In 2013, Dolen wrote the introduction to a special edition of Solomon Northup's Twelve Years a Slave, published by Simon & Schuster, which became a New York Times bestseller. Jones, Louise Erdrich, and Zora Neale Hurston.

In 2017, HarperCollins released her first novel Wench as one of eight 'Olive Titles,' limited edition modern classics that included books by Edward P. The Washington Post called it 'a jewel of a book.'ĭolen has established herself as a pre-eminent chronicler of American historical life. It was named a Most Anticipated Book of 2022 in Newsweek, San Francisco Chronicle, Essence, NBC News, and elsewhere, and it was an IndieNext and LibraryReads pick for April 2022. Take My Hand was awarded the 2023 NAACP Image Award for Literary Work-Fiction and the BCALA Fiction Award. But there are people and stories that refuse to be forgotten.That must not be forgotten.īecause history repeats what we don’t remember.ĭolen Perkins-Valdez is the New York Times bestselling author of Wench (2010), Balm (2015), and most recently Take My Hand (2022). Civil Townsend is ready to retire, to find her peace and to leave the past behind. Until one day, she arrives at the door to learn the unthinkable has happened and nothing will ever be the same for any of them.ĭecades later, with her daughter grown and a long career in her wake, Dr. As Civil grapples with her role, she takes India, Erica and their family into her heart. Neither of the Williams sisters has even kissed a boy, but they are poor and Black and for those handling the family’s welfare benefits that’s reason enough to have the girls on birth control.

At the Montgomery Family Planning Clinic, she intends to help women make their own choices for their lives and bodies.īut when her first week on the job takes her down a dusty country road to a worn down one-room cabin, she’s shocked to learn that her new patients are children-just 11 and 13 years old. Fresh out of nursing school, Civil Townsend has big plans to make a difference, especially in her African American community. Inspired by true events that rocked the nation, a profoundly moving novel about a Black nurse in post-segregation Alabama who blows the whistle on a terrible wrong done to her patients, from the New York Times bestselling author of Wench.

Wench by dolen perkins valdez