ^ "Author Interview: Jewell Parker Rhodes". Teen Writers Bloc. Retrieved 2015-09-18.
  2. ^ "Staff - The Virginia G. Piper Center for Creative Writing". Retrieved 2015-09-18.
  3. ^ "Books - Jewell Parker Rhodes: Children's Books". Retrieved 2015-09-18.
  4. ^ Jump up to: a b c "Books | Jewell Parker Rhodes". jewellparkerrhodes.com. Retrieved 2015-09-18.

External links[]

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