
Award-winning novelist Pearl Cleage says she couldn't resist fictionalizing the 2008 presidential campaign season in 'Till You Hear From Me,' her latest release.
"The subject was all around me,'' she said in an email interview with BV on Books. "The 2008 campaign season was an amazing series of events that truly showcased the best and worst of country.''
The New York Times bestselling author has earned a reputation for her skillful of fictionalization of current events. She delved into the Iraq war in her last novel, 'Seen It All and Done The Rest.'
For her latest novel, she couldn't have picked a better issue than President Barack Obama, whose politics and personal beliefs command headlines. Cleage latched onto the story of the president's former pastor, Rev. Jeremiah Wright, who was propelled into the spotlight after a television network reviewed his fiery sermons at Trinity United Church of Christ.
The character, Rev. Horace Dunbar, is based on Rev. Wright, she said. His daughter, Ida B. Wells Dunbar, who made it the West Wing after working on the presidential campaign only to find out that was the easy part!
Cleage talks about 'Till You Hear from Me,' post-Obama America and future projects with BV on Books:







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Raegan L. Burden grew up thinking she needed to gain weight to get more "play,'' or attention, from boys.
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