Rachel Eliza Griffiths is a poet, visual artist, and novelist. She is a recipient of the Hurston/Wright Foundation Legacy Award and the Paterson Poetry Prize and was a finalist for a NAACP Image Award. Griffiths is also a recipient of fellowships from many organizations, including Cave Canem Foundation, Kimbilio, the Provincetown Fine Arts Work Center, the Robert Rauschenberg Foundation, and Yaddo. Her work has been published in The New York Times, The New Yorker, Tin House, and other publications. Promise is her first novel.

WHY THEY’RE JOINING US

The rare artist is accomplished in different genres and different media. Poet, photographer, and visual artist Rachel Eliza Griffiths is one of those artists. Now she has added the title of novelist with Promise, a beautiful debut about two young Black sisters in 1950s Maine and about how racism and discrimination reached into the small towns of America, distorting lives and dreams. The book has that rare ability to blend big national themes with the vivid, tender details of intimate lives.

Photo credit – Beowulf Sheehan