Contemporary Novelist Eric Jerome Dickey Passes Away at Age 59

 

The family and publicist for Eric Jerome Dickey, New York Times bestselling author, confirmed that he passed away on January 3 after a prolonged battle with cancer.  Dickey kept his struggle with cancer very private, with only a few close loved ones privy to his battle, not unlike actor Chadwick Boseman.  

His death comes as a shock to his millions of adoring fans who eagerly consumed such novels as Friends and Lovers, Blackbirds, and Finding Destiny. I reviewed Blackbirds on this blog and as a long time fan, it truly did not disappoint.  He was known for living in the locales that he set his stories in, a habit that was apparent from the stunning details that were a hallmark of his work.  I traveled the world vicariously through Gideon, an assassin who was the subject of several of his novels, and I got a small thrill whenever I recognized a character from one of his novels making an appearance in another.  

The literary world has lost a great one with his passing but it is my personal hope that perhaps his loved ones can take some comfort in the fact that he was as greatly celebrated in life as he is in death.  

Acclaimed Author Gloria Naylor Passes Away at 66

2016 has dealt us all some tough losses, and the literary world has not been immune to this.  Gloria Naylor, most famous for her critically acclaimed novel The Women of Brewster Place, passed away at the age of 66 near her home in Christiansted, St. Croix, U.S.V.I.  According to her niece, the cause of death was heart failure.

Her 1983 novel, The Women of Brewster Place, went on to win a National Book Award and became a widely hailed tv miniseries starring Oprah Winfrey and Lynn Whitfield.  Subsequent novels including Linden Hills, Bailey's Cafe, and The Men of Brewster Place, which examined the lives of the men in the original novel, earned her a firm place as a leading African American author.

Naylor earned a B.A. in English from Brooklyn College and a master's degree from Yale.  She taught at several prestigious institutions, including The University of Pennsylvania and New York University.  Her other awards included the National Endowment for the Arts and a Guggenheim Fellowship.  She leaves behind a sister, Bernice Harrison, a niece, and a nephew.

Hats off to another literary giant who has passed on.  Ms. Naylor may have left the physical world, but she lives on through her writing.