Amazon.com: Down South: A Granddaughters Memories: Jewell Parker Rhodes: Books

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ASIN: B000N3SSCQ

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I was abandoned by my mother as an infant, and raised by my Grandmother Ernestine. As I've grown older, I've come to realize that Grandmother, through oral storytelling, gave me my values and my profession as a fiction writer. Stories have the ability to make us feel more alive—to teach—and to empower. This story is my attempt to share with others my Grandmother's spirit—to pass her wisdom to future generations. This essay fits nicely with my latest book, PORCH STORIES: A GRANDMOTHER'S GUIDE TO HAPPINESS in which I tell more grandmother stories and convey her maxims for living a good life.

The Complete Works of Jewell Parker Rhodes
Most recent titles listed first

	Porch Stories: A Grandmother's Guide to Happiness September 12, 2006; 176 pages "A vivid and affectionate portrait...Grandmother Ernestine is the keeper of wisdom, stories, hopes, and dreams. Thank you, Jewell Parker Rhodes, for sharing her with us."-- Amy Hill Hearth, coauthor with the Delany Sisters of Having Our Say Read more
	Voodoo Season July 4, 2006; 288 pages Medicine and voodoo may seem at odds, but Marie Levant, first-year resident at New Orleans's Charity Hospital, discovers she has a... Read more
	Douglass' Women : A Novel September 1, 2003; 384 pages Frederick Douglass's love life was nearly as tumultuous as his political career or so Rhodes (Voodoo Dreams; Magic City) posits in... Read more
	The African American Guide to Writing & Publishing Non Fiction January 8, 2002; 368 pages Telling life stories is a cultural heritage that African Americans can trace back hundreds of years, to the West African storytellers-musicians-historians... Read more
	Free Within Ourselves: Fiction Lessons for Black Authors October 5, 1999; 352 pages Sure, Jewell Parker Rhodes is African American. Many of the writing traditions to which she refers in Free Within Ourselves--the slave... Read more
	Magic City: A Novel July 1, 1998; 288 pages "A mystical tale, full of spirits . . . Rhodes's exciting and moving novel takes off at a vigorous, lively clip from the first page, plunging through complex ideas and relationships without neglecting any of them." Read more
	Voodoo Dreams: A Novel of Marie Laveau January 15, 1995; 448 pages NEA Fiction Award winner Rhodes's first novel brings to life a legendary 19th-century voodoo priestess. Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc. Read more

About the Author

Dr. Jewell Parker Rhodes is the Artistic Director and Piper Endowed Chair of the Virginia G. Piper Center for Creative Writing at Arizona State University. She is the author of four novels: Voodoo Dreams, Magic City, Douglass' Women, and Voodoo Season, and the memoir, Porch Stories: A Grandmother's Guide to Happiness. Two new novels, Voodoo Jazz, Hurricane Levee Blues, are planned for 2007 and 2008. She has authored two writing guides: Free Within Ourselves: Fiction Lessons for Black Authors, The African American Guide to Writing and Publishing Non-Fiction. Her play, Voodoo Dreams, was cited as "Most Innovative" Drama in the 2000-2001 season by the Arizona Republic and she is currently at work on a theatrical version of Douglass' Women. Her work has been published in Germany, Italy, Canada, and the United Kingdom and reproduced in audio and for NPR's "Selected Shorts." Her literary awards include: a Yaddo Creative Writing Fellowship, the American Book Award, the National Endowment of the Arts Award in Fiction, the Black Caucus of the American Library Award for Literary Excellence, the PEN Oakland/Josephine Miles Award for Outstanding Writing, and a finalist citation for the Hurston-Wright Legacy Award. She has also been awarded several teaching awards. She received a Bachelor of Arts in Drama Criticism (Honors) a Master of Arts in English, and a Doctor of Arts in English (Creative Writing) from Carnegie-Mellon University. Jewell loves to travel, cook, watch films, and listen to the ocean. Her daughter, Kelly McWilliams, published Doormat at sixteen and her Mom is ever so proud. Her son, Evan, is a glorious writer, too, and has a great imagination.