Lynette thinks of how her mother had been with Mr. Cates the day he jumped through the roof of their deck, and tries to imagine herself doting on Mr. Cates in his elder years as her mother doted on Mr. Cates then. She imagines going to visit Mr. Cates on a Sunday in whatever retirement home he will end up in. Or she would drive Mr. Cates to church when his legs won't carry him to the Metro. Lynette would have called him the Friday before, as she would have done for years. She would help him down the stairs in such a way that he feels he is doing it himself, all the while asking him about the heat in his apartment, the health of his cats, how he liked the casserole she brought the week before.
As Lynette Simmons stares into the wall, she tells herself that she will wait for Samuel Cates to come down. He will be rushing out, looking for his bag. Maybe he will have forgotten. Maybe she will say hello as she gives it to him. She smiles at the thought of saying, “Hey, Sammy Cates!” but instead she thinks she'll catch up slowly: “How you, Mr. Cates? I'm Lynette, Avis Simmons's daughter, from way back. Meridian Towers Apartments. You remember me? I saw you on the train. We used to live in the same building, a long while back.”
The nurse has given up on her sandwich and looks at Lynette with a sideways glance. “I can call up to Mr. Cates. You want me to call him?”
“No, thank you,” Lynette says, then she eases further back into the chair and rests her bag on the floor. She thinks to say, “You don't have to call him, he's expecting me,” but instead smiles when she realizes that there is no need.
Notes on the Contributors
FAITH ADIELE is an award-winning nonfiction writer whose work has appeared in O, Essence, Ploughshares, Ms., Creative Nonfiction, and other journals. She has received awards for her work from the Hur-ston/Wright Foundation, UNESCO, and PEN, and was short-listed for Best American Essays 2002 and 2005.
KWAME ALEXANDER is the author of ten books, including Dancing Naked on the Floor: Poems and Essays; Crush: Love Poems; and Do the Write Thing: 7 Steps to Publishing Success. He is the cofounder and producer of the Capital BookFest.
ABDUL ALI is a native of New York City living in Washington, D.C. He was educated at Howard University, where he studied English and theater. He has published in numerous periodicals, including the Washington Post and Black Issues Book Review. He was a finalist for the 2000 Lary Neal Writers’ Award. He is the 2007 winner of the Mount Vernon Poetry Festival Prize.
TINA MCELROY ANSA is a novelist, publisher, filmmaker, teacher, and journalist. She is the author of the novels Baby of the Family, Ugly Ways, The Hand I Fan With, You Know Better, and Taking After Mudear.
NICOLE BAILEY-WILLIAMS is a novelist and freelance writer. Her debut novel, A Little Piece of Sky, was a finalist for the Debut Fiction Legacy Award, presented by the Hurston/Wright Foundation. She is also the author of the novels Floating and The Love Child's Revenge, published by Broadway Books last fall.
DOREEN BAINGANA is a Ugandan writer and the author of Tropical Fish: Stories out of Entebbe. The book won the Associated Writers and Writing Programs (AWP) Award for Short Fiction and the Commonwealth Prize for First Book, Africa Region, and was a finalist for the Hurston/Wright Legacy Award for Debut Fiction. Her fiction and essays have been published in many journals, including Glimmer Train and African American Review.
L. A. BANKS has written more than thirty novels and contributed to ten novellas, in multiple genres under various pseudonyms. She is the recipient of the 2008 Essence Storyteller of the Year Award. She mysteriously shapeshifts between genres of romance, women's fiction, crime/suspense thrillers, and paranormal lore.
JONETTA ROSE BARRAS is the author of Bridges: Reuniting Daughters and Daddies, the best-seller Whatever Happened to Daddys Little Girl: The Lmpact ofFatherlessness on Black Women, The Last of the Black Emperors: The Hollow Comeback of Marion Barry in the New Age of Black Leaders, and The Corner Ls No Place for Hiding.
WILL BESTER is a writer based in New York City. He is working on a collection of short stories set during slavery.
REGINALD DWAYNE BETTS writes poems and runs a book club, Young-MenRead, for children in the D.C. Metro area. His work appears in Gulf Coast, Crab Orchard Review, Obsidian LLL, Poet Lore, and other journals. He is currently at work on a memoir, A Question of Freedom.
SIMONE BOSTIC is pursuing a degree in speech pathology at the University of the District of Columbia. Her love of words was ignited by the stories that her mother read to her as a child. She is in the process of writing a memoir.
