The Secret Lives of Church Ladies
Award History
| Award | Year | Status |
|---|---|---|
| PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction | 2021 | Winner |
About This Book
Nine stories about Black women navigating desire, faith, family, and community in the American South. Philyaw's debut collection is intimate, sensual, and unsparing in its attention to the hidden lives that women live beneath the surface of respectability and religious obligation. Winner of the PEN/Faulkner Award, the Story Prize, and the LA Times Book Prize for First Fiction.
About the Author
Deesha Philyaw is an American writer and author of The Secret Lives of Church Ladies (2020), a debut short story collection centred on the lives of Black women navigating faith, desire, and community in the American South and beyond. Philyaw grew up in Jacksonville, Florida, and studied at Yale University. She is also the co-author of the parenting memoir Co-Parenting 101 (2013). Read more →
