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Dolen Perkins-Valdez Biography, Books, and Similar Authors

Author Biography  | Books by this Author  | Read-Alikes

Dolen Perkins-Valdez
Photo: Norman E. Jones

Dolen Perkins-Valdez

How to pronounce Dolen Perkins-Valdez: VAL-dez

Dolen Perkins-Valdez Biography

Dolen Perkins-Valdez is a graduate of Harvard and a former University of California President's Postdoctoral Fellow at UCLA. She is the author of the New York Times bestselling novel Wench; her fiction has appeared in The Kenyon Review, StoryQuarterly, StorySouth, and elsewhere. In 2011, she was a finalist for two NAACP Image Awards and the Hurston-Wright Legacy Award for fiction. She was also awarded the First Novelist Award by the Black Caucus of the American Library Association. Dolen received a DC Commission on the Arts Grant for her second novel Balm.

Dolen is the current Chair of the Board of the PEN/Faulkner Foundation. On behalf of the foundation, she has visited nearly every public high school in the District of Columbia to talk about the importance of reading and writing. She is currently Associate Professor in the Literature Department at American University and lives in Washington, DC with her family.

Dolen Perkins-Valdez's website

This bio was last updated on 04/03/2022. In a perfect world, we would like to keep all of BookBrowse's biographies up to date, but with many thousands of lives to keep track of it's simply impossible to do. So, if the date of this bio is not recent, you may wish to do an internet search for a more current source, such as the author's website or social media presence. If you are the author or publisher and would like us to update this biography, send the complete text and we will replace the old with the new.

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Books by this Author

Books by Dolen Perkins-Valdez at BookBrowse
Happy Land jacket Take My Hand jacket Wench jacket
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Read-Alikes

All the books below are recommended as read-alikes for Dolen Perkins-Valdez but some maybe more relevant to you than others depending on which books by the author you have read and enjoyed. So look for the suggested read-alikes by title linked on the right.
How we choose read-alikes

  • Natasha Brown

    Natasha Brown

    Natasha Brown was named one of Granta's Best of Young British Novelists. Her debut novel Assembly was shortlisted for the Folio Prize, the Goldsmiths Prize and the Orwell Prize for Fiction. (more)

    If you enjoyed:
    Take My Hand

    Try:
    Assembly
    by Natasha Brown

  • Ann Leary

    Ann Leary

    Ann Leary is the New York Times bestselling author of a memoir and four novels including The Good House. Her work has been translated into eighteen languages, and she has written for The New York Times, Ploughshares, NPR, ... (more)

    If you enjoyed:
    Take My Hand

    Try:
    The Foundling
    by Ann Leary

We recommend 8 similar authors

View all 8 Read-Alikes

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Membership Advantages
  • Reviews
  • "Beyond the Book" articles
  • Free books to read and review (US only)
  • Find books by time period, setting & theme
  • Read-alike suggestions by book and author
  • Book club discussions
  • and much more!
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  • More about membership!

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