GWENDOLYN BROOKS won the Pulitzer Prize for poetry for her collection Annie Allen and authored more than twenty-five works of poetry and nonfiction. During her long and productive career she received scores of honors in the United States and internationally for her work, was a beloved mentor and teacher to a generation of Black writers, and served as the Library of Congress's first Consultant in Poetry.
STACIA L. BROWN has written for Black Issues Book Review and Mosaic magazine. She lives in New York City, where she is working on a collection of short stories.
KENNETH CARROLL'S poetry and plays have appeared in Black Magazine, Hungry as We Are, Fast Talk, Full Volume, In Search of Color Everywhere, Catch Fire, and many other journals and anthologies. His short stories have appeared in the anthology Children of the Dream and the journals Shooting Star and Gargoyle. His book of poetry is entitled So What! For the White Dude Who Said This Ain't Poetry. He is the executive director of DC WritersCorps.
VERONICA CHAMBERS is a widely published journalist, essayist, and novelist. Her most recent book is Kickboxing Geishas. She is also the author of the memoir Mama's Girl and the novel Miss Black America, as well as the nonfiction books The Joy of Doing Things Badly and Having It All?: Black Women and Success.
PEARL CLEAGE is an Atlanta-based author whose works include six novels, a dozen plays, two books of essays, and two books of poetry. Her first novel, What Looks Like Crazy on an Ordinary Day, was an Oprah Book Club pick; her novel Baby Brother's Blues was an NAACP Image Award winner for fiction in 2007, and her most recent novel is Seen It All and Done the Rest.
DAVID ANTHONY DURHAM is the author of the novels Gabriel's Story, which won the Hurston/Wright Legacy Award for Debut Fiction, Walk Through Darkness, Pride of Carthage, and the speculative novel Acacia.
PATRICIA ELAM is an award-winning writer whose work has been published in the Washington Post, Newsday, Essence, as well as in anthologies such as Father's Songs, New Stories from the South, and the O. Henry Award Stories. She is the author of the novel Breathing Room.
W. RALPH EUBANKS is the author of Ever Is a Long Time: A Journey into Mississippi's Dark Past. He has contributed articles to the Washington Post's Outlook Section, National Public Radio, and the Chicago Tribune. His book The House at the End of the Road: A Story of Race, Reconciliation, and Identity will be published in 2009.
BRIAN GILMORE is a poet, writer, and public interest lawyer. He is the author of two collections of poetry, elvis is alive and well and living in harlem and Jungle Nights and Soda Fountain Rags: Poems for Duke Ellington. He is a columnist with the Progressive Media Project and a contributing writer for Jazz Times magazine.
NIKKI GIOVANNI is a renowned poet, writer, commentator, and activist. Giovanni is the author of thirty books for adults and children and is a Distinguished Professor at Virginia Tech University in Blacksburg, Virginia.
ANTHONY GROOMS is the author of Ice Poems, a chapbook; Trouble No More, a story collection; and Bombingham, a novel. His stories and poems have been published in Callaloo, African American Review, Crab Orchard Review, and other literary journals.
JALAL’s poetry has been published in Northern Spies Magazine, Apocalypse Diffused or Deferred: Anthology Mirror of the Arts Program, and Whitman-Walker Clinic: Poetry and Prose. His nonfiction is included in the anthology Fighting Words.
HONOREE FANONNE JEFFERS is the author of three books of poetry: The Gospel Barbecue, which was chosen by Lucille Clifton as the winner of the Stan and Tom Wick Prize for a fi
rst book of poetry; Outlandish Blues; and Red Clay Suite. A fiction writer as well, Jeffers is at work on her first novel.
A. VAN JORDAN is the author of three poetry collections: Rise, MacNo-lia, and Quantum Lyrics. Among other awards, he has received the Whiting Award, the Anisfield-Wolf Book Award, the PEN/Oakland Josephine Miles Award, and the Pushcart Prize.
WILLIAM HENRY LEWIS is the prizewinning author of the story collections In the Arms of Our Elders and / Got Somebody in Staunton, which was a finalist for the PEN/Faulkner Award. His fiction has appeared in Americas top literary journals and several anthologies. Among his many literary honors, Lewis was a finalist for the Hurston/Wright Award for college writers.
