Blanche On The Lam
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Blanche On The Lam
''Blanche on the Lam'' is a mystery novel by author Barbara Neely,Neely, Barbara. ''Blanche on the Lam''. New York: Penguin Books, 1992. the first in a series by her. This novel brings to light the intelligence and power of an African-American domestic female worker in the midst of a racist and sexist society. The book won the Agatha Award and the Anthony Award for Best First Novel, and the Macavity Award for Best First Mystery. The series continues with ''Blanche among the Talented Tenth'' (1994), ''Blanche Cleans Up'' (1998), and ''Blanche Passes Go'' (2000). Background Throughout European and American history, upper class and upper-middle-class families had a prevailing attitude of ignoring their servants until they were needed for labor. Servants were expected to be silent and they had little opportunity to report criminal behavior within their own living/work environment. The American system of slavery, even in the post-emancipation era, took expectations of invisibility a ...
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Barbara Neely
Barbara Ann Neely (often self-stylized as BarbaraNeely; November 30, 1941 – March 2, 2020) was an African-American novelist, short story writer and activist who wrote murder mysteries. Her first novel, ''Blanche on the Lam'' (1992), introduced the protagonist Blanche White, a middle-aged mother, domestic worker and amateur detective. The Mystery Writers of America named her their 2020 Grand Master winner. Biography Early life and education Barbara Neely was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in 1941, was the oldest of three children born to Ann and Bernard Neely who lived in a rural Pennsylvania Dutch community in Lebanon, Pennsylvania. She attended a Roman Catholic elementary school and was the only child in her class of Pennsylvania German dialect (popularly known as Pennsylvania Dutch) students to speak English fluently and was the only student of African-American descent to attend her elementary and high school. In 1971, she moved to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, where she wa ...
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Crime
In ordinary language, a crime is an unlawful act punishable by a State (polity), state or other authority. The term ''crime'' does not, in modern criminal law, have any simple and universally accepted definition,Farmer, Lindsay: "Crime, definitions of", in Cane and Conoghan (editors), ''The New Oxford Companion to Law'', Oxford University Press, 2008 (), p. 263Google Books). though statutory definitions have been provided for certain purposes. The most popular view is that crime is a Category of being, category created by law; in other words, something is a crime if declared as such by the relevant and applicable law. One proposed definition is that a crime or offence (or criminal offence) is an act harmful not only to some individual but also to a community, society, or the state ("a public wrong"). Such acts are forbidden and punishable by law. The notion that acts such as murder, rape, and theft are to be prohibited exists worldwide. What precisely is a criminal offence is de ...
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Novels Set In North Carolina
A novel is a relatively long work of narrative fiction, typically written in prose and published as a book. The present English word for a long work of prose fiction derives from the for "new", "news", or "short story of something new", itself from the la, novella, a singular noun use of the neuter plural of ''novellus'', diminutive of ''novus'', meaning "new". Some novelists, including Nathaniel Hawthorne, Herman Melville, Ann Radcliffe, John Cowper Powys, preferred the term "romance" to describe their novels. According to Margaret Doody, the novel has "a continuous and comprehensive history of about two thousand years", with its origins in the Ancient Greek and Roman novel, in Chivalric romance, and in the tradition of the Italian renaissance novella.Margaret Anne Doody''The True Story of the Novel'' New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1996, rept. 1997, p. 1. Retrieved 25 April 2014. The ancient romance form was revived by Romanticism, especially the historica ...
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Macavity Award-winning Works
Macavity the Mystery Cat, also called the Hidden Paw, is a fictional character in T. S. Eliot's 1939 poetry book ''Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats''. He also appears in the Andrew Lloyd Webber 1981 musical ''Cats'', which is based on Eliot's book. Macavity is a cunning criminal and con artist; he possesses mystical powers and is the antagonist of the musical. Origins and etymology T. S. Eliot was a big fan of the Sherlock Holmes stories by Arthur Conan Doyle and the character of Macavity is a literary allusion to Professor Moriarty, the criminal mastermind in the Sherlock series. Evidence that Macavity was based on Moriarty was first presented by H.T. Webster and H.W. Starr in 1954, and later rediscovered by Katharine Loesch. In a letter to Frank Morley, Eliot wrote, "I have done a new cat modeled on the late Professor Moriarty, but he doesn't seem very popular; too sophisticated perhaps."David E. Chinitz, ''A Companion to T. S. Eliot'', page 231, John Wiley and Sons, 2 ...
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Anthony Award-winning Works
Anthony or Antony is a masculine given name, derived from the ''Antonii'', a ''gens'' ( Roman family name) to which Mark Antony (''Marcus Antonius'') belonged. According to Plutarch, the Antonii gens were Heracleidae, being descendants of Anton, a son of Heracles. Anthony is an English name that is in use in many countries. It has been among the top 100 most popular male baby names in the United States since the late 19th century and has been among the top 100 male baby names between 1998 and 2018 in many countries including Canada, Australia, England, Ireland and Scotland. Equivalents include ''Antonio'' in Italian, Spanish, Portuguese and Maltese; ''Αντώνιος'' in Greek; ''António'' or ''Antônio'' in Portuguese; ''Antoni'' in Catalan, Polish, and Slovene; ''Anton'' in Dutch, Galician, German, Icelandic, Romanian, Russian, and Scandinavian languages; ''Antoine'' in French; '' Antal'' in Hungarian; and ''Antun'' or '' Ante'' in Croatian. The usual abbreviated form is Ton ...
