Description: "A novel with a big cast, Dominion explores the lies and complicity of a Baptist church and the family that leads it: a philandering minister, a pill-popping first lady, and a favorite son whose fall will expose them all"--
Brief description: Addie E. Citchens was born in the Mississippi Delta and lives in New Orleans. A graduate of Jackson State University, she studied at the Callaloo Creative Writing Workshop. Her work has appeared in The New Yorker, The Paris Review, the Oxford American, Midnight & Indigo, Mississippi Folklife Magazine, and other publications. She was the inaugural recipient of the Farrar, Straus and Giroux Writer's Fellowship, and her short story "That Girl" was an O. Henry Prize winner. Dominion is her first novel.
Review Quotes:
"[Told] with ferocity and flair . . . Explosive."
--NPR
--Lauren Puckett-Pope, Elle "I stayed up into the hours . . . [Dominion] is heartbreaking and funny."
--Xochitl Gonzalez, The Today Show "Dominion may remind readers of Zora Neale Hurston's work . . . [It effortlessly conveys] history, personality and desire."
--John Brandon, The New York Times Book Review "Delicious."
--Nora Biette-Timmons, Jezebel "One hell of a novel . . . [It] will grab you in the gut and hold you there . . . Absolutely outstanding."
--Roxane Gay, author of Opinions "Extraordinary . . . A soaring, yet intimate novel exploring how shame and secrets control and stifle our humanity . . . [and] illuminating a different, freer path forward."
--Denne Michele Norris, Electric Literature
"Hilarious and heartbreaking, touching and terrifying--made all the more thrilling by the knowledge that you're reading only the first novel by an audacious Southern genius."
--C. Morgan Babst, Garden & Gun
"Utterly assured . . . [It] simply crackles."
--Brittany Allen, Literary Hub
"Fantastic . . . A perfect capsule of real life."
--Sarah Gregg, NPR
"A stellar Southern drama of secrets and sin . . . This Faulknerian, God-troubled novel is an earthly scorcher."
--Publishers Weekly (starred review)
"Soaring . . . Stunning."
--Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
"Beautiful . . . Propulsive . . . [An] excellent debut."
--Clint Smith, author of How the Word Is Passed (on Instagram)
"The kind of book people will be talking about for a long time to come."
--BookBrowse
"A powerful cultural analysis of masculinity, sexuality, and spirituality."
--BookPage (starred review)
"Fresh and surprising . . . A winning debut."
--Booklist
"A wise, sophisticated, and impressively crafted novel of secrets, longing, and strength."
--Angela Flournoy, author of The Wilderness
"This is the rarest and finest kind of storytelling . . . [and] the most audacious artistry . . . My god, we are lucky."
--Kiese Laymon, author of Heavy
"It's rare that a debut author produces a work of such tenderness and ferocity, but that's what Addie E. Citchens has done in her unforgettable Dominion."
--Maurice Carlos Ruffin, author of The American Daughters
"I laughed and cried with and even prayed over these characters. I could not stop turning the pages . . . Addie E. Citchens is a world-changing writer."
--Alexis Pauline Gumbs, author of Survival Is a Promise: The Eternal Life of Audre Lorde
"An unforgettable work of art . . . Incandescent."
--Annell López, author of I'll Give You a Reason
"Mississippi is a mystifying language. In Dominion, Addie E. Citchens speaks it with a dazzling tongue. The book is at once ancestral and newborn, drunk with sugary grits beauty and sobering with a Black woman's truth."
--Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor
"Looka here, Dominion is the Black-ass book we needed--from the collective storytelling to the language to the big love we have for one another. Addie E. Citchens tells stories like my aunts and uncles playing spades, toggling unexpectedly between subtlety and explosiveness, with a side of good ol' shit-talking and a deep knowing."
--Steven Dunn, author of Potted Meat