DeBerry, Virginia 1949- (Virginia Joyce)

views updated

DeBerry, Virginia 1949- (Virginia Joyce)

PERSONAL:

Born 1949, in Wadesboro, NC; daughter of John L. and Juanita DeBerry. Education: Attended Fisk University; graduated from the State University of New York at Buffalo.

ADDRESSES:

Home—NJ. E-mail—[email protected].

CAREER:

Writer. Formerly worked in the fashion industry; founding editor-in-chief of Maxima; vice president of BB/LW (a modeling agency). Has also worked as an English teacher.

AWARDS, HONORS:

Honor book citation, fiction category, Black Caucus of the American Library Association, 1998, for Tryin' to Sleep in the Bed You Made.

WRITINGS:

NOVELS; WITH DONNA GRANT

(Under pseudonym Virginia Joyce) Exposures, Warner Books, 1990.

Tryin' to Sleep in the Bed You Made (novel), St. Martin's Press (New York, NY), 1997.

Far from the Tree, St. Martin's Press (New York, NY), 2000.

Better than I Know Myself, St. Martin's Press (New York, NY), 2004.

Gotta Keep on Tryin', Simon & Schuster (New York, NY), 2008.

What Doesn't Kill You, Simon & Schuster (New York, NY), 2009.

SIDELIGHTS:

Referring to her coauthor, Donna Grant, Virginia DeBerry told CA: "We really do work as a team, together at a shared desk—a dining room table we bought for our office. We plot, and develop characters in detail before we begin. Then, we both write, together. People frequently want to know if we divide a story by chapter, or by character. The answer is that we have both jointly written or rewritten every word. We say we are the author of our books, not the authors. The individual voices that we each bring are blended into a third, author voice. That's who tells the story."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Black Issues Book Review, September 1, 2000, "Partners in Their Prime," p. 64; May 1, 2004, Kalyn Johnson, review of Better than I Know Myself.

Booklist, November 1, 1996, Joanne Wilkinson, review of Tryin' to Sleep in the Bed You Made, p. 459; July 1, 2000, Lillian Lewis, review of Far from the Tree, p. 1972.

Essence, November 1, 2000, "Take Note," p. 82.

Library Journal, November 15, 2007, Laurie A. Cavanaugh, review of Gotta Keep on Tryin', p. 48.

People Weekly, September 11, 2000, "Pages," p. 59.

Publishers Weekly, November 18, 1996, review of Tryin' to Sleep in the Bed You Made, p. 62; August 21, 2000, review of Far from the Tree, p. 47; October 8, 2007, review of Gotta Keep on Tryin', p. 36; September 22, 2008, review of What Doesn't Kill You.

School Library Journal, March 1, 2001, Joyce Fay Fletcher, review of Far from the Tree, p. 281.