ROBIN ALVA MARCUS is a lecturer in the department of English at Howard University. Her writing has appeared in numerous magazines, as well as in Grace and Gravity, an anthology of Washington, D.C., women writers.
KIM MCLARIN is the author of three critically acclaimed novels, including, most recently, Jump at the Sun. She is a former staff writer for the New York Times and the Philadelphia Inquirer, among other newspapers, and is the host of Basic Black, Boston's longest-running weekly television program devoted exclusively to African-American themes.
E. ETHELBERT MILLER is a literary activist and the board chair of the Institute for Policy Studies (IPS). Since 1974 he has been the director of the African American Resource Center at Howard University. He is the author of several books of poetry and editor of the award-winning poetry anthology In Search of Color Everywhere and the author of the memoir Fathering Words: The Making of an African American Writer.
SONSYREA TATE MONTGOMERY is the author of the memoir Little X: Growing Up in the Nation of Islam as well as her follow-up memoir, Do Me Twice. As a journalist she has written for the Washington Post, the Washington Times, and the Virginian-Pilot and has served as an editor at the Washington Informer.
VICTORIA CHRISTOPHER MURRAY is the author of five Essence best-selling novels, including the number one Essence best-seller, A Sin and a Shame. She is also the author of the teen book series The Divine Divas.
JILL NELSON is the author of the best-selling memoir Volunteer Slavery, the novel Sexual Healing, and the acclaimed collection of essays Straight, No Chaser, and the editor of the anthology Police Brutality. She lives in New York City and on Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts. VisitJillNelson.com, or contact her at [email protected].
LISA PAGE is a freelance writer whose work has appeared in Savoy, Emerge, The Crisis, the Washington Post Book World, and Playboy magazine, among other publications.
LONNAE O'NEAL PARKER is a Pulitzer Prize-nominated reporter for the Washington Post and a contributing editor to Essence. She lives in Prince Georges County, Maryland.
TRACY PRICE-THOMPSON is the national best-selling author of Black Coffee, Chocolate Sangria, and A Woman's Worth, which was a Hur-ston/Wright Legacy Award winner for contemporary fiction. She is also the coeditor ofProverbs for the People and The Sister to Sister Empowerment Series, which debuted with the collection If the Hat Fits.
FELICIA PRIDE is the founder of BackList (www.thebacklist.net), a Web site and publishing blog dedicated to keeping books in style. She is a regular contributor to Publishers Weekly and is the editor of Mosaic Literary Magazine. She has written two books for the Everybody Hates Chris series, published by Simon & Schuster, and her young adult novella was included in the anthology Hallway Diaries.
DEBBIE M. RIGAUD began her writing career covering news and entertainment for national magazines. She's interviewed celebs, politicians, cultural icons, social figures, and “real” girls. Her writing has appeared in Seventeen, CosmoGirll, Essence, Trace, and Vibe Vixen. Rigaud's novella Double Act is featured in the young adult fiction anthology Hallway Diaries.
Permissions
Acknowledgments
ADIELE: “My African Sister” originally appeared in Rosebud magazine, Issue no. 21, 2001, copyright © 2001 by Faith Adiele. Printed by permission of the author.
ALEXANDER: “Acts of Love,” “Haiku,” and “Kupenda,” copyright © 2009 by Kwame Alexander. Printed by permission of the author.
ALI: “Silence … The Language of Trees,” copyright © 2009 by Abdul Ali. Printed by permission of the author.
ANSA: “Chinaberry,” from The Hand I Fan With by Tina McElroy Ansa, copyright © 1996 by Tina McElroy Ansa. Used by permission of Doubleday, a division of Random House, Inc.
BAILEY-WILLIAMS: “Coming Clean,” copyright © 2009 by Nicole Bailey-Williams. Printed by permission of the author.
BAINGANA: “Lamu Lover,” copyright © 2009 by Doreen Baingana. Printed by permission of the author.
BANKS: “Two Cents and a Question,” copyright © 2009 by L. A. Banks. Printed by permission of the author.
BARRAS: “Wilhelmina,” copyright © 2009 by Jonetta Rose Barras. Printed by permission of the author.
BESTER: “After She Left,” copyright © 2009 by Will Bester. Printed by permission of the author.
BETTS: “Learning the Name Dad,” copyright © 2009 by Reginald Dwayne Betts. Printed by permission of the author.
BOSTIC: “Grandpa Dutstun,” copyright © 2009 by Simone Bostic. Printed by permission of the author.
