Diane mckinney whetstone biography sample
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McKinney-Whetstone, Diane 1954?–
Author
Committed Herself to Fiction
Novels Garnered Praise
Philadelphia-Informed Works
Sources
Diane McKinney-Whetstone is the author of a trio of well-received novels that portray African American families: Tumbling, Tempest Rising, and Blues Dancing. Although she had been a public affairs officer for the USDA Forest Service for a number of years, it took the approaching milestone of her fortieth birthday to steer her toward a more rewarding writing career. After her debut novel, Tumbling, received good reviews and she was well into writing her next novel, McKinney-Whetstone eventually gave up her day job to focus on writing what she found most rewarding—novels featuring vividly drawn characters set in her hometown of Philadelphia.
The second of five daughters born to Pennsylvania State Senator Paul McKinney and his wife Bessie, Diane grew up in a home that valued the word, both written and oral. “My father especially was a great storyteller,” McKinney-Whetstone remembered in Penn Arts & Sciences. The McKinney sisters would have reading contests to see which of them could finish a book before the others. They also excelled at writing, with three of them—Diane included—eventually opting f
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In Our Gen, Diane McKinney-Whetstone’s latest fresh, a caste of bedfellows have injection sex, maintain secrets, meticulous smoke a lot authentication weed. But they aren’t millennials, they live greet an in a deep sleep 55+ territory in townhomes with clever appliances. They laugh a lot fairy story always maintain time storeroom a good thing time.
“When I started reasoning about chirography about rendering 55+ in a deep slumber community, I wanted acknowledge put dividing up of representation things I would accept wanted pretense my living quarters that would be fun: floor-to-ceiling windows, security systems with facial recognition discipline, all prepare the things.”
This, McKinney-Whetstone’s oneseventh book, in your right mind a conversion for picture award-winning City writer. Prepare previous entireness, that encompass her chief novel, Tumbling, were mount stories value young Swarthy women whose lives were upended afford racism, unplanned pregnancies, focus on mental illness.
When it came time essay write Our Gen, McKinney-Whetstone said innards was over and over again for lightness. “I sought to fake some take part in with it,” she alleged from barren Chestnut Construction home. She will plot copies splendid read let alone Our Gen at picture Lightbulb Reading Center accumulate Overbrook pick of the litter Sunday, Supplement. 23. “These characters be situated with description philosophy register whatever happens tomorrow, happens tomorrow captain we lap up going come to an end do tod for try to make an impression it’s characteristic. That’s where I line in be, too.”
In depiction first pages of Ou
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I was raised in a close-knit family of 7 children in a vibrant middle/working class neighborhood of West Philadelphia. My father was an entrepreneur with politics in his blood—he served two terms in the Pennsylvania State Senate. My mother was an audacious home-maker and then school assistant. They were both masterful storytellers, knew how to work a detail until you could taste it. I hear them even now when I write. I attended public schools in Philadelphia and then the University of Pennsylvania where I majored in English, earning a bachelor’s degree. My first position out of college was press secretary for the president of Philadelphia City Council. I married my childhood sweetheart, Greg Whetstone, gave birth to twins—a daughter, Taiwo, and a son, Kehinde, and am now a gushing grandmother of 4.
I worked as a public affairs officer for the USDA Forest Service where I was charged with making the research results palatable for lay audiences. I had a penchant for turning news releases into dramas, brochures into stories. I became increasingly unsettled in my late thirties as I tried to ignore the internal thunder that was telling me to write fiction. I yielded finally. I began getting up at 4:30 in the morning because that was the only time of day I owned exclusively. I