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April Sinclair

Born: 1953 in Chicago, Illinois
Pen Name: None

Connection to Illinois: April is a Chicago native who graduated from Calumet High School in Chicago. She received a Bachelor of Arts degree from Western Illinois University in Macomb.

Biography: A Chicago native, April now lives in Berkeley, California. Before April hit the national literary scene in 1994, she was an Oakland-based community activist who read from her work to large, enthusiastic audiences in San Francisco Bay Area coffeehouses, bookstores and grassroots events. April has been a fellow at the Djerassi, Yaddo, MacDowell and Ragdale artist colonies.


Awards:
  • -- Carl Sandburg Award in Literature from The Friends of the Chicago Public Library for ''Coffee Will Make You Black''.
  • -- American Library Association Book of the Year (Young Adult Fiction) in 1994 for ''Coffee Will Make You Black''

Primary Audience(s): Adult readers

April Sinclair on WorldCat : http://www.worldcat.org/search?q=april+sinclair


Selected Titles

Ain't gonna be the same fool twice :
ISBN: 0380727943 OCLC: 32821341

Hyperion, New York : ©1996.

A young black woman explores her sexuality in the 1970s. She is Jean Stevenson of Chicago whose quest for self-discovery begins in college by an affair with a lesbian. On graduation, she moves to San Francisco where she has more affairs, including one with a gay. The novel recreates the obsessions of the times--free love, drugs, war protest and women's consciousness-raising groups. By the author of Coffee Will Make You Black.

Ain't Gonna Be the Same Fool Twice.
ISBN: 1504018664 OCLC: 913091311

Open Road Media, Newburyport, United States : 2015.

Stevie Stevenson graduates from college and embraces the liberating California lifestyle in award-winning author April Sinclair's follow-up to her?vivid and brilliant? (San Francisco Review of Books) debut novel Coffee Will Make You Black Growing up black in 1960s Chicago, Jean?Stevie? Stevenson came of age amid the tumult of the civil rights movement, learning to value not just her race and gender but her sexuality as well. Now, nearly a decade later, Stevie is a college graduate enjoying a week of vacation in San Francisco. After getting a taste of the bohemian life, she can't bring herself to return home to her family and journalism career in Chicago. Instead, she's determined to spread her wings and discover her true self, experimenting with free love, gay pride, and vegetarianism; forging a friendship with a gay disco queen; and taking a job at the feminist Personal Change Counseling Center. As she falls in and out of love, Stevie takes time to observe both the absurd and the liberating qualities of the West Coast hippie lifestyle--and is constantly reminded that the journey to self-discovery likely has no end point. Written with the same bright wit and endless charm that made Coffee Will Make You Black such a beloved book, Ain't Gonna Be the Same Fool Twice is a delightful continuation of Stevie's story that was hailed by Salon as?ripely funny, unpretentious, and sincere.?

Coffee will make you black
ISBN: 078575721X OCLC: 49060936

Planeta 1994

Coffee Will Make You Black.
ISBN: 1504018656 OCLC: 913091325

Open Road Media, Newburyport, United States : 2015.

An African American girl comes of age during the civil rights movement in April Sinclair's hilarious, insightful novel that was named Book of the Year (Young Adult Fiction) for 1994 by the American Library Association Jean Stevie Stevenson lives in Chicago's South Side, a neighborhood that acutely feels the social changes of the 1960s. Curious and witty, bold but na?ve, Stevie ponders questions such as what makes good hair, and which skin shade is better in light of Black Is Beautiful. Amid the War on Poverty, the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr., race riots, and the Black Power movement, Stevie grows into a socially aware young adult with a burgeoning sexuality and pride in her identity. Learning as much from her mother's strictness, her father's steady encouragement, and her grandmother's strength as she does from her wild friend Carla and her white teacher Nurse Horne, Stevie makes the sometimes harrowing, often hilarious, always enthralling journey into adulthood. Coffee Will Make You Black received the Carl Sandburg Award from the Friends of the Chicago Public Library.

I left my back door open :
ISBN: 0380732807 OCLC: 43987198

Perennial, New York : 2000, ©1999.

A romantic voyage of self-discovery for African American DJ Daphne Dupree begins when the lonely Chicagoan meets Skylar, a sexual harassment mediator, and finds that a budding and blossoming relationship can lead to a true vision of self.

I Left My Back Door Open.
ISBN: 1504018672 OCLC: 913091297

Open Road Media, Newburyport, United States : 2015.

A successful female DJ refuses to let a few romantic catastrophes keep her down in award-winning author April Sinclair's dazzlingly soulful novel that was hailed as?a Bridget Jones's Diary for black women? by the New York Times Book Review Daphne?Dee Dee? Dupree has arrived at age 41 with a career she loves, but a romantic life she doesn't. Insecure about her weight and protective of her often-broken heart, Dee Dee is an expert at hiding her inward struggles from the thousands of Chicago residents who hear her on the radio every night. A successful, charismatic DJ for the local blues station, Dee Dee is still looking for the type of love she's missed since her divorce. After a traumatic event at work, Dee Dee meets Skylar, a union mediator who could be just what she's looking for--if only there weren't so many obstacles in their way. Meanwhile, Dee Dee's coworker Jade is nearing her own divorce; her best friend, Sharon, has come out of the closet; and Sharon's teenage daughter is dangerously close to a breakdown. As Dee Dee works to ease the problems of her friends, she finally faces her own troubles--both old and new--in this uplifting, thought-provoking novel.

 

 

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