ABOUT JAMILA

Jamila Minnicks’ debut novel Moonrise Over New Jessup (Algonquin Books, 2023) won the 2021 PEN/Bellwether Prize for Socially Engaged Fiction, the 2024 Black Caucus for the American Library Association First Novelist Award, and the 2023 Southern Literary Review Book of the Year. New Jessup was also a finalist for the 2023 Center for Fiction First Novel Prize and longlisted the 2023 Crook’s Corner Book Prize; selected as a January 2023 Indie Next Pick; and lauded by a number of media outlets including: The New York Times (“Minnicks provides a nuanced and realistic portrayal of the personal costs of fighting for change.”); Chicago Review of Books (“Jamila Minnicks has written an unforgettable debut, and announced herself as a writer to watch for years to come”); Essence (One of the 31 Books You Must Read this Year); The Root (January 2023 Books by Black Authors We Can’t Wait to Read); BuzzFeed (Books Coming Out This Winter You Should Read); The Library Journal (Starred Review) and the Junior Library Guild (Gold Medal). The novel was chosen as a favorite book of the year by Minnesota Public Radio, Well-Read Black Girl, and Electric Literature.

Jamila’s short stories and essays are published in Ploughshares, The Sun, CRAFT, Catapult, Blackbird, The Write Launch, and elsewhere, and her piece “Politics of Distraction” was nominated for the Pushcart Prize. Her work has been supported by the Sewanee Writers’ Conference, the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, VCCA-France at Moulin à Nef, and the Hermitage Artist Retreat.

Jamila is a graduate of the University of Michigan, the Howard University School of Law, and the Georgetown University Law Center.

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