Imani Perry is the author of South to America, winner of the 2022 National Book Award for Nonfiction. She is the Henry A. Morss, Jr. and Elisabeth W. Morss Professor of Studies of Women, Gender and Sexuality and of African and African American Studies at Harvard University. Perry's other books include Looking for Lorraine: The Radiant and Radical Life of Lorraine Hansberry, winner of the 2019 Bograd-Weld Biography Prize from the Pen America Foundation; Breathe: A Letter to My Sons; Vexy Thing: On Gender and Liberation; and May We Forever Stand: A History of the Black National Anthem. Perry, a native of Birmingham, Alabama, who grew up in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and Chicago, lives outside Philadelphia with her two sons.
"Any attempt to classify this ambitious work, which straddles
genre, kicks down the fourth wall, dances with poetry, engages with
literary criticism and flits from journalism to memoir to academic
writing--well, that's a fool's errand and only undermines this
insightful, ambitious and moving project.... An essential
meditation on the South, its relationship to American culture--even
Americanness itself.... This work--and I use the term for both
Perry's labor and its fruit -- is determined to provoke a return to
the other legacy of the South, the ever-urgent struggle toward
freedom." -- Tayari Jones, The New York Times Book Review"In South
to America, Perry shows readers that there is no one archetype of
the American South, as she considers everything from immigrant
communities to the legacy of slavery to her own ancestral roots."
-- Time"Provocative, perspective-shifting.... Rendered in exquisite
detail.... In this vibrant, revelatory book, Perry proves herself
to be a radiant storyteller...like Zora Neale Hurston, Alice
Walker, and Nina Simone before her." -- Oprah Daily"Perry is deft
and disciplined, her efforts to situate the beauty, oddity, and
terror that mark southern life are critical and compelling. As a
travel writer, she embraces detours with an eye toward
discovery.... Perry asks what it means to be tied to a 'land of big
dreams and bigger lies' when one is committed to the pursuit of a
truth that bursts the nation at its seams." -- Vulture"This history
of the American South examines its subject from both personal and
sociopolitical perspectives... [Perry] draws connections between
the past and contemporary experience." -- New
Yorker"Breathtaking.... Extraordinary.... In the realm of Southern
letters it has no real antecedent. It is that fresh, that vital,
that intellectually supercharged, that incandescent." -- Garden &
Gun"[Perry] tells rich stories of place while ignoring the borders
dividing disciplines and genres, weaving personal experiences with
deep history, economics and cultural critique." -- Los Angeles
Times"Engrossing.... [Perry] cannily frames her investigation as a
travelogue, moving from Appalachia to the Upper South to the Deep
South to outliers like Florida and Cuba.... The book's pleasures
are many.... Her vignettes spark off the page.... An immersive
read." -- Minneapolis Star Tribune"South to America marks time like
Beloved did. Similarly, we will talk not solely of books about the
south, but books generally as before or after South to America. I
have known and loved the South for four decades and Imani Perry has
shown me that there is so much more in our region's fleshy folds to
know, explore and love. It is simply the most finely crafted and
rigorously conceived book about our region, and nation, I have ever
read." -- Kiese Laymon, author of Heavy"[Perry] focuses on a place
and reflects on its distinctive relationship to the region's
history of slavery and racism, drawing on her own extensive
knowledge of literature, music, art, and folklore, as well as her
own family history." -- NPR's Fresh Air"Perry has a knack for the
simple observation that showcases the contradictions Americans
endure or ignore." -- Washington Post"In the tradition of native
daughters and sons returning home and cataloging the journey, Imani
Perry undertakes an exploration of and meditation on the many
Souths that make up the American southland. Part pilgrimage, part
elegy and clarion call, South to America is wide-ranging,
associative and seamlessly woven--an ambitious sweep of history,
culture, language. Perry's intellect is capacious. Moving deftly
between registers, she proves to be an insightful and compelling
guide." -- Natasha Trethewey, author of Memorial Drive"Perry
scrutinizes the destination, and plucks threads from its history,
its culture, its personality; then she weaves them together to tell
a story about the place that reflects, informs, or portends our
national psyche. The result is a compelling, thought-provoking read
sure to spark both consensus and debate, but ultimately it serves
to illustrate just how much race impacts life in this country." --
Los Angeles Review of Books"Perry's seamlessly crafted work is a
tour-de-force reckoning." -- Literary Hub"Powerful.... Perry lets
us hear what the voices have to tell us, so we can make up our own
minds about where we are and how far we've come." -- Christian
Science Monitor"[A] saturated, gorgeously written, and keenly
revelatory travelogue...Perry's southern tour is intimate and
encompassing, finely laced and steely, affecting and
transformative."
-- Booklist (starred review)"[Perry] melds memoir, travel
narrative, and history in an intimate, penetrating journey through
the South.... A graceful, finely crafted examination of America's
racial, cultural, and political identity. Perry always delivers."
-- Kirkus Reviews (starred review)"An elegant meditation on the
complexities of the American South--and thus of America--by an
esteemed daughter of the South and one of the great intellectuals
of our time. An inspiration."
-- Isabel Wilkerson, New York Times bestselling author of The
Warmth of Other Suns and Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents"A
rich and imaginative tour of a crucial piece of America." --
Publishers WeeklyPraise for Breathe -- ////"Breathe is a parent's
unflinching demand, born of inherited trauma and love, for her
children's right simply to be possible." -- New York Times"In
Breathe, Perry offers a lyrical meditation that connects a painful,
proud history of African American struggle with a clarion call for
present-day action to protect, defend, and celebrate the promise of
the next generation." -- Stacey Abrams, founder and chair of Fair
Fight Action, Inc."Breathe: A Letter to My Sons is deeply cathartic
and resonant for parents attempting to raise their children with
intention and integrity. Imani Perry shows deep compassion for both
parents and children while incisively underlining the realities of
raising Black boys in a country that will inherently betray them.
It is a book filled with love and insight for difficult times." --
Tarana BurkePraise for Looking for Lorraine -- ////"A masterly
syntheses of research and analysis." -- New York Times Book Review
"Looking for Lorraine is phenomenal. I didn't know how hungry I was
for this intimate portrait until now. It feels as though Ms.
Hansberry has walked into my living room and sat down beside me.
What an honor and joy to read this. The writing is whip-smart, yet
lovely and clear-eyed. What gifts this book, Ms. Perry, and
Lorraine Hansberry are to the world." -- Jacqueline Woodson,
National Ambassador for Young People's Literature and National Book
Award Winner for Brown Girl Dreaming"This is one of those books you
need to read. Lorraine Hansberry was so dear, so gifted, so black,
so singular in so many ways, that to miss the story of her life is
to miss a huge part of ours. She left us way too soon, and yet the
gift of her presence, so briefly among us, is still felt in the art
she left behind. But not only in the art, but in the life. A life
at last made comprehensible by this loving, attentive, thoughtful
book." -- Alice Walker
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