Ginger McKnight-Chavers

Giinger 2

 

Ginger McKnight-Chavers is a multiracial woman who writes about multiracial topics and characters. Her debut novel, In the Heart of Texas, was  released in October of 2015 and is the winner of the 2016 USA Best Book Award for African American Fiction.

In the Heart of Texas is reviewed as “a wry, humorous commentary on the complexities of race, class, relationships, politics, popular culture, and celebrity in our current society.”  Ginger also currently blogs for the Huffington Post and The TexPatch.

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Ginger is a graduate of Georgetown’s School of Foreign Service and Harvard Law School.  She grew up in Dallas, Texas but currently lives in New York, with her husband, daughter, and dog, which she describes as “an overweight West Highland White Terrier”. Before living her dream of becoming a full-time writer, she spent 20 years as a corporate and arts/entertainment lawyer.

Here is a plot summary of her award-winning novel:

“Pitched as “a poor man’s Halle Berry,” forty-one-year-old soap star Jo Randolph, has successfully avoided waiting tables since she left Midland, Texas at eighteen. But then, in the span of twenty-four hours, Jo manages to lose her job, burn her bridges in Hollywood, and accidentally burn down her lover/director’s beach house—after which she is shipped home to Texas by her agent to stay out of sight while she sorts out her situation.

The more Jo reluctantly reconnects with her Texas “roots” and the family and friends she left behind, the more she regains touch with herself as an artist and with what is meaningful in life beyond the limelight. The summer of 2007 is cathartic for Jo, whose career and lifestyle have allowed her to live like a child for forty years, but who now must transition to making grown-up decisions and taking on adult responsibilities.”

Ginger said that the book’s success  “has helped me create a platform and gain the confidence to finally call myself an “author” instead of a “recovering lawyer.”

She is currently working on her second novel, titled Oak Cliff, which will focus on female friendship set in the rapidly gentrifying Dallas neighborhood where she was raised.  She recently published an article about Beyonce on Essence.com and is hoping   to meet “Queen Bey” someday.

She is also helping her elderly mother, Dr. Mamie McKnight, write a memoir and family history. Her mother is a longtime educator and historian who is in the Texas Women’s Hall of Fame.

– Karson Baldwin, Project RACE kids president