Wednesday, March 25

Turn the Page: Re-inventing Yourself with Bernice L. McFadden





Bernice L. McFadden, Award-Winning, National Bestselling Author says, “I write to breathe life back into memory.” Listen to her empowering message:  http://www.audioacrobat.com/note/C4cbj4Nk


Topic:  #LifeAfter - Living Beyond the Hashtag 
Topic - Turn the Page: Re-inventing Yourself & Live Your Dreams 


Seven years ago, I sold my house, placed my belongings in storage and set out on a journey that would include cutting off my locs..traveling to several countries, completing my MFA in creative writing, becoming a professor of creative writing and publishing two novels.

I started this journey soaked in heartbreak. I started this journey obsessed with all I had loss... and if I may be honest, it’s taken six years to shift my focus from obsessing over loss to celebrating all that I have gained. And I’m not talking about material or monetary gains. I’m taking about self-awareness and rediscovery.

If I am to be completely transparent - the unraveling of my old life really began in 2008... so it’s been a decade of upheaval and reorganization. I feel a seismic change heading my way - but unlike the one that occurred in 2008 - this one feels warm and fuzzy. I’m ready. I’m so ready....#ImStillHere 



Bernice L. McFadden is the author of The Book of Harlan (winner of the 2017 American Book Award and the 2017 NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Literary Work.) This in addition to eight other critically acclaimed novels including Sugar, Loving Donovan, Gathering of Waters (a New York Times Editors’ Choice and one of the 100 Notable Books of 2012), Glorious, which was featured in O, The Oprah Magazine and was a finalist for the NAACP Image Award. She is a four-time Hurston/Wright Legacy Award finalist, as well as the recipient of three awards from the BCALA. Praise Song for the Butterflies is her latest novel.


More Books by Bernice:  http://www.bernicemcfadden.com/pages/books 





Meet the Author

Bernice L. McFadden is the author of The Book of Harlan (winner of the 2017 American Book Award and the 2017 NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Literary Work.) This in addition to eight other critically acclaimed novels including Sugar, Loving Donovan, Gathering of Waters (a New York Times Editors’ Choice and one of the 100 Notable Books of 2012), Glorious, which was featured in O, The Oprah Magazine and was a finalist for the NAACP Image Award. She is a four-time Hurston/Wright Legacy Award finalist, as well as the recipient of three awards from the BCALA. Praise Song for the Butterflies is her latest novel.


Bernice L. McFadden was born, raised and currently lives in Brooklyn, New York. She is the eldest of four children and the mother of one daughter, R’yane Azsa. Ms. McFadden attended grade school at P.S. 161 in Brooklyn and Middle School at Holy Spirit, also in Brooklyn. She attended high school at St. Cyril Academy; an all-girls boarding school in Danville, PA.

In the Fall of 1983 she enrolled in the noted NYC fashion college: Laboratory Institute of Merchandising, with dreams of becoming an international clothing buyer. She attended LIM for two semesters and then took a position at Bloomingdale’s and later with Itokin, a Japanese owned retail company.

Disillusioned and frustrated with her job, she signed up for a Travel & Tourism course at Marymount College where she received a certificate of completion. After the birth of her daughter in 1988, Bernice McFadden obtained a job with RockResorts a company then owned by the Rockefeller family.

The company was later sold and Ms. McFadden was laid off and unemployed for one year. She sites that year as the turning point in her life because during those twelve months Ms. McFadden began to dedicate herself to the art of writing. During the next nine years she held three jobs, always looking for something exciting and satisfying. Forever frustrated with corporate America and the requirements they put on their employees, Ms. McFadden enrolled at Fordham University. Her intention was to obtain a degree that would enable her to move up another rung on the corporate ladder.

She signed up for courses that concentrated on Afro-American history and literature, as well as creative writing, poetry and journalism. She credits the two years spent under the guidance of her professors as well as the years spent lost in the words of her favorite authors, to the caliber of writer she has become.

In 1997, Ms. McFadden quit her job and dedicated seven months to re-writing the novel that would become, “SUGAR.”  In February of 1999, after nearly ten years, four drafts and 73 rejection letters – SUGAR was finally acquired by Dutton Publishers.  Published in the winter of 2000, SUGAR is still in print and in 2020 celebrated its 20th anniversary.

Bernice L. McFadden also writes racy, humorous fiction under the pseudonym, Geneva Holliday.


 



Just a few of her many Awards and Honors


2019 Longlist, Women’s Prize for Fiction (Praise Song for the Butterflies)

2019 BCALA Honor Award (Praise Song for the Butterflies)

2019 Go On Girl Book Club Author of the Year (The Book of Harlan)

2017 American Book Award  (The Book of Harlan)

2017 Winner 2017 NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Literary Work (The Book of Harlan)

2016 Washington Post Notable Books of 2016 (The Book of Harlan)

2016 Historical Novel Society “November Editor’s Choice” (The Book of Harlan)

2016 National Reading Group Month/ Great Group Reads Selection (The Book of Harlan)

2016 Award for Excellence in Literature, Art Sanctuary, The Celebration of Black Arts Legacy Awards

2013 Finalist, Hurston Wright Legacy Award in Fiction (Gathering of Waters)

2013 National Reading Group Month/Great Group Reads Selection (Nowhere is a Place)

2012 New York Times 100 Notable Books (Gathering of Waters)

2012 Washington Post 50 Best Books (Gathering of Waters)



Bernice L. McFadden Website: http://www.bernicemcfadden.com

More Books by Bernice:  http://www.bernicemcfadden.com/pages/books 






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