Jewell Parker Rhodes

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

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

Rhodes is the Founding Artistic Director and the Piper Endowed Chair of the Virginia G. Piper Center for Creative Writing at Arizona State University where she also serves as a faculty member and mentor. [1]

She is the author of six books for children including Black, Brother, Black Brother, named Chicago Public Library’s Best of the Best 2020 and Amazon Best Book of 2020, and the New York Times bestseller Ghost Boys which has garnered over 25 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, winner of the 2017 Notable Books for a Global Society, and the celebrated Louisiana Girls Trilogy which includes Ninth Ward, winner of a Coretta Scott King Honor Award, Sugar, a Junior Library Guild selection, and Bayou Magic, a We Need Diverse Books Educational Selection. Her forthcoming novel, Paradise on Fire, will be published in September 2021.

Rhodes has authored 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, will be released on May 4, 2021.

Jewell has visited hundreds of schools across the country and is a regular speaker at colleges and conferences. The driving force behind all of Jewell’s work is to inspire social justice, equality, and environmental stewardship. Born in Pittsburgh, she now lives in Seattle.

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 dance major, but switched to writing when she discovered African-American literature for the first time.[2] 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.

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."[1] 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

Writing

Teaching

Jewell Parker Rhodes has been awarded the California State University Distinguished Teaching Award, ASU's Dean's Quality Teaching Award, Outstanding Thesis Director from the Barrett Honors College, and the Outstanding Faculty Award from the College of Extended Education. She is a member of the Arizona/International Women's Forum and a Renaissance Weekend invitee.

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