The Secret Lives of Church Ladies
The Secret Lives of Church Ladies explores the raw and tender places where black women and girls dare to follow their desires and pursue a momentary reprieve from being good. The nine stories in this collection feature four generations of characters grappling with who they want to be in the world, caught as they are between the church's double standards and their own needs and passions.
With their secret longings, new love, and forbidden affairs, these church ladies are as seductive as they want to be, as vulnerable as they need to be, as unfaithful and unrepentant as they care to be, and as free as they deserve to be.
Yona Harvey, author of Hemming the Water and writer for the Marvel Comics World of Wakanda series
Tara Campbell, author of Midnight at the Organporium, from Barrelhouse magazine
Electric Lit, "24 New and Forthcoming Books That Celebrate Black Lives"
Amazon Book Review, "12 Must-Read Books by Black Authors Coming in Fall 2020"
Pittsburgh Current
"These are stories about Black women that haven't been told with this level of depth, wit, or insight before, so it will not shock me if Oprah gets around to selecting it before the end of the year."
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
"Incredibly moving."
Pittsburgh City Paper
Roxane Gay, author of Bad Feminist
"Our new decade deserves a new literary force with major literary skills. Deesha Philyaw uses the comic, the allegorical, and the geographic to examine Black intimacies and Black secrets. Her work is as rigorous as it is pleasurable to read."
Kiese Laymon, author of Heavy
Minneapolis Star Tribune
"Sex, friendship, freedom, and agency are centered throughout this cheeky, insightful, and irresistible new book."
Ms. Magazine
"Stunning. . . Philyaw's stories are addictive while also laying bare the depth and vulnerability of Black women."
Observer