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242:. It was noted as first being based at the buildings and grounds of a former, privately owned resort called Tawawa House, named for the "yellow springs" in the area. The iron-rich waters were thought to have medicinal value. Among the regular summer visitors to the Ohio resort in the antebellum period were Southern white planters and their enslaved mistresses of color.
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Perkins-Valdez said that she wanted to "move the story out of the battlegrounds of the war into a place like
Chicago taking it out of those traditional spaces such as the South or even thinking of Virginia or Pennsylvania... and putting it somewhere that was absolutely affected by the war but was
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features Lizzie, a young enslaved woman, and her complicated relationship with her master. It also explores the lives of three other mistresses of color, whom Lizzie comes to know at the resort. They are influenced by spending time in a free state, and seeing free people of color there. It was
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The book received positive reviews and notice as a debut novel. The paperback edition became a bestseller. The novel was selected by NPR in 2010 as one of five books published that year that was recommended to book clubs, for "something to talk about".
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called Hemp from
Kentucky, who gained freedom by fighting with the Union Army. Each migrated to Chicago after the war, along with thousands of others working to rebuild their lives and to explore new kinds of freedom.
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was published by
Berkley Books/Penguin Random House in Spring 2022. According to its epilogue, it was inspired by a real case in which two sisters, aged 12 and 14, were sterilized against their will, in June 1973.
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2002–2003, she was a president's postdoctoral fellow at the Center for
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In 2013, Perkins-Valdez was invited to write an introductory essay to the 37th edition of
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She received a DC Commission on the Arts Grant to aid in completion of her second novel,
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Northup, Solomon & Perkins-Valdez, Dolen (Introduction) (September 17, 2013).
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as an undergraduate, earning a BA degree. She completed a PhD in
English at
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Perkins-Valdez has published short fiction and essays in such magazines as
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Perkins-Valdez has said she was inspired to write her debut novel,
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774:'Balm' Looks At Civil War After The Battles, Outside The South"
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Perkins-Valdez received the First
Novelist Award in 2011 for
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and coming across a brief reference to the founding of
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428:"About Us | the PEN/Faulkner Foundation"
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662:"Book Deals: Week of October 5, 2020"
525:"Review: Dolen Perkins-Valdez: Wench"
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234:(2010), after reading a biography of
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218:SLI: Studies in Literary Imagination
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148:(2010), which became a bestseller.
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867:University of Puget Sound faculty
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877:Writers from Memphis, Tennessee
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550:Neary, Lynn (6 December 2010).
155:Foundation Board of Directors.
726:Perkins-Valdez, Dolen (2010).
474:"Profile Dolen Perkins-Valdez"
445:"'Wench- A Novel': An Excerpt"
210:North Carolina Literary Review
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832:American historical novelists
862:University of Memphis alumni
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837:American University faculty
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338:for fiction, for her novel
336:Hurston-Wright Legacy Award
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847:Harvard University alumni
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638:NPR Staff (6 June 2015).
614:(1st ed.). Amistad.
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852:Novelists from Tennessee
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159:Early life and education
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202:African American Review
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449:The Nervous Breakdown
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575:Twelve Years a Slave
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41:Writer and professor
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734:. Amistad.
286:during the
261:Other works
141:debut novel
62:Citizenship
54:Nationality
806:Categories
706:Infoplease
583:B00DJWV0VY
483:2016-01-30
414:References
197:StorySouth
38:Occupation
591:cite book
70:Education
711:15 April
535:15 April
508:15 April
334:and the
296:freedman
110:(2010);
57:American
46:Language
797:Twitter
529:AV Club
402:(2022)
389:(2015)
374:(2010)
284:Chicago
119:Website
49:English
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315:Honors
216:, and
178:Career
114:(2015)
730:Wench
642:. NPR
554:. NPR
346:Wench
340:Wench
246:Wench
97:Novel
94:Genre
736:ISBN
713:2015
688:2019
648:2015
616:ISBN
597:link
579:ASIN
560:2019
537:2015
510:2015
457:2019
404:ISBN
391:ISBN
376:ISBN
357:Balm
280:Balm
128:.com
795:on
778:NPR
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Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License. Additional terms may apply.