Sherman, Charlotte Watson (1958– )
Novelist, short story writer, and editor Charlotte
Watson Sherman was born and raised in Seattle,
Washington, to working-class parents from the
South. A voracious reader, Sherman, along with
her brothers, attended the public schools of Seattle,
where they were among the few people of color. In
1980, she received her B.A. in social sciences from
Seattle University. Sherman has worked as a jail
screener, sexual and domestic abuse counselor,
creative writing workshop facilitator, and child
welfare caseworker.
While in college, Sherman wrote poetry; she
began writing fiction in 1988. Although she claims
not to have had a model early on, Sherman identi-
fies JAMES BALDWIN as one of the first black authors
she read in high school. However, like GLORIA
NAYLOR and others, Sherman came to believe she
could become a writer after being introduced to
the works of ZORA NEALE HURSTON, ALICE WALKER,
and MAYA ANGELOU in college.
In 1992, Sherman published Killing Color, a col-
lection of short stories. Set in Mississippi and Se-
attle, the stories are told by women narrators who
speak in black dialect. Sherman provides glimpses
into their fears, dreams, desires, and expectations,
exploring themes relating to their past and the
present. Reviewers highly commended Killing Color
for its “originality, in the use of metaphors, dreams,
mystery, and myth” (Clair, 3). In 1993, Killing Color
won the Great Lakes College Association Fiction
Award and the Governor’s Writers Award.
Sherman wrote her first novel, One Dark Body,
in 1993. Using one of the novel’s strongest features,
magical realism, Sherman juxtaposes personal
stories with ancient cultural tales and legends to
explore relationships between descendants and
ancestors, like TONI MORRISON, AUGUST WILSON,
and Sandra Jackson-Opoku. As many critics note,
Sherman masterfully captures the sense of loss and
longing and the true essence of W. E. B. DUBOIS’s
now-classic double-consciousness metaphor: “One
ever feels his twoness—an American, a negro; two
souls two thoughts,... in one dark body,” which
she invokes (364–365) in the title of her novel.
Sherman’s novel To u c h (1995) is a heart-wrench-
ing work that explores the consequences and emo-
tions of a black woman who is HIV-positive. The
title of the novel refers to the way those who have
AIDS or HIV are often deprived of human contact.
Most reviewers of the novel find the work moving,
timely, and relevant.
Sherman also writes nonfiction and juvenile
literature. She edited the groundbreaking anthol-
ogy Sisterfire: Black Womanist Fiction and Poetry
(1994). Her two children’s books are Nia and the
Golden Stool (1988) and Eli and the Swamp Man
(1995). Her work has also been published in Black
Scholar and Obsidian.
Sherman has received several other honors
and distinctions. She was granted the Seattle Arts
Commission Individual Artist Award (1989), the
Fiction Publication Award from the Kings County
Commission (1989), a Seattle Artists grant (1991),
and a literary fellowship from the Washington State
Arts Commission (1993); Granta named Sherman
to its “Fabulous 52” (1995).
Although her output thus far is small, Sherman
has made a valuable contribution to contempo-
rary African-American literature, and she plans to
continue. She states, “The strength to keep on pub-
lishing comes from knowing that Toni Morrison is
doing it too, that Ntozake Shange is doing it. That
we are all doing it” (Carroll, 221). Presently, Sher-
man is completing The Blues Ain’t Nothing but a
Good Woman Feeling Bad, a work of nonfiction on
black women and depression.BIBLIOGRAPHY
Bahar, Saba. Review of One Dark Body. Race and Class
36, no. 1 (1994): 104–105.
Clair, Maxine, “Sleight of Voice.” Review of Killing
Color. Belles Lettres (Summer 1992): 3.
Carroll, Rebecca. I Know What the Red Clay Looks
Like: The Vision of Black Women Writers. New
York: Crowne Trade, 1994.
DuBois, W. E. B. The Souls of Black Folk. In W. E. B.
DuBois Writings. New York: The Library of Amer-
ica, 1996: 359–547.
DuCille, Anne. “Haunts of History.” Review of One
Dark Body. Women’s Review of Books 10, no. 10–11
(July 1993): 23.
Malieckal, Bindu. “Charlotte Watson Sherman.” In
Contemporary African American Authors, edited by
Emmanuel S. Nelson, 426–432. Westport, Conn.:
Greenwood, 1999.Sherman, Charlotte Watson 463