Payback

Now Available

Award-winning author Penny Mickelbury takes readers on a beautiful and complicated journey through Harlem in 1953. This captivating story is passionate and alive, teeming with the contradictory joy and pain of Black life in America.

About Penny

Penny has been writing professionally for most of her adult life, first as a newspaper, radio, and television reporter, and for the past 30+ as a playwright and novelist.

For almost a dozen years Penny was writing three separate mystery series at the same time: The Carol Ann Gibson legal series; the Gianna Maglione/Mimi Patterson police and journalist series; and the Phil Rodriquez PI series. She has seen 14 novels and a collection of short stories published, and she has contributed stories to several collections. Her newest and 16th novel, TWO WINGS TO HIDE MY FACE is the sequel to 2019’s well-received TWO WINGS TO FLY AWAY.

• Penny is the 2020 recipient of the ALICE B MEDAL in recognition and appreciation of her contribution to the body of lesbian literature.

• Her 2018 novel, DEATH’S ECHOES, A Gianna Maglione/Mimi Patterson Mystery, received the Independent Publishers Association Bronze Medal.

• In 2019, Penny and her Washington Post Metro Seven colleagues were inducted into the National Association of Black Journalists Hall of Fame.

TWO WINGS TO HIDE MY FACE, reflects her interest in writing more historical fiction, though her commitment to the combination of history and mystery has not weakened or wavered.

Penny is an Atlanta native currently living in Los Angeles.

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Payback

Now Available from Bywater Books

In PAYBACK Penny Mickelbury takes readers on a beautiful, complicated journey through Harlem in 1953. WWII and the Korean War are finally over but few have recovered from wartime privations, especially the Colored soldiers who fought ruthless enemies on foreign soil, expecting to return home with all the rights and privileges of American citizenship… but America didn’t deliver on that promise. Mickelbury’s cast of characters in PAYBACK create a family of and for themselves: women, men, gays, and the proudly self-named. They are educated and unschooled; wealthy and desperately poor. And they dedicate themselves to helping create a world to benefit their people based on hard work, artistic expression, and faith in their community. And though they live by the “Each One Teach One” principle, there is a second principle that tempers the first: “Harm to One is Harm to All” because in Harlem payback is always swift and painful.

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PRAISE FOR PENNY

Historical fiction like this doesn’t come around often and it shouldn’t be missed.
—Lambda Literary Review

Penny writes with such elegant prose that she stands as one of America’s more important literary artists of the day. She is a powerful presence.
—San Francisco Review of Books

… an extraordinary and consistently entertaining read that is unreservedly recommended. Showcasing author Penny Mickelbury’s genuine flair for narrative driven storytelling.
—Midwest Book Review

Mickelbury’s characters speak in distinct voices, rife with the cadence of place… Everyone has a fully realized place at this table.
—Foreword Reviews