Grace Fredrica Edwards (January 3, 1933 – February 25, 2020) was an American author who served as a director of the Harlem Writers Guild. In February 2020, she died at the age of 87.

Biography

Born as Grace Fredrica Smith on January 3, 1933, in

Harlem Hospital Harlem Hospital Center, branded as NYC Health + Hospitals/Harlem, is a 272-bed, public teaching hospital affiliated with Columbia University. It is located at 506 Lenox Avenue in Harlem, Manhattan, New York City and was founded in 1887. The hosp ...

, New York, to William Smith, a laborer for the depression-era works progress administration, and Fredrica Smith, a homemaker, Grace was educated at the

City College of New York The City College of the City University of New York (also known as the City College of New York, or simply City College or CCNY) is a public university within the City University of New York (CUNY) system in New York City. Founded in 1847, Cit ...

. She served as a professor of creative writing at the College of New Rochelle,

Hofstra University Hofstra University is a private university in Hempstead, New York. It is Long Island's largest private university. Hofstra originated in 1935 as an extension of New York University (NYU) under the name Nassau College – Hofstra Memorial of Ne ...

Hunter College Hunter College is a public university in New York City. It is one of the constituent colleges of the City University of New York and offers studies in more than one hundred undergraduate and postgraduate fields across five schools. It also admi ...

, and Marymount Manhattan College. She was also a contributor to '' The Los Angeles Times Book Review'' and '' The Washington Post Book Review''.

Awards

In 1999, she received the Fiction Honor Book award from the Black Caucus of the American Literary Association.

Bibliography

*''In the Shadow of the Peacock'' (1988) *''If I Should Die'' (1997) * ''No Time to Die'' (1998) * ''A Toast Before Dying'' (1998) * ''Do or Die'' (2000) * ''The Viaduct'' (2004)

References

1933 births 2020 deaths 20th-century African-American women writers 20th-century African-American writers 20th-century American women writers 21st-century African-American women writers 21st-century African-American writers 21st-century American women writers American mystery novelists City College of New York alumni College of New Rochelle faculty Hofstra University faculty Hunter College faculty Marymount Manhattan College faculty {{US-writer-stub