Dolen Perkins-Valdez to Read From Debut Novel "Wench" at Rhodes College

Memphis native Dr. Dolen Perkins-Valdez will read from her debut novel, Wench, at Rhodes College on Wednesday, March 3. Free and open to the public, the reading begins at 7 p.m. in Blount Auditorium of Buckman Hall. The event is presented by the Rhodes Creative Writing Lecture Series and will be followed by a book signing.

Wench chronicles the lives of four women who, before the Civil War, vacationed at a summer resort as mistresses to their Southern slave owners. Perkins-Valdez writes that although the novel is fiction, Tawawa Resort actually existed from 1852 to 1855 near Xenia, Ohio. In 1863, the property was purchased by the African Methodist Episcopal Church and was renamed Wilberforce University.

A graduate of White Station High School, The University of Memphis, and Harvard University, Perkins-Valdez teaches creative writing at the University of Puget Sound. Her fiction and essays have appeared in The Kenyon Review, African American Review, North Carolina Literary Review, and the Richard Wright Newsletter.

Her appearance at Rhodes is sponsored by the Department of English, African American Studies, and Gender & Sexuality Studies. Those who have specific inquiries about the event can contact Dr. Rychetta Watkins of the English Department at (901) 843-3445.