Pearl Cleage

Pearl Cleage is an Atlanta based writer whose work includes five novels, a dozen plays, two books of essays, two books of poetry, ten years of columns for The Atlanta Tribune, and freelance essays for Essence, Ms. Magazine and VIBE. Her first novel, What Looks Like Crazy On An Ordinary Day, was picked by Oprah's Book Club in 1998 and spent nine weeks on the New York Times Bestseller list. Her play, Flyin' West, was the most produced new play in the country in 1994 and has been produced every year since that time.

Her other novels are I Wish I Had A Red Dress, Some Things I Never Thought I'd Do, and Babylon Sisters. Her play Blues for An Alabama Sky, directed by Kenny Leon, was a part of the 1996 Olympic Arts Festival.

Cleage is currently at work on her sixth novel while teaching at Spelman College as a Cosby Chair in the Humanities. She is married to writer Zaron W. Burnett, Jr., with whom she frequently collaborates. Their most recent collaboration is the praise poem "We Speak Your Names," which was commissioned by Oprah Winfrey in 2005 and published by Ballantine Books in May 2006. She is also the mother of one daughter, Deignan Lomax, and the grandmother of Michael and Chloe.

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