Dolen Perkins-Valdez
Dolen Perkins-Valdez is an American novelist whose historical fiction examines race, gender, memory, and justice in Black American life. She is best known for Wench, Balm, and Take My Hand; the latter won the NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Literary Work, Fiction, underscoring her impact on contemporary historical storytelling.
Biography & Author's Journey
Dolen Perkins-Valdez came of age in Memphis, Tennessee, and her education gave her an unusually broad foundation for the work she would later do as a novelist: a B.A. from Harvard, an M.F.A. in creative writing from the University of Memphis, and a Ph.D. in American literature from George Washington University, where her dissertation examined racial violence and narrative. That training, followed by a University of California President’s Postdoctoral Fellowship, helped shape a writer equally attentive to archive, language, and historical structure. From the beginning, her path joined scholarship with storytelling rather than treating them as separate careers. ((https://ppfp.ucop.edu/info/fellowship-recipients/fellows-pages/perkins-valdez-dolen.html))
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Community Voices
"Dolen Perkins-Valdez has written a beautifully crafted novel about hope, loss, tragedy, pride and family"
— NPR
"In her newest novel, Dolen Perkins-Valdez probes the many ways institutional racism and classism inflicts lasting scars"
— Celeste Ng
"Dolen Perkins-Valdez is a gifted writer"
— Historical Novel Society
"Dolen Perkins-Valdez is a brilliant writer in a class all by herself"
— Terry McMillan
"No one writes the historical novel quite like Dolen Perkins-Valdez"
— Honorée Fanonne Jeffers
"Award-winning author Dolen Perkins-Valdez has established herself as a preeminent chronicler of America’s history"
— Bookreporter
"Dolen Perkins-Valdez is a consummate storyteller: profound, transcendent, heart-wrenching"
— Kate Quinn
"Dolen Perkins-Valdez has the range, depth, and vision to capture the dreams of a people on the pages of a novel"
— Tayari Jones
