Publisher Description
This debut collection is a complicated love letter to Washington, DC, and to those who call it home: a TSA agent who’s never flown, a girl braving new worlds to play piano, and a teacher caught up in a mayoral race. These characters navigate life’s “training school”―with lessons on gentrification and respectability—and fight to create their own sense of space and self.
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“Narrators Bahni Turpin and Janina Edwards trade off the saucy short stories in this collection. Their liveliness will have listeners laughing out loud at the audacity of the characters…We experience the ups and downs of gentrification through Turpin and Edwards’ creative styles. They move smoothly from male characters to female ones with believable voices and cadences. Whether they’re depicting sassy women or deep-voiced men, this is a quick listen as the stories are told at a rapid-fire pace, creating an enjoyable experience throughout.”
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AudioFile
About Camille Acker
Camille Acker holds a BA in English from Howard University and an MFA in creative writing from New Mexico State University. She has worked for social justice non-profits and taught in a variety of educational spaces including Chicago Writers Studio and University of Illinois at Chicago. She is currently a Visiting Assistant Professor in Fiction for the creative writing program at New Mexico State University.
About the Narrators
Bahni Turpin, winner of numerous AudioFile Earphones Awards and several prestigious Audie Awards for her narrations, was named a “Golden Voice” by AudioFile magazine in 2019. Publishers Weekly magazine named her Narrator of the Year for 2016. She is an ensemble member of the Cornerstone Theater Company in Los Angeles. She has guest starred in many television series, including NYPD Blue, Law & Order, Six Feet Under, Cold Case, What about Brian, and The Comeback. Film credits include Brokedown Palace, Crossroads, and Daughters of the Dust. She is also a member of the recording cast of The Help, which won numerous awards.
Janina Edwards, an Earphones Award–winning narrator, is a native of Chicago and a graduate of New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts acting program. Her 2016 performance of Voice of Freedom was a finalist for the Audie Award.