Danzy Senna
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Danzy Senna, (1970 - ) is an American novelist.
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[edit] Biography
Danzy Senna was born in Boston, Massachusetts and is the daughter of the author Carl Senna (The Black Press and the Struggle for Civil Rights,) an Afro-Mexican poet from a struggling single-parent household, and Fanny Howe[1], an Irish-American poet and novelist born into privilege.[2] They met and married while both were activists during the American Civil Rights Movement (1955-1968). Senna has two siblings, Maceo and Ann Lucien.
Besides her parents, her literary lineage includes poet Susan Howe (aunt) and playwright Mary Manning (maternal grandmother). She calls fiction-writing her "family trade." [3]
Senna received her B.A. from Stanford University and MFA in creative writing from the University of California, Irvine, where she received several creative writing awards.
Her first novel, Caucasia (1998), received the Book-of-the-Month Stephen Crane Award for First Fiction. It also received the Alex Award , American Library Association.[4] and has received praise from The New York Times and Newsweek, the former calling it "haunting and deeply intelligent..." and the latter describing its "...impressive beauty and power".
Her second novel Symptomatic (2003), is a psychological thriller narrated by a biracial young woman who is often mistaken for white.
Senna's latest work is a memoir entitled Where Did You Sleep Last Night?: A Personal History (2009). In the book, she reconstructs a long-buried family mystery that illuminates her own childhood, her enigmatic father, the power and failure of her parents' union and, finally, the forces of history. [5]
Senna lives in Los Angeles with husband, novelist Percival Everett.
[edit] Awards
- 2004: Fellow, New York Public Library's Cullman Center for Scholars and Writers
- 2002: Whiting Writers Award
[edit] Books
- Where Did You Sleep Last Night?: A Personal History (2009)
- Symptomatic (2003)
- Caucasia, also published as From Caucasia with Love (1998)
[edit] References
[edit] External links
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