One of 2019’s most talked-about novels rallies for more to help women cope with violence and assault.

(Black PR Wire) SPEAKING OF SUMMER is about a woman's tireless search for her missing twin sister, a social justice thriller set in the historically Black neighborhoods of Harlem. The novel is a recent “Best” Pick of Essence, O: The Oprah Magazine, TIME, The Grio, Entertainment Weekly, The Washington Post, BBC, Cosmopolitan, New York Post, Ms. Magazine, Buzzfeed, Publisher’s Weekly, Library Journal and more. NAACP Image Award winner Tayari Jones praises the novel’s aim to “Raise questions about mental illness, racism and love” in the August issue of O Magazine, on newsstands now. 

“I am concerned for the toll of our fast-paced Western society on women in general, but really for how the “Strong Black Woman” compliment evolved into an excuse to leave Black women handling too much and this becomes hazardous to our health,” Kalisha says. “Our heroine finds community to reverse this.”

SPEAKING OF SUMMER’s narrator is called “A voice for the invisible” by Essence, which named Kalisha one of “Three Writers to Watch” in 2005. National Book Award winner Jesmyn Ward calls the book: “A powerful song about what it means to survive as a woman in America.” NAACP Image Award winner Bernice McFadden, Colin Channer, Connie Briscoe and Sandra Jackson-Opoku also offer praise.

SPEAKING OF SUMMER charts a year in the life of Autumn Spencer. Her mother has died and her sister Summer has vanished. With New York City authorities unconcerned for a missing Black woman, Autumn pursues justice alone as she fears her own chances of violence and assault. Soon she is obsessed with murdered women and men who kill them. She caves under pressure of feeling unsafe, underpaid and discriminated against. A lone detective takes her under his wing, but he cannot stop crises in her business and relationships. Her healing comes in a shocking twist, rooted in secrets of her idyllic childhood.

A Kankakee, Illinois, native, Kalisha is a graduate of the University of Chicago and The New School. Sapphire, author of PUSH adapted to the film Precious, says the novel cements Kalisha as "A young woman who has become a major American storyteller.” Terry McMillan awarded Kalisha’s UPSTATE the only Terry McMillan Young Author Award. UPSTATE’s audiobook, co-narrated by Chadwick Boseman, won a Literary Fiction Audie Award. Kalisha has also been a true crime TV commentator for BET, TV-One and ID Channel. 

On July 30th in Chicago, Kalisha began a tour of nationwide community conversations including New York City (8/7 and 8/9), Martha’s Vineyard (8/21), Minneapolis (9/26), and more. Visit www.Kalisha.com for more about Kalisha and SPEAKING OF SUMMER. To invite her for your radio program, podcast, literary or community event and media please contact Jennifer Lyons Literary Agency at 212-675-5522 or jenniferlyonsagency@gmail.com.

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