A to Z Challenge: My Favorite Storytellers-- W

W tried to force me to decide which of two amazing women I better liked and respected. I decided to best W, not decide, and feature them both!

Sherley Anne Williams 

In many, many ways, Sherley Anne Williams is an astoundingly important writer to our time. Born in 1944 in California, she grew up in a family that picked cotton to survive. Fully orphaned at 16, she still went on to gradaute from college, get a Master's degree, and become a professor at the University of California. Mostly known for her poetry, my love for her was born of her incredible novel Dessa Rose. The book takes two actually events and women notorious (for very different reasons) during slavery and posits what would have happened if they met. The result is brilliant and lyrical and one of those books that just stays with you once you've read it. 

Jeannette Winterson

If you've been here a while, you know that I tend to gravitate towards very lyrical writing-- Gabriel Garcia Marquez, David Guterson, and James Joyce to name a few examples of writers that move me. I think in time, Winterston will be lauded at the same level as these men. Her novel The Passion is both evocative and skillfull. There are moments in this book where simple turns of phrase will surprise you and leave you aghast.




Any lyrical "W's" out there I am missing?