Juneteenth Babies

by Leila Mottley

19-year-old Leila Mottley tells the story of a midwife in the years after Emancipation

Genres: Short Stories

Unbound

First published June 20, 2021

About the author

Leila Mottley is the author of the novel NIGHTCRAWLING, an Oprah’s Book Club pick and New York Times best seller. NIGHTCRAWLING was longlisted for the Booker Prize, the PEN/Hemingway Award for Debut Novel, and the Hurston/Wright Legacy award. Mottley was the 2018 Oakland Youth Poet Laureate and published her debut poetry collection WOKE UP NO LIGHT in 2024. Mottley’s writing has also been published in The New York Times, Conde Nast Traveler, Marie Claire, and more. Her sophomore novel, THE GIRLS WHO GREW BIG, is forthcoming in June 2025.

Reviews

[Cheri · Rating 5 out of 5]

’The Juneteenth babies had gems instead of teeth. Moons instead of eyes. Claws instead of fingernails. Lula May knew they were special from the very moment she caught them, straight out of their amniotic sac and into her arms right as the soldiers rode in and decreed that they were free.’

’Lula May named each and every one of the Juneteenth babies from 1865 to 1900 when they all returned to her for the very last time. She looked those babies up and down and she called them what they were: Strange, Wise, Indigo. Each name a shell for that child to grow up in, reminding them where they came from even after they soared to every end of the country, some even across the waters, under, so north they practiced swimming through snow.’

I was so impressed after reading her debut novel Nightcrawling that I looked for more information about her writing, and ran across this story written by Leila Mottley and published in Oprah Daily online June of 2021. While this short story is set in a completely different place and time, it shows the promise in this young author’s future.

Link:
https://www.oprahdaily.com/entertainm...