Books
Kiss the Sky
My novel Kiss the Sky (Atria Books, 2009) is nominated for a 2010 NAACP Image Award. I’m thrilled. The paperback comes out in May 2010. If you need a review copy, please contact Adiya Mobley at email: Adiya.Mobley@simonandschuster.com
You can read the first chapter of the book here.
Kiss The Sky tracks the life of Sophie “Sky” Lee, a thirtysomething black rock musician making a comeback in New York City in 2000. There are a few hitches to her plans: Sky’s guitarist is her mercurial, drug-abusing ex-husband; her manager is also her boyfriend; and Sky herself is frightened of the cost she’ll pay to reach the pinnacle of fame. Add to that her struggles with religion, her family, and her meddling girlfriends and you have a book which blends substantial themes of love, faith, and longing with contemporary pop culture. Kiss the Sky also has a catalogue of music references on par with books like High Fidelity.
You can buy the book from sellers including Amazon (just CLICK ON the icon banner to your RIGHT to get on over there!)
Or use independent booksellers including Powells. (Click here to buy Kiss the Sky From Powell’s.)
Stay tuned here to learn more about the Kiss the Sky book tour coming to a city near you.
Please check out the events page for my ongoing tour dates.
For more press information contact: Adiya Mobley, Atria Books
email: Adiya.Mobley@simonandschuster.com
More Books From Farai Chideya
Trust, Soft Skull, 2004 In these provocative pieces, Farai Chideya looks at and beyond the daily political struggles to the heart of a nation at war with itself. The 2000 election highlighted the rift between liberal/conservative and Red State/Blue State. But that superficial crack, says Chideya, indicates much more serious, indeed foundational, damage. The United States, she argues, lacks the moral, legal, and psychological framework for debating complex issues in a pluralistic society, relying instead on an outdated dichotomy model that says each issue has two opposing sides instead of many interested parties.
—African American Literature Book Club, 2004
To buy multiple copies of Trust at a discount for nonprofits and educational institutions, email booksales@farai.net.
The Color of Our Future, William Murrow, 1999 In her penetrating cross-country tour of the United States, gifted media star-on-the-rise and cultural critic Farai Chideya reveals how America’s young people are deconstructing the white/black definition of race and constructing a new pluralistic paradigm that encompasses the country’s white, black, Hispanic, Asian, and native peoples. “We do not obey the laws of race. We make them,” she writes. “Now is the time for us to choose wisely what we will preserve about our racial and cultural history, and what destructive divisions we need to leave behind.”
—Publishers Weekly, 1998
To buy multiple copies of the hardcover of The Color of Our Future at a discount (less than the price of the paperback) for nonprofits and educational institutions, email booksales@farai.net.
Don’t Believe the Hype: Fighting Cultural Misinformation About African Americans, Plume, 1995 The stated purpose of Chideya’s book is to “give readers a chance to question the depictions of race that have become standard in newspapers and on the nightly news, a map through the modern realities and misconceptions about race.” She succeeds in 18 chapters, each of which discusses an issue, then examines the reality behind frequently asked questions and frequently held myths.
—Publishers Weekly, 1995
The Finish Party
Farai couldn’t have made her lifelong dream of being a novelist happen without the women known as The Finish Party.
The Finish Party is a group of eight fine, feisty, female authors from Northern and Southern California. Their monthly meetings offer each writer a powerful way to critique their work-in-progress; share triumphs; support one another through hardships; laugh, eat great food; and of course finish their novels! The Finish Party was profiled in the October 2007 issue of O Magazine.
The other “Finish Partiers” are Deborah Santana (Space Between the Stars); Alyss Dixson; Nichelle D. Tramble (The Dying Ground); Lalita Tademy (Red River); Renee Swindle (Please, Please, Please); ZZ Packer (Drinking Coffee Elsewhere); and Jacqueline Luckett (Searching for Tina Turner).
Find out more about the Finish Party’s latest adventures here.
