Dolen Perkins-Valdez facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Dolen Perkins-Valdez
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| Occupation | Novelist |
| Language | English |
| Education | Harvard College (BA) George Washington University (PhD) |
| Genre | Novel |
| Notable works | Wench: A Novel (2010); Balm: A Novel (2015) |
Dolen Perkins-Valdez is an American writer. She is famous for her novels, especially Wench: A Novel (published in 2010) and Balm (published in 2015). She also writes essays.
Dolen Perkins-Valdez used to lead the Board of Directors for the PEN/Faulkner Foundation. This foundation helps support writers and literature.
Contents
Early Life and School
Dolen Perkins-Valdez went to Harvard College for her first degree. She earned a Bachelor of Arts degree there. While at Harvard, she wrote articles for the student newspaper, The Harvard Crimson.
Later, she earned a PhD in English. She got this advanced degree from George Washington University in Washington, D.C. in 2002. Her PhD paper was about how race and violence are shown in stories.
Writing Career
Perkins-Valdez has written many short stories and essays. These have appeared in various magazines. Some of these include The Kenyon Review and StoryQuarterly.
As of 2016, she is a professor at American University. She teaches in Washington, D.C.
About Wench: A Novel
Perkins-Valdez shared that she got the idea for her first novel, Wench: A Novel, from a book about W. E. B. Du Bois. She read about Wilberforce University being built on the land of an old resort. This resort was called Tawawa House.
Before the American Civil War, Southern plantation owners would visit Tawawa House. They often brought enslaved Black women with them. These women were their mistresses.
Wench tells the story of Lizzie, a young enslaved woman. It shows her difficult relationship with her master. The book also explores the lives of three other enslaved women. Lizzie meets them at the resort. They are affected by being in a free state. They also see free people of color there.
HarperCollins published the book in 2010. The paperback version came out the next year. The novel received many good reviews. The paperback became a bestseller. NPR even suggested it for book clubs in 2010.
Other Books and Writings
In 2013, Perkins-Valdez was asked to write an introduction. This was for a new edition of Solomon Northup's true story, Twelve Years a Slave.
Her second novel, Balm, was published in May 2015. This story takes place in Chicago after the Civil War. It follows three main characters. Madge is a Black healer from Tennessee who was born free. Sadie is a white woman who believes in talking to spirits. Hemp is a freedman from Kentucky who fought in the Union army.
All three characters moved to Chicago after the war. They were among many people trying to start new lives. Perkins-Valdez said she wanted to set the story somewhere that was affected by the war but not directly in the middle of it.
Dolen's third novel, Take My Hand, was published in spring 2022. This book was inspired by a real event. It was about two young sisters who faced difficult medical procedures against their will in 1973.
Awards and Recognition
Dolen Perkins-Valdez has received several honors for her work:
- From 2002 to 2003, she was a special fellow at the Center for African American Studies. This was at the University of California, Los Angeles.
- In 2009, she was a finalist for the Robert Olen Butler Prize.
- In 2011, her novel Wench was a finalist for two NAACP Image Awards. It was also a finalist for the Hurston/Wright Legacy Award for fiction.
- Also in 2011, Wench won the First Novelist Award. This award came from the Black Caucus of the American Library Association.
- She received a grant from the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities. This grant helped her finish her second novel, Balm.
