Penny Mickelbury’s newest novel, BELLE CITY, is her first non-mystery to be published. It is a novel of the South, and like many Southern stories, family is the focus—along with race and land. BELLE CITY spans two World Wars, Jim Crow, the Great Depression, and enters the high-tech 21st century. The story ends almost where it begins, asking—and answering—the question: Whose land is it? Penny is best known as the author of ten mystery novels in three successful series: The Carol Ann Gibson Mysteries, the Mimi Patterson/Gianna Maglione Mysteries, and the Philip Rodriguez Mysteries. She also is an accomplished playwright. Before turning to writing full time, Penny was a pioneering newspaper, radio and television reporter, based primarily in Washington, D.C., an experience which provided the basis for her richly-drawn characters and their myriad experiences. Her short stories have been included in several anthologies and collections, among them “Spooks, Spies and Private Eyes: Black Mystery, Crime and Suspense Fiction (Paula Woods, Ed.),“The Mysterious Naiad” (Grier and Forrest, Ed.), “Shades of Black: Original Mystery Fiction by African-American Writers (Eleanor Taylor Bland, Ed.), and “Send My Love and a Molotov Cocktail (Gary Phillips and Andrea Gibbons, Eds.) She also has contributed articles to several mystery magazines and publications. The Carole Ann Gibson books are published in French and German, and the series won the Prix du Roman d’Adventures award given by French publishers. “Night Songs,” and “Darkness Descending,” the second and fourth Mimi Patterson/Gianna Maglione novels, were Lambda Literary Award finalists; and “Paradise Interrupted,” the fourth Carole Ann Gibson book, was the winner of the 2001 Golden Pen Award for best mystery, given by the National Black Writers Alliance. Mickelbury was a resident writer at Hedgebrook Women Writers Retreat, and she is the 2003 recipient of the Audre Lorde Estate Grant. She is a native of Atlanta, Georgia and a fifth generation Georgian.
