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Breena Clarke is an African-American scholar and writer of fiction, including an award-winning debut novel River, Cross My Heart (1999). She is the younger sister of poet, essayist, and activist Cheryl Clarke, with whom she organizes the Hobart Festival of Women Writers each summer.

Biography

Clarke was born one of four sisters and a brother in Washington, D.C., to World War II veteran James Sheridan Clarke (September 18, 1912 – January 18, 2009) and Edna Payne Clarke. She was educated at Webster College and at Howard University.

Her debut novel, River, Cross My Heart, was an October 1999 Oprah Book Club selection, when the description stated: "This highly accomplished first novel resonates with ideas, impassioned lyricism, and poignant historical detail as it captures an essential part of the African-American experience in our century." The Publishers Weekly reviewer called it "a novel as lyric and alternately beguiling and confounding as its title. ...a haunting story", and the book spent a month on The New York Times bestseller list.

Clarke's second novel, Stand the Storm, was published in 2008, and The Washington Post reviewer Gail Buckley said: "Breena Clarke has written another stirring work of historical fiction that weaves the passionate, dramatic and uplifting story of the African American aspiration for true freedom into the great American tapestry." Clarke's third novel, Angels Make Their Hope Here, published in 2014, also received favorable notices from such reviewers as Alan Cheuse at NPR's All Things Considered.

Bibliography

• River, Cross My Heart, Back Bay Books, 1999, ISBN 0316899984
• Stand the Storm: A Novel, 2008
• Angels Make Their Hope Here, Little, Brown and Company, 2014, ISBN 978-0316254007

Awards

• 1999: New Atlantic Independent Booksellers Association (NAIBA) award for fiction
• 2000: Alex Award from the Young Adult Library Services Association

References

1. "Hobart Book Village Festival of Women Writers".
2. "James Clarke obituary notice". legacy.com. The Washington Post. January 25, 2009.
3. "James Clarke Condolences". legacy.com. The Washington Post.
4. Breena Clarke biography at AALBC.
5. "River, Cross My Heart" at Oprah.
6. "River, Cross My Heart" (review), Publishers Weekly, June 28, 1999.
7. "What's Behind the Boom in Black Women Writers?", Ebony, March 2000, p. 36.
8. "Best Sellers Plus", Books, The New York Times, November 7, 1999.
9. Gail Buckley, "Battle Cry of Freedom", The Washington Post, July 27, 2008.
10. Alan Cheuse, "Book Review: 'Angels Make Their Hope Here'", All Things Considered, NPR, July 22, 2014.
11. "NAIBA Book of the Year Awards". New Atlantic Independent Booksellers Association. Retrieved July 4, 2021.
12. "2000 Alex Awards". YALSA. 3 January 2007. Retrieved July 4, 2021.

External links

• Official website.
• Jacqueline Cutler, "A conversation with Breena Clarke", New Jersey On-Line, August 10, 2014.
• "Interview with Breena Clarke", HerStoryNovels, June 23, 2016.

• Living people
• 21st-century American novelists
• Writers from Washington, D.C.
• Howard University alumni
• African-American novelists
• American women novelists
• 21st-century American women writers
• 21st-century African-American women writers
• 20th-century African-American writers
• 21st-century African-American writers