Lewis, William Henry 1967–

PERSONAL: Born 1967.

ADDRESSES: Home—New Providence Island, Bahamas. Office—College of the Bahamas, P.O. Box N-4912, Nassau, Bahamas.

CAREER: Writer and educator. College of the Bahamas, Nassau, writing and literature teacher.

AWARDS, HONORS: Sonja H. Stone Fiction Competition winner, 1995, for manuscript In the Arms of Our Elders.

WRITINGS:

FICTION

In the Arms of Our Elders, Carolina Wren Press (Durham, NC), 1994.

I Got Somebody in Staunton: Stories, Amistad (New York, NY), 2005.

Fiction has appeared in journals and anthologies, including Best American Short Stories 1996 and New Letters, 2000.

SIDELIGHTS: William Henry Lewis is the author of two short-story collections. In his second collection, I Got Somebody in Staunton: Stories, the author presents ten tales about a diverse range of characters and situations. In one story, a fourteen-year-old boy who lives in a culture of violence sees his father for the first time walking the streets of his hometown in Tennessee. In the title story, a black college teacher is on his way to Staunton to visit an uncle when he picks up a white woman who has flirted with him at a restaurant. He agrees to drive her to Staunton and the couple makes a rest stop where four thuggish-looking white men begin to talk with the woman. As he watches, the professor recalls the days when black men were lynched for being with white women, considers the continued racial divide, and wonders if this is a situation in which he will have to either make a stand or run. A Kirkus Reviews contributor called the title story "a masterpiece of nuance" and noted that the collection contains "evocative stories with a potent kick." Writing in the Los Angeles Times, Susan Salter Reynolds called the tales "beautifully written and carefully crafted," while in a review for the Boston Globe, Renee Graham commented that the author "reveals the sharp edges, as well as the stubborn grace, of African-American lives." Graham went on to write: "Moving but unsentimental, these are stories of hard-won wisdom, potent intelligence, and compassion for the cadence of everyday life, establishing Lewis as a writer to be appreciated and admired." Vanessa Bush, writing in Booklist, felt that the author's stories are presented "with an easy style and sharp character portraits." A Publishers Weekly contributor called the book "a thoughtful, appealing collection deeply concerned with the pride and pain of African-American heritage."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Booklist, February 1, 2005, Vanessa Bush, review of I Got Somebody in Staunton: Stories, p. 937.

Boston Globe, April 4, 2005, Renee Graham, review of I Got Somebody in Staunton, p. B10.

Entertainment Weekly, April 1, 2005, Brian Palmer, review of I Got Somebody in Staunton, p. 73.

Kirkus Reviews, January 1, 2005, review of I Got Somebody in Staunton, p. 12.

Los Angeles Times, May 8, 2005, Susan Salter Reynolds, review of I Got Somebody in Staunton, p. R11.

New York Times Book Review, April 10, 2005, Lizzie Skurnick, review of I Got Somebody in Staunton, p. 23.

Publishers Weekly, February 28, 2005, review of I Got Somebody in Staunton, p. 40.

ONLINE

Carolina Wren Press Web site, http://carolinawrenpress.org/ (June 3, 2005).

Ploughshares Online, http://www.pshares.org/ (June 3, 2005).