Breena Clarke
Office Location
Phone
Academic Degrees
- BFA, Howard University
- MFA, School of General Studies at Columbia University
Profile
Breena Clarke is the author three novels, most recently completed, Angels Make Their Hope Here, set in an imagined mixed-race community in 19th century New Jersey. Breena Clarke's debut novel, River, Cross My Heart, was an October 1999 Oprah Book Club selection. Her critically reviewed second novel, Stand The Storm, is set in mid-19th century Washington, D.C. Her short fiction has appeared in Kweli Journal, Stonecoast Review, Nervous Breakdown, Mom/Egg review, and Catapult, as well as, Like Light: 25 Years of Poetry & Prose by Bright Hill Poets & Writers. She has been on the fiction faculty of Stonecoast MFA in Creative Writing since 2013. Coming in June 2018: IDOL TALK: Women Writers on the Teenage Infatuations That Changed Their Lives (McFarland, June 2018).
Research Interests
Keenly interested in fiction that speculates and revises the history of settlement in The Americas.
Areas of Scholarship
African American History and Culture
Women's History and Culture
Recent Publications
River, Cross My Heart (1999)
Stand The Storm (2008)
Angels Make Their Hope Here (2014)
Like Light: 25 Years of Poetry & Prose by Bright Hill Poets and Writers (2017)
IDOL TALK: Women Writers on the Teenage Infatuations That Changed Their Lives (June 2018).
Presentations
Creative Activity
Breena Clarke has served as a workshop instructor for A Room of Her Own Foundation’s writing retreats at Ghost Ranch, 2000 - 20015. She has served as an advisor to the board of AROHO, has served as a Board Member and is currently Board Member Emeritus. Breena Clarke is co-founder and co-organizer ( with Cheryl Clarke and Barbara Balliet) of The Hobart Book Village Festival of Women Writers now entering its sixth, consecutive year of celebrating the work of women writers in Hobart, New York, the Book Village of the Catskills and the officially recognized Reading Capital of New York State. Breena Clarke retired from the Editorial Administration department at Time Magazine after sixteen years in Time Inc.’s New York corporate office. Breena credits having learned to swim as an adult with changing her life. After completing a course of classes at New York's Asphalt Green Aqua Center, she has become a member of an aqua aerobics class, swims three times a week, writes each day and practices Qi Gong.