when two girls are left on their doorstep. When
urban progress threatens to destroy their neigh-
borhood, Noon comes to grips with her past, as-
suming a leadership role in her neighborhood and
congregation, healing herself and her family. Also
a period novel, Tempest Rising (1998), McKin-
ney-Whetstone’s second novel, returns to themes
related to the city, declining neighborhoods, and
families that are not biologically linked. Three chil-
dren, all girls, are born to the middle-class privi-
lege few African Americans enjoyed in the 1960s.
Their father, Finch, is economically successful, and
their mother, Clarise, is a beautiful homemaker.
When Finch’s lucrative catering business begins
to fail, Clarise has a nervous breakdown. Placed in
the foster care system, the girls are sent to live with
Mae and her beautiful but spiteful daughter, Ra-
mona, who neglect and emotionally abuse them.
When the girls disappear, Mae and Ramona are
left to figure out the reasons. In the process, they
become aware of the complexity of their own re-
lationship, which is driven by a brutal secret they
must confront. Told in a simultaneously folksy and
poetic style, Tempest Rising examines the effects of
brutality, honesty, and secrets on a family.
Blues Dancing (1999), McKinney-Whetstone’s
third novel, explores new regions. Like the first
two novels, Blues Dancing is set in Philadelphia,
but unlike them it confronts more directly such
gritty urban issues as drug addiction. The main
character, Verdi, a pampered preacher’s daugh-
ter, moves from the South to Philadelphia, where
she attends college and demonstrates tremen-
dous promise at first. However, when she meets
Johnson, a student activist leader, Verdi becomes
involved with drugs and eventually becomes ad-
dicted to heroin. Rowe, a former professor, even-
tually rescues Verdi from total disaster. In this
novel McKinney-Whetstone brings herself and
her readers closer to the present; Rowe and Verdi
become life partners for 20 years until Johnson
reenters Verdi’s life. McKinney-Whetstone’s char-
acters are complex and credible. Thematically, the
novel explores the nature of relationships and love
within the political reality of South Philadelphia
during the past 60-plus years.
McKinney-Whetstone began writing because
she had a burning passion to write something
other than government documents. She got up
every morning around 4:30 A.M. to write so that
she could continue working full time as well as be
a full-time mother. She found herself negotiating
with her children: “I would bargain with them for
Saturday mornings, would let them stay up late Fri-
day, and would make all kinds of deals with them,
like be quiet in the morning and then I’ll do some-
thing special in the afternoon with you. I’d get a
lot of writing done on Saturday mornings, which
was a big help. I meshed the roles of mother and
writer by continuing to write early in the morning”
(Dellasega). By participating in the Rittenhouse
Writing Group, McKinney-Whetstone found a
venue for publishing her work. Like a number of
other major African-American women authors,
McKinney-Whetstone started to write late in life
and managed to balance several lives in the pro-
cess. Her writing is enriched because of this.BIBLIOGRAPHY
Dellasega, Cheryl. “Mothers Who Write: Diane
McKinney-Whetstone.” Writers Write: The Inter-
net Writing Journal. Available online. URL: http://
http://www.writerswrite.com/journal/oct00/whetstone.
htm. Accessed October 18, 2006.
Ganim, John M. “Cities of Words: Recent Studies on
Urbanism and Literature.” MLQ: Modern Lan-
guage Quarterly (September 2002): 365–382.
Shauna Lee Eddy-SandersMcMillan, Terry (1951– )
In her groundbreaking anthology Breaking Ice: An
Anthology of Contemporary African-American Fic-
tion (1990), Terry McMillan writes:Not once, throughout my entire four years as
an undergraduate, did it occur to me that I
might one day be a writer. I mean, these folks
had genuine knowledge and insight. They also
had a fascination with the truth. They had
something to write about. Their work was350 McMillan, Terry