Elizabeth Nunez
Elizabeth Nunez emigrated from Trinidad after completing high school there. She received her M.A. and Ph.D. in English from New York University. She is a distinguished professor here at Hunter College and an award-winning author of seven novels: Anna-In-Between; Prospero's Daughter (New York Times Editors' Choice; 2006 Novel of the Year, Black Issues Book Review); Grace; Discretion (short-listed for the Hurston/Wright Legacy Award); Bruised Hibiscus (American Book Award); Beyond the Limbo Silence (Independent Publishers Book Award); and When Rocks Dance. Her audiobooks include Grace and Prospero's Daughter (BBC/America) and Discretion (Recorded Books).
Called "a master of pacing and plotting" in the New York Times review of Prospero's Daughter, Nunez has received a great deal of praise for both the style and content of her writing. NALIS launched the Fifth Annual One Book, One Community nationwide reading project on April 14, 2010, and their fifth selection was Dr. Nunez’s Prospero's Daughter. Black Issues Book Review describes Bruised Hibiscus as “moving, powerful and haunting” and Booklist says of Beyond the Limbo Silence that Nunez has a writing style that “will remind many of Toni Morrison and Alice Walker.” Beyond the Limbo Silence was also picked by the Washington Post as one of the best books of 1998. Publisher's Weekly says that the prose in Grace is "exquisitely tuned" and the narrative unfolds with "understated elegance," and The Seattle Times comments that "Discretion delivers two memorable characters whose personal culture clashes, both shared and internalized, are as telling as those of the world they inhabit."
Nunez is also Co-Editor with Jennifer Sparrow of the anthology Stories from Blue Latitudes: Caribbean Women Writers at Home and Abroad, Co-Editor with Brenda Greene of the collection of essays, Black Writers in the 90's, and Author of several monographs of literary criticism. She is a former Fellow of Yaddo and MacDowell artist colonies. A Co-Founder of the National Black Writers Conference, and Director from 1986-2000, Nunez received grant awards from the National Endowment for the Humanities, as well as grants from The Nathan Cummings Foundation and the Reed Foundation for these conferences. She continues her work in support of writers of color with her radio program on WBAI 99.5FM and as Chair of the PEN American Open Book committee. She is also Executive Producer of the 2004 NY Emmy-nominated CUNY TV series Black Writers in America.
Podcast Interview with Dr. Nunez at The Root
Praise for Anna-In-Between:
The Defenders Online (Includes Interview)
You can read more about Dr. Nunez's books at ElizabethNunez.com