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“Straight's portrayal of a black woman's life is nearly miraculous in its astonishing richness of detail, its emotional honesty and its breadth of human thought and feeling.” —USA TodayEvoking the Gullah–speaking 1950s community of Pine Gardens, South Carolina, I Been in Sorrow's Kitchen and Licked Out All the Pots follows Marietta Cook, a maid with a growing interest in the civil rights movement, as she raises talented twin boys destined for pro football glory and comes to find peace in an often unjust world.Imbued with extraordinary resilience and joy, Susan Straight's debut is a celebration of an extraordinary soul and a novel with a beautifully vivid sense of place.

“A writer of exceptional gifts and grace.” —Joyce Carol OatesA young fireman battles to provide for his family—and struggles to avoid the traps of crime and poverty that surround him.A resident of impoverished Rio Seco, California, Darnell Tucker works part–time as the lone black member of the fire department. Cutbacks to the state budget force him to search for new work, and the low–paying positions he finds rival firefighting in their peril. His path blocked by economics, institutionalized racism, and the dangers of the place he lives, Darnell must find a way to persevere. Blacker Than a Thousand Midnights is a stark and thoroughly convincing portrait of life on the margins.

In the third novel by the author of Blacker Than a Thousand Midnights, the Thompson clan tries to deal with the chaos after their family patriarch finds the burning bodies of two white women on his property and is then accidentally gunned down by police.