Dolen Perkins-Valdez's fiction and essays have appeared in The Kenyon Review, African American Review, North Carolina Literary Review, and the Richard Wright Newsletter. Born and raised in Memphis, a graduate of Harvard, and a former University of California President's Postdoctoral Fellow, Perkins-Valdez teaches creative writing at the University of Puget Sound. She splits her time between Washington, D.C. and Seattle, Washington. This is her first novel.
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Bethanne Patrick talks with Dolen Perkins-Valdez about her new historical novel, Wench.
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Submitted by Bethanne on Sat, 03/13/2010 - 8:06am Giveaway: A Simply Stunning Novel
"Wench" by Dolen Perkins-Valdez is a book that will make you think. It will also make you uncomfortable, and sad, and angry, and indignant, and maybe -- just maybe -- exhilarated in that way you get in the middle of a long run (it was a loooong time ago, but I was once a runner...).
The novel is about four slave women who are mistresses to their owners and as such are brought for a handful of summers to an Ohio resort that is a short distance from "free" territory. The main character, Lizzie, undergoes a sea change over the course of the summers as she watches what happens to her fellow slaves, male and female.
We have ten copies of "Wench" to give away to randomly selected visitors who leave an answer to the following question in our Comments section below:
What is your favorite thing about freedom?
This giveaway has ended. Congratulations to the winners:
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Submitted by Bethanne on Mon, 02/01/2010 - 8:16pm A Conversation with Dolen Perkins-Valdez
To the women who are slaves and mistresses of their owners in "Wench" by Dolen Perkins-Valdez, the merest mark or sign can mean the difference between danger and safety, whether they're inside or outside, with loved ones or alone, above or below the free zone. A letter signals joy, or heartbreak; a pretty gown can be a reminder of lowly status -- even a small kindness may portend a great tragedy.
In other words, Lizzie, Reenie, Teesie, and Mawu walk on eggshells nearly every moment of their lives. While they tread carefully, Perkins-Valdez does not: She has reclaimed the power these women were never allowed to have in a carefully crafted and fiercely honest novel about the hypocrisies that existed during the years the United States of America was a nation that allowed human slavery.
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