BROOKS: “A Black Wedding Song,” reprinted by consent of Brooks Permissions.
BROWN: “Be Longing,” copyright © 2009 by Stacia L. Brown. Printed by permission of the author.
CARROLL: “Barking in Tongues” originally appeared in Gargoyle magazine, Issue no. 44, 2001, copyright © 2001 by Kenneth Carroll. Printed by permission of the author.
CHAMBERS: “The History of the World,” copyright © 2009 by Veronica Chambers. Printed by permission of the author.
CLEAGE: “Missing You,” copyright © 2003 by Pearl Cleage. Printed by permission of the author.
DURHAM: “An Act of Faith,” copyright © 2008 by David Anthony Durham. Printed by permission of the author.
ELAM: “Love Lessons,” copyright © 2008 by Patricia Elam. Printed by permission of the author.
EUBANKS: “A Shared History,” copyright © 2009 by W Ralph Eu-banks. Printed by permission of the author.
GILMORE: “Isaiah 9:6,” copyright © 2009 by Brian Gilmore. Printed by permission of the author.
GIOVANNI: “Autumn Poems” from Selected Poems ofNikki Giovanni: 1968-1995 by Nikki Giovanni, copyright © 1996 by Nikki Giovanni. Used by permission of HarperCollins Publishers.
GOLDEN: “My Own Happy Ending,” copyright © 2009 by Marita Golden. Printed by permission of the author.
GROOMS: “A River to the Moon,” copyright © 2009 by Tony Grooms, aka Anthony Grooms. Printed by permission of the author.
JALAL: “After Midnight,” copyright © 2008 by Jalal. Printed by permission of the author.
JEFFERS: “Why I Will Praise an Old Black Man,” reprinted from Red Clay Suite, Southern Illinois University Press, 2007, copyright © 2007 by Honoree Fanonne Jeffers. Printed by permission of the author.
JORDAN: “Wedding Night” from M-A-C-N-O-L-I-A: POEMS by A. Van Jordan, copyright © 2004 by A. Van Jordan. Used by permission of W W Norton & Company, Inc.
LEWIS: “Why We Jump,” from / Got Somebody in Staunton by William Henry Lewis, copyright © 2005 by William Henry Lewis. Used by permission of Amistad/HarperCollins Publishers.
MARCUS: “Becoming a Grandmother Becomes Me—Finally,” copyright © 2008 by Robin Alva Marcus. Printed by permission of the author.
MCLARIN: “Love Is a Verb,” copyright © 2009 by Kim McLarin. Printed by permission of the author.
MILLER: “Untitled,” copyright © 2007 by E. Ethelbert Miller. Printed by permission of the author.
MONTGOMERY: “One Hundred Days of Bliss,” copyright © 2009 by SonsyreaTate Montgomery. Printed by permission of the author.
MURRAY: “The Story of Ruth,” copyright © 2009 by Victoria Christopher Murray. Printed by permission of the author.
NELSON: Excerpt from Finding Martha's Vineyard: African Americans at Home on an Island b
y Jill Nelson, photographs by Alison Shaw, copyright © 2005 by Jill Nelson. Used by permission of Doubleday a division of Random House, Inc.
PAGE: “Loving Johnny Deadline,” copyright © 2009 by Lisa Page. Printed by permission of the author.
PARKER: “When There's Trouble at Home,” from I'm Every Woman: Remixed Stories of Marriage, Motherhood, and Work by Lonnae O'Neal Parker, copyright © 2005 by Lonnae O'Neal Parker. Used by permission of Amistad/HarperCollins Publishers.
PRICE-THOMPSON: “At Its Best,” copyright © 2009 by Tracy Price-Thompson. Printed by permission of the author.
PRIDE: “Geraldine's Song,” copyright © 2009 by Felicia Pride. Printed by permission of the author.
RIGAUD: “The Heart Does Go On,” copyright © 2009 by Debbie M. Rigaud. Printed by permission of the author.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
MARITA GOLDEN is the author of over a dozen works of fiction and nonfiction, including Migrations ofthe Heart, Don't Play in the Sun: One Woman's Journey Through the Color Complex, and the award-winning novel After. She is cofounder and President Emeritus of the Hurston/Wright Foundation.
Copyright © 2009 by the Hurston/Wright Foundation
All Rights Reserved
It's All Love Page 36