About Me

Bernice L. McFadden is a national bestselling, award-winning author celebrated for her richly layered novels that center ancestry, memory, and the enduring strength of Black women. She is the author of Sugar, The Book of Harlan, Praise Song for the Butterflies, and other acclaimed works of fiction. Her writing has earned numerous honors, including the American Book Award and an NAACP Image Award.

Her most recent publication, Firstborn Girls: A Memoir, is a deeply personal exploration of generational trauma, maternal legacy, and spiritual reckoning that traces her own story alongside the lives of the women who came before her.

Toni Morrison, the Nobel Laureate, praised her work in The Warmest December: “Riveting . . . so nicely avoids the sentimentality that swirls around the subject matter. I am as impressed by its structural strength as by the searing and expertly imagined scenes.”

McFadden is also a devoted educator, committed to storytelling as a powerful tool for healing, remembrance, and truth.