How We Can Reclaim Our Stories Through Fiction, featuring Cheryl A. Head

If you write fiction, you already know you’re the master of the world you create on the page. That comes with great responsibility, but it also can mean reclaiming the narrative and elevating the stories that didn’t get to be told. It’s often said that history is written by the victors, but in modern times, history is often revisited, increasingly so in fiction, to include the voices of those left for too long in the shadows. This week’s show explores all this and more with guest Cheryl A. Head, who’s written a new novel, Time’s Undoing, that explores what happened to her grandfather, who was killed in 1929 by Birmingham police, and the ripple effect that had on future generations. Nearly 100 years later, Cheryl unearths this story through a fictional lens.

ABOUT CHERYL A. HEAD

Cheryl A. Head (she/her) is a writer, television producer, and broadcast executive. She is also the author of the award-winning Charlie Mack Motown mysteries, whose female Private Investigator protagonist is queer and Black. Head is an Anthony Award nominee, a two-time Lambda Literary Award finalist, a three-time Next Generation Indie Book Award finalist, and winner of the Golden Crown Literary Society’s Ann Bannon Popular Choice Award. Her books are included in the Detroit Public Library’s African American Booklist and in the Special Collections of the Library of Michigan. Cheryl lives in Washington, DC, with her partner, and with Abby and Frisby, who provide canine supervision.