In the Arms of Our Elders
William Henry Lewis
In these nine short stories that Ann Beattie called "a powerful first collection, " Lewis brilliantly captures the complexity of African-American family life. With memories as sublime as they are precise, Lewis' characters live in these pages, struggle for meaning, and learn to love each other. The spirits that connect us all are embodied in these wise, confused, passionate people and moments poetic in their shadings.
William Henry Lewis is the prizewinning author of a previous story collection, In the Arms of Our Elders. His fiction has appeared in America's top literary journals and several anthologies. He has been honored with many awards, including a prize for short fiction from the Zora Neale Hurston/Richard Wright Foundation, he was a finalist for the 2005 PEN Faulkner Prize for Fiction, and he is the 2006 recipient of the Black Caucus of the American Library Association Fiction Honor Award.