Best-selling author Pearl Cleage moves from William Morrow to One World/Ballantine - Deals - Brief Article

Black Issues Book Review, March-April, 2002 by Mondella S. Jones

Anita Diggs, senior editor and director of One World/Ballantine, has acquired the next two novels from acclaimed playwright and novelist Pearl Cleage; the first is to be published in summer 2003. Cleage's previous works include Deals with the Devil and Other Reasons to Riot, which was published by Ballantine in 1992, the New York Times best-seller What Looks Like Crazy on an Ordinary Day (an Oprah Book Club pick), A Blackwoman's Guide to the Truth, and her latest novel, I Wish I Had a Red Dress, the 2002 BCALA fiction winner. Denise Stinson is Cleage's agent.

Janet Hill, vice president and executive editor of Doubleday/Broadway/ Harlem Moon, acquired No Secrets, No Lies: How Black Families Can Heal From Sexual Abuse by Robin Stone, former editor-in-chief of Essence.com. Stone, a sexual abuse survivor, recently wrote publicly about her experiences. Look for No Secrets, No Lies in spring 2004 as a Broadway hardcover, and as a Harlem Moon trade paperback in spring 2005.

Carol Mackey, editor-in-chief of Black Expressions Book Club, has purchased the book club rights to the following titles: The Bondwoman's Narrative by Hannah Crafts, edited by Henry Louis Gates Jr., due out in hard-cover in April; Bill Clinton and Black America by DeWayne Wickham; Discretion by Elizabeth Nunez; Do the Write Thing by Kwame Alexander with Nina Foxx; Pay Yourself First by Jesse Brown and Sittin' in the Front Pew by Parry "Ebony Satin" Brown.