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Literature By African-American Women
Literature is any collection of written work, but it is also used more narrowly for writings specifically considered to be an art form, especially prose fiction, drama, and poetry. In recent centuries, the definition has expanded to include oral literature, much of which has been transcribed. Literature is a method of recording, preserving, and transmitting knowledge and entertainment, and can also have a social, psychological, spiritual, or political role. Literature, as an art form, can also include works in various non-fiction genres, such as biography, diaries, memoir, letters, and the essay. Within its broad definition, literature includes non-fictional books, articles or other printed information on a particular subject.''OED'' Etymologically, the term derives from Latin ''literatura/litteratura'' "learning, a writing, grammar," originally "writing formed with letters," from ''litera/littera'' "letter". In spite of this, the term has also been applied to spoken or ...
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1992 American Novels
Year 199 ( CXCIX) was a common year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was sometimes known as year 952 ''Ab urbe condita''. The denomination 199 for this year has been used since the early medieval period, when the Anno Domini calendar era became the prevalent method in Europe for naming years. Events By place Roman Empire * Mesopotamia is partitioned into two Roman provinces divided by the Euphrates, Mesopotamia and Osroene. * Emperor Septimius Severus lays siege to the city-state Hatra in Central-Mesopotamia, but fails to capture the city despite breaching the walls. * Two new legions, I Parthica and III Parthica, are formed as a permanent garrison. China * Battle of Yijing: Chinese warlord Yuan Shao defeats Gongsun Zan. Korea * Geodeung succeeds Suro of Geumgwan Gaya, as king of the Korean kingdom of Gaya (traditional date). By topic Religion * Pope Zephyrinus succeeds Pope Victor I, as the ...
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American Mystery Novels
American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, people who self-identify their ancestry as "American" ** American English, the set of varieties of the English language native to the United States ** Native Americans in the United States, indigenous peoples of the United States * American, something of, from, or related to the Americas, also known as "America" ** Indigenous peoples of the Americas * American (word), for analysis and history of the meanings in various contexts Organizations * American Airlines, U.S.-based airline headquartered in Fort Worth, Texas * American Athletic Conference, an American college athletic conference * American Recordings (record label), a record label previously known as Def American * American University, in Washington, D.C. Sports teams Soccer * B ...
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Agatha Award-winning Works
Agatha may refer to: *Agatha (given name), a feminine given name *Agatha, Alberta, a locality in Canada *List of storms named Agatha, tropical storms and hurricanes *Operation Agatha, a 1946 British police and military operation in Mandatory Palestine * ''Agatha'' (genus), a genus of gastropods * ''Agatha'' (film), a 1979 film about Agatha Christie *'' Agatha: Coven of Chaos'', an upcoming television series based on the Marvel Comics character Agatha Harkness *Agatha Award The Agatha Awards, named for Agatha Christie, are literary awards for mystery and crime writers who write in the traditional mystery subgenre: "books typified by the works of Agatha Christie . . . loosely defined as mysteries that contain no expli ...
, for mystery and crime writers {{Disambig ...
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Jawole Willa Jo Zollar
Jawole Willa Jo Zollar (born December 21, 1950) is an United States, American dancer, teacher and choreographer of modern dance. She is the founder of the Urban Bush Women dance company. Biography One of six children, she was born Willa Jo Zollar in Kansas City, Missouri, to parents Alfred Zollar Jr. and Dorothy Delores Zollar. From age seven to seventeen, Zollar received her dance education from Joseph Stevenson, former student of Katherine Dunham.Hussie-Taylor, J. "Zollar, Jawole Willa Jo", ''International Dictionary of Modern Dance''. Detroit: St. James Press, 1998, 852. Zollar also had early training in Afro-Cuban and other native dance forms which later helped to shape her teaching aesthetic.White-Dixon, Melanye. "Zollar, Jawole Willa Jo", ''International Encyclopedia of Dance''. 6th ed. 6 vols. New York: Oxford University Press, Inc., 1998, 448. After high school graduation she went on to receive a Bachelor of Arts in dance from the University of Missouri at Kansas City and f ...
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Essence (magazine)
''Essence'' is a monthly lifestyle magazine covering fashion, beauty, entertainment, and culture. First published in 1970, the magazine is written for African-American women. History Edward Lewis, Clarence O. Smith, Cecil Hollingsworth and Jonathan Blount founded Essence Communications Inc. (ECI) in 1968. It began publishing ''Essence'' magazine in May 1970. Lewis and Smith called the publication a "lifestyle magazine directed at upscale African American women". They recognized that Black women were an overlooked demographic and saw ''Essence'' as an opportunity to capitalize on a virtually untouched market of Black women readers. Its initial circulation was approximately 50,000 copies per month, subsequently growing to roughly 1.6 million.Bynoe, Yvonne. ''Encyclopedia of Rap and Hip-hop Culture''. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 2006, p. 263, . Gordon Parks served as its editorial director during the first three years of its circulation. In 2000, Time Inc. purchased 49 perce ...
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Elsie Washington
Elsie Bernice Washington (December 28, 1942 – May 5, 2009) was an American author whose 1980 work ''Entwined Destinies'' has been considered the first romance novel written by an African-American author featuring African-American characters. Early life and education Washington was born in New York on December 28, 1942, to Samuel Washington and Kathleen Peterson Erby. She majored in English at the City College of New York, graduating with a bachelor's degree. Career After completing college, she worked as a writer, and later as an editor, for several publications, including ''The New York Post'', ''Essence'', ''Life'' and ''Newsweek''.Fox, Margalit"Elsie B. Washington, a Novelist, Dies at 66" ''The New York Times'', May 16, 2009. Accessed May 18, 2009. Her one and only novel, ''Entwined Destinies'', was published by Dell Publishing in 1980 under the pen name Rosalind Welles as the 575th in its "Candlelight Romance" series of books. The book, which tells the story of a femal ...
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