Elaine Ray wins 2016 Gival Press Short Story Award

Blown away and humbled. The first piece of fiction I’ve ever gotten published wins an award. The story is published here.

elaine-ray-wins-the-2016-gival-press-short-story-award

The (private) life of Riley

I confess. I am under the spell of Riley, Warrior Princess. I wait with bated breath for the next time I can get to see her don an invisibility cloak, disappear under a press conference table, then reappear, headband gone, ready for her next conquest. I, like the rest of the world, watch as […]
Back to school

From the moment she was born, my daughter, Zuri Adele, talked with her eyes. They took in everything, registered centuries of wisdom, expressed a range of emotion she could not logically understand. I remember watching her at a birthday party with a group of kids she didn’t know well. They were taking turns acting out […]
Happy Birthday, Daddy

On his 36th birthday, my father marked the occasion with a column that riffed on the Royal Family and more.
Lamman Rucker and his mom, Nana Malaya, in conversation

My sister Malaya Rucker-Oparabea, a dancer and storyteller, and her son, actor, producer and entrepreneur Lamman Rucker, have devoted their lives to their art. On Sunday, May 15, they talked about their relationship on an online radio program “Phenomenal Saging Mothers.”
Alma Stone Williams: ‘A Choice to Change the World’

“Pioneering did not frighten me. I was accustomed to studying and living with white teachers at Spelman and to reaching for high standards in all areas.”