Kalisha Buckhanon's Blog - Posts Tagged "novel"

From the writer whose debut novel UPSTATE was celebrated as “wild and beautiful” (Sapphire), “heartbreaking and true” (Dorothy Allison), and “a poetry uniquely its own” (Elle), and awarded by Terry McMillan as “capturing real emotion,” comes a powerful new story of unseen black youth: Solemn Redvine, a girl whose life winds to unexpected directions as she lives with simple people but complicated circumstances in a Mississippi mobile home community.

From St. Martin's Press May 3, 2016

Praise:

“SOLEMN is a thought-provoking and powerful novel about a girl who sees what she shouldn’t and is forced all too soon to learn about betrayal, loss and the precariousness of love. Kalisha Buckhanon is a writer of great imagination and boundless empathy. The writing style is poetic and the use of Mississippi dialogue, both black and white, is masterful. Solemn is a haunting story that keeps pages turning until the end.”- Jonathan Odell, author of The Healing and Miss Hazel and the Rosa Parks League

“Buckhanon crafts a hypnotic tale…cast against the hardships of everyday life in Singer’s Trailer Park, a young girl’s troubled thoughts make for a heartbreaking story of broken promises.” –Kirkus Reviews

“This work earns a place alongside James Hannaham’s Delicious Foods as top-notch literary fiction sending a message about African American struggles in the 21st century.” -Library Journal

“The story’s compassionate tone and rich characters will recommend it to fans of family fiction and Buckhanon’s earlier work.” –Booklist

“An emotional and expressive novel about family, obligation and community. This twisting, expressive coming-of-age story not only offers readers a young girl’s experience of seeking her place in the world, but also illustrates the struggle of life in the rural South.” –Bookpage

“Solemn is beautifully written in lyrically beautiful, poetic language…the story starts off with a traumatic event that successfully weaves its tendrils throughout the rest of the book.” –RT Reviews

"A searing story...fueled by emotion." -Bustle

Vote for SOLEMN as May's Best Cover on the RT Reviews website Here.

Take some time to visit:
Kalisha's website Kalisha.com
Kalisha's blog Negression
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Visit these blogs who love SOLEMN:
SOLEMN on AALBC
SOLEMN on Bless Their Hearts Mom
SOLEMN on Books a la Mode
SOLEMN on Word Crafting Me

Also share this post on your social media of choice. Thank you.

Readers in the NYC area can walk into The Mysterious Bookshop at 58 Warren Street to get a signed, first-edition SOLEMN. If you are not in the NYC area, you can still get one of their many autographed copies online...details below:

Kalisha Buckhanon - Solemn | The Mysterious Bookshop | Order Online Here

Ahead of its June 2019 release from Counterpoint Press, SPEAKING OF SUMMER is now available for Pre-Order on Amazon and on Goodreads here: Speaking of Summer.

Visit Kalisha.com/summer to see the book trailer and share with other readers. Thank you!


About SPEAKING OF SUMMER:
A literary thriller about one woman's desperate search for her missing twin sister, a multi-layered mystery set against the neighborhoods of Harlem.

On a cold December evening, Autumn Spencer's twin sister Summer walks to the roof of their shared Harlem brownstone and is never seen again―the door to the roof is locked, and no footsteps are found. Faced with authorities indifferent to another missing woman, Autumn must pursue answers on her own, all while grieving her mother's recent death.

With her friends and neighbors, Autumn pretends to hold up through the crisis. She falls into an affair with Summer's boyfriend to cope with the disappearance of a woman they both loved. But the loss becomes too great, the mystery too inexplicable, and Autumn starts to unravel, all the while becoming obsessed with murdered women and the men who kill them.

In Speaking of Summer, critically acclaimed author Kalisha Buckhanon has created a postmodern, fast-paced story of urban peril and victim invisibility, and the fight to discover truth at any cost.

Dear Cherished Readers,

Thank you for following my Goodreads blog. Check out my extended Cover Reveal Video for the beauty below.

And mark your calendars as Speaking of Summer comes to bookstores and e-readers in July 2019!

Many blessings,
Kalisha


Cover Design: Jaya Miceli/ Art Direction: Nicole Caputo
Pre-Order: https://t.co/Luibt52vNN.

Happy New Year!

Thanks so much for following here at Goodreads.

Some other places to keep up with the next novel Speaking of Summer, other projects and more...

Don't be shy. Ask a question right here in Goodreads:
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Thanks alot for following here, at the blog and all over social media! Just a quick note to remind you to enter the Goodreads giveaway for SPEAKING OF SUMMER, advance review copies. Entry window closes this Friday, January 25, so act fast. Thank you to the nearly 1400 who have already entered the giveaway!

Click Here to Enter Today: https://www.goodreads.com/giveaway/sh....

Thank you for being here. Already the early interest, attention and praise for SPEAKING OF SUMMER is similar to UPSTATE- now 14 years old this year and with renewed discussions due to its National Book Foundation's 2018 Literature for Justice selection.

For those who were not picked to win one of 10 copies in January's SPEAKING OF SUMMER giveaway, enjoy a short excerpt of the novel in the meantime. Here, the main character Autumn Spencer tries to articulate the anguish of not knowing where her other half has gone.

Excerpt of Speaking of Summer by Kalisha Buckhanon

I had left Summer’s fingerprints on her dressing mirror. I joyfully borrowed her clothes. If I breached her journals or notes or emails, I heard her voice saying her old words and I felt better. I washed her scent from her pillowcases, sheets, and comforter. I switched her bedding and moved in to her room, to feel she was still here. My bedroom, the smaller one facing the brick gangway, never invited the breeze. Now it was just my dressing closet, in need of a good sweeping and dusting. The comforter crumpled and twisted at the foot of my Ikea bed. I finally threw out a rank coffee cup with spoiled cream and a saucer of pizza crusts on the nightstand. One day, I stomped from Summer’s bed to smash down my digital alarm clock, automatically set to go at 7 a.m. I arose around noon now, later in rain.

Her absence clogged my head with memories of our life together, now separated. I just wanted to know she was okay, alive, because without that assurance my mind produced a steady carousel of conjecture. Each stop was dark, terrifying, and sad. I drifted from most so-called friends. None of them knew what to say. Sadly, I suspected some suspected me. I failed to return calls from back home, not that I received many. I felt betrayed, and guilty. I wanted to know what I had done, or what someone else did. I didn’t want to intrude on her new life, if she wanted to start over so fresh I was unwanted. We had, after all, estranged from our history and nearly our own mother, before the inevitable. Our last parent’s dying left us no choice but to repair the breaches. With our whole history and origins dwindled, it was possible one more lost person might not add up to much...

SPEAKING OF SUMMER is released from Counterpoint Press on July 30, 2019.

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The bad news is Kalisha's profile here on Goodreads has experienced an unexplained technical error to prevent it from being viewed for the past week. Apparently, Goodreads' developers are aware of the problem and working to get it back up online. You may still rate, review and shelve all the books.

But in the meantime, check out this tremendously encouraging compilation from Ms. Magazine: 2019 Books for the Rest of Us." Speaking of Summer is included in Dr. Karla Strand's definitive guide to this year's works written by women.

Also, the first batch of the novel's discussion questions are here. Click to view some #SpeakingOfSummer Conversations on Twitter.

Thank you!

The Grio has made the list of all lists for Black women and books in 2019. Writer Dawn M. Baskerville has included Speaking of Summer alongside work from legends like Toni Morrison and Penny Micklebury in her round-up. Visit The Grio to read "20 Black Women Authors with 2019 book releases you need on your shelves." Be sure to share!