Join Kristen Gentry, associate professor of English and Director of Creative Writing, as she reads selections and discusses her writing process of her forthcoming book, Mama Said. Light refreshments will be served.
The linked stories in Mama Said are set in Louisville, Kentucky, a city with a rich history steeped in tobacco, bourbon, and gambling, indulgences that can quickly become gripping and destructive vices. Set amid the tail end of the crack epidemic and the rise of the opioid crisis, Mama Said evokes Black family life in all its complexity, following JayLynn, along with her cousins Zaria and Angel, as they come of age struggling against their mothers’ drug addictions.
“Mama Said is a tough yet tender glimpse into a complex community in a city full of strife and love. The characters contain a depth not often seen in a collection of stories, and readers are sure to be thinking about their lives and relationships long after finishing the last (tear-jerking!) page.” —Maggie Henriksen, Carmichael’s Bookstore
Kristen Gentry is the author of Mama Said, forthcoming from West Virginia University Press in October 2023. She received her MFA from Indiana University. Her award-winning fiction has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize and appeared in Crab Orchard Review, Jabberwock Review, and other journals. She is a VONA and Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference alumna who is currently an associate professor of English and Director of Creative Writing at SUNY Geneseo. This summer, she will relocate to her hometown of Louisville, Kentucky to live, write, and help other black women and girls share their stories.
