We are pleased to note that Rona Jaffe Foundation Writers’ Awards Winners Erin Belieu (’95), Danielle Geller (’16), Ladee Hubbard (’16), and Emily Rapp Black (’06) have new books out this winter.
Erin Belieu's fifth collection of poetry, Come-Hither Honeycomb, was published by Copper Canyon this February. “In Come-Hither Honeycomb, Erin Belieu turns her signature wit and intellectual rigor inward for an unguarded exploration of human vulnerability. The poems meditate on the impact of large and small traumas: the lasting thumbprint of abuse, the collective specter of disease, the achingly sweet humility of parenting.”
Danielle Geller’s (’16) debut memoir, Dog Flowers, was released by One World/Penguin Random House in January. “Dog Flowers is an arresting, photo-lingual memoir that masterfully weaves together images and text to examine mothers and mothering, sisters and caretaking, and colonized bodies. Exploring loss and inheritance, beauty and balance, Danielle Geller pays homage to our pasts, traditions, and heritage, to the families we are given and the families we choose."
Ladee Hubbard’s (’16) second novel, The Rib King, was published by Amistad/Harpercollins in January.
"The acclaimed author of The Talented Ribkins (Melville House, 2018) deconstructs painful African American stereotypes and offers a fresh and searing critique on race, class, privilege, ambition, exploitation, and the seeds of rage in America in this intricately woven and masterfully executed historical novel.”
Sanctuary, is Emily Rapp Black’s (’06) third memoir. It was published by Random House in January.
“This book is an attempt to unpack the various notions of resilience that we carry as a culture. Drawing on contemporary psychology, neurology, etymology, literature, art, and self-help, Emily Rapp Black shows how we need a more complex understanding of this concept when applied to stories of loss and healing and overcoming the odds, knowing that we may be asked to rebuild and reimagine our lives at any moment, and often when we least expect it.”
Honorée Fanonne Jeffers (’97), Asako Serizawa (’16), and Lauren Goodwin Slaughter (’12) receive awards for their recent work.
Honorée Fanonne Jeffers’s (’97) fifth poetry collection, The Age of Phillis (Wesleyan University Press, 2020) is a finalist for the 2021 PEN/Voelcker Award. It was among NPR's Best Books of 2020 and was longlisted for the 2020 National Book Award for Poetry. Honorée was awarded a 2021 United States Artists Fellowship. Asako Serizawa's (’16) debut story collection, Inheritors (Doubleday, 2020) is a finalist for the 2021 PEN Open Book Award. She also received the 2021 Story Prize Spotlight Award honoring books of exceptional promise by first-time authors. (For more information about Asako’s collection see our blog post.) Lauren Goodwin Slaughter (’12) received a 2021 NEA Fellowship for Poetry. Lauren’s second collection, Spectacle, is forthcoming from Panhandle Books/University Press of Florida in 2022.