Laurie Jean
The Root online magazine listed Laurie Jean's memoir, Crave: Sojourn of a Hungry Soul, as one of the best nonfiction books by Black authors in 2015. Kirkus Reviews described Crave as a "bold, honest, and courageous memoir." Foreword Reviews listed Crave as an Indiefab Book of the Year 2015 finalist in the autobiography/memoir category. Additionally, Crave was named a finalist for the Library of Virginia People’s Choice Award for Nonfiction. Laurie Jean has published personal essays on poverty, domestic violence, and military sexual trauma in a number of publications, including The Rumpus, Good Housekeeping, and Ink and Letters. She has presented talks, lectures, and workshops at numerous organizations, including the KGB Literary Bar, Girls Write Now, The Women’s Initiative, and West Point Military Academy. Laurie Jean is also an award-winning, highly decorated educator. She currently serves as the Mellon Foundation Endowed Chair of English and Foreign Languages at Hampton University and is a member of the creative writing faculty in the Wilkes University MA/MFA low-residency Creative Writing Program. During the Spring 2021 semester, she was awarded the Academic Excellence Award for outstanding faculty member at Hampton University. Her most recent memoir, Other Than Honorable: A Soldier's Struggle Through Military Sexual Trauma will be published by Etruscan Press in January 2023. Additionally, her craft book From the Trenches: Writing and Workshopping Race will be published by Kendall Hunt publishing in Spring 2022.
Laurie Jean can be found at www.lauriejeancannady.net/.
Charitable Organization: Transitions Family Violence Services
Praise
Throughout this at-times painful narrative, the author also celebrates the strength of her bonds among the members of her family and especially with her mother. These bonds offered her the sustenance she needed to become a woman whose hunger to escape the cycle of abuse eventually trumped dysfunction and chaos and put her on a road to a better life. A bold, honest, and courageous memoir. -Kirkus
Crave: A Sojourn of a Hungry Soul is a soul-searing memoir that marks the arrival of an unforgettable new voice. Brave, honest, and beautiful, this is a story about facing the truth and daring to love your way through to the other side.— Tayari Jones
