| Lorene Cary | |
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Lorene Cary, 2006 (Photo: Laura Blanchard) |
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| Born | 1956 (age 55–56) Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States |
| Occupation | Author, writer, educator, social activist |
| Alma mater | St. Paul's, New Hampshire |
| Period | 1988–present |
| Genres | Memoir, novel, historical novel |
| Subjects | African-American experience |
| Notable work(s) | Black Ice |
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www.lorenecary.org |
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Lorene Cary (born 1956,[1] Philadelphia, Pennsylvania[2]) is an American author, educator,[2] and social activist.[3]
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Cary grew up in a working-class neighborhood[4] in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. In 1972, she was invited to the "elite" St. Paul's boarding school in New Hampshire, on scholarship,[5] as only the second African-American female student.[5] She spent two years at St. Paul's, graduating in 1974,[6] and then received her MA degree from the University of Pennsylvania in 1978. A Thouron Fellowship gave her the chance to study at the Sussex University in the United Kingdom, where she received a master of arts in Victorian literature. In addition to these degrees, Cary has been awarded honorary doctorates from Colby College, Keene State College, and Chestnut Hill College.[1] After finishing college, Cary worked in publishing for several magazines, including Time, TV Guide, and Newsweek. She also worked as a freelance writer for Essence, American Visions, Mirabella, Obsidian, and the Philadelphia Inquirer.[1] In 1982, Cary returned to St. Paul's, this time as a teacher.[7] She is currently a senior lecturer in creative writing at the University of Pennsylvania.
After first writing about her experience at St. Paul's in a magazine article in 1988,[8] she published a memoir, Black Ice, which was published in 1991 by Alfred A. Knopf.[5] Phillip Lopate, reviewing the book for The New York Times called it a "stunning memoir".[8] The book, "bruisingly honest about class, race and sex in America",[4] found success with the critics and was shortlisted the same year by The New York Times as "summer reading";[9] her first publication, it was republished the next year by Vintage Books.[10]
In 1995, Cary published her first novel, The Price of a Child. Based on a true story[11] and set in 1855, the novel tells the story of Ginnie Pryor, a slave from a Virginia plantation who is bought by the US Ambassador to Nicaragua. En route with her new owner to New York City, she escapes via the Underground Railroad and attempts to build a new life in Philadelphia. Fernanda Eberstadt, reviewing the novel in The New York Times, commented that Cary "is a powerful storyteller, frankly sensual, mortally funny, gifted with an ear for the pounce and ragged inconsequentiality of real speech and an eye for the shifts and subterfuges by which ordinary people get by".[4]
In 1998, she published a second novel, Pride, which describes the experiences of four contemporary black middle-class women.[12] Cary’s first Young Adult book, FREE!, a collection of non-fiction Underground Railroad stories as compelling as the history they chronicle, was published by Third World Press/New City Press in 2005.[13] Cary says that she believes these twelve stories of ingenious and daring escapes 'allow our 21st-century minds to imagine actively the inner lives of enslaved people – and put ourselves in their places, not with shame, but compassion and respect.'[14]
Cary also wrote the script for the videos in "The President's House: Freedom and Slavery in the Making of a New Nation", a 2010 exhibition in The President's House in Philadelphia.[15]
On April 19, Cary releases her third novel If Sons, Then Heirs. In it, Cary tells a complex story of family, race, and the challenges of reconciling the present with a persistent past. Alonzo Rayne was raised in South Carolina by his great-grandmother, Selma. Now he owns a construction business in Philadelphia and lives with Lillie, a single mom, and her seven-year-old son, Khalil. As the story begins, Khalil accompanies Alonzo to South Carolina where Alonzo urges the aging Selma to sell her land so they can pay for her long-term care. But she hasn't owned the land since King, her husband, died almost 50 years ago; Selma was King's second wife, not an heir, and this unforeseen fact, combined with ancient, racist inheritance laws, makes for a sticky situation. And Alonzo's mother suddenly wanting to reconnect after years of abandonment further complicates matters; her marriage to the white man she met after abandoning her son turned her life around. Finally, Alonzo's investigation into his great-grandmother's land puts him on a collision course with the men who brought about his great-grandfather's violent end. Cary (Black Ice) pairs generations of loving, and loyal individuals with social history, making for an absorbing and moving tale. [16] Says Carleen Brice, author of Orange Mint and Honey and Children of the Waters, “Every single character pops off the page in this amazing story. This masterwork of a novel made me laugh and cry out loud. Important, enjoyable, and wonderfully moving. An absolute delight.” [17]
In 1998 Cary founded Art Sanctuary, an African-American arts and letters organization devoted to presenting regional and national talent in the literary, visual and performing arts.[18][19] Art Sanctuary annually hosts an African American arts festival, during whichriters discuss their work with up to 1,500–2,000 students, and another 2,000–3,000 people participate in panels, workshops, the basketball tournament, teachers' symposium, Family Pavilion, main stage, and other events.[20]