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Virginia DeBerry & Donna Grant

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About Me


ABOUT US!
We are the author of Tryin' to Sleep in the Bed You Made, Far From the Tree, Better Than I Know Myself, Exposures and Gotta Keep on Tryin'
(January 2008) the long awaited sequel to 1997's Tryin' to Sleep in the Bed You Made. Note: we said "author" not "authors" We have been best friends for more than 25 years and writing/working together for 21 of those years.deberryandgrant.com
NOW AVAILABLE AT BOOKSELLERS EVERYWHERE! What They're Saying About Gotta Keep on Tryin' “They've done it again! Gotta Keep On Tryin' is an incredibly well-written and truly inspirational read. Donna and Virginia are gifted and their writing is timeless.” -Regina King, award winning actress“DeBerry and Grant are back with another dazzling story of friendship, family and the ebbs and flows we all face along the journey of life.” -E. Lynn Harris, New York Times bestselling author, I Say a Little Prayer “Gotta Keep on Tryin' is an absolute treat. It is one of the most gripping stories I've read this year. The characters are so well developed, and the plot and dialogue are so real I had to keep reminding myself that I was reading fiction! This flawless story is intriguing, easy to read, and will hold your attention from the first page to the last. If you read only a few books a year, make this one of them.” -Mary Monroe, New York Times bestselling author, God Don’t Like Ugly “Gayle and Patricia are back, trying to leave the skeletons in their closets behind while jump-starting brighter futures. Watching these glorious women navigating all the forks in the road of life makes for a breathtaking read. DeBerry and Grant expertly tackle devastating and timely themes like gambling, adult-onset bulimia, and paternity battles, with their usual grace, clever wit, and captivating voices. A great read for women, young and mature alike.” -Connie Briscoe, author, Can’t Get Enough“The authors, themselves longtime friends, take on with gusto the pitfalls of modern life, friendships and entrepreneurship. Women especially will enjoy spending time with Pat and Gayle.” -Publisher’s Weekly“This tale about girlfriends going through tough times will likely appeal most to women…” -Library Journal“…sharp dialogue and solid, fast-paced storytelling make for a gratifying read.” -Kirkus Reviews#1 Essence and New York Times Bestselling Authors Virginia and Donna's novels are:"Powerful." --Kirkus Reviews"Refreshingly honest." --Publishers Weekly"Engaging." --Essence
"Vividly realistic." --Midwest Book Review
"Hard to put down." --American WomanMore Praise for Virginia DeBerry and Donna Grant:
"I laughed, I cried, I identified!!!" - Sybil Wilkes, The Tom Joyner Morning Show, on Better Than I Know Myself"They're back! Virginia DeBerry and Donna Grant, authors of one of my favorite books, Tryin' to Sleep in the Bed You Made, have returned with Better Than I Know Myself. It has a prologue that grabs you, a story that holds you, and characters that you will care about." - Clara Villarosa, Bookseller, Publishing Executive, Hue-man Resources, Harlem, NY on Better Than I Know Myself"Strong, colorful characters distinguish DeBerry and Grant's warm and moving African-American family drama...moves gracefully between the 1950s and the present day, and an unusually varied cast of minor characters add spice to the full-bodied tale." - Publishers Weekly on Far From the Tree"Keenly drawn characters...a seamless work...a winning book about real, flawed people." - QBRL The Black Book Review on Far From the Tree"With sassy dialogue and a suspenseful narrative, this novel whips through its prologue and 23 well-written chapters." - Dallas Morning News on Far From the Tree"Captivating and compelling...brave, realistic, and touching." - Booklist on Far From the Tree
The Official Story
With five novels to their credit, Virginia DeBerry and Donna Grant, best friends for 25 years, have turned a friendship into the most successful and enduring writing collaboration in African American fiction.Donna and Virginia first met as plus size models vying for the same assignments. They were both featured in catalogs, ads, magazines and made national television appearances. Their modeling careers led to the opportunity to launch Maxima, a fashion and lifestyle magazine for plus-size women, where Virginia was editor-in-chief and Donna the managing editor. When publication of Maxima ceased, Virginia and Donna decided to try writing a book together. The result, Tryin' to Sleep in the Bed You Made, was a critical success, an Essence Bestseller, as are all three of their books, and won the Merit Award for Fiction from the Black Caucus of the American Library Association, as well as the 1998 Book of the Year Award from the Blackboard Bestseller List/African American Booksellers Conference-Book Expo America. More than that, it hit an emotional nerve with tens of thousands of readers from all over the world who continue to write to Virginia and Donna nine years after the book's publication. Far From the Tree became a New York Times Bestseller, and Better Than I Know Myself received two Open Book Awards, and was included on the Best African American Fiction lists of both Borders and WaldenBooks.In addition to speaking at book fairs and literary festivals around the country for the past eight years, Virginia and Donna have been keynote, motivational/inspirational speakers and served on panels for a wide variety of meetings, organizations, companies, churches, cultural and educational institutions, including: Dell North America, Women Work!, Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority Inc., FAMU, Speaking of Women's Health & the Texas Conference for Women. Their honest and powerful messages have received praise from literary, business and academic audiences. They have also appeared on CNN, Good Day New York and been featured on the pages of Essence, Glamour, American Woman, and Black Issues Book Review.
Donna, a graduate of New York University, is a Brooklyn, New York native and currently lives in the borough with her husband. Before becoming a novelist, she spent more than a decade as a plus size model, represented by the 12+ division of Ford Models. During that career, Donna was featured in catalogs and national ads, on the pages of such magazines as Essence, McCalls, Family Circle and Woman's Day, and has made appearances on "Today," "Good Morning America," and "Live with Regis and Kathie Lee."
Virginia is a former high school English teacher from Buffalo, New York attended Fisk University and is a graduate of SUNY at Buffalo. After almost 10 years in the classroom, she moved to New York and started a successful career as a plus size model. She was frequently featured in catalogs, advertising, magazines and appeared on several television programs including "The Today Show." She retired from modeling after two years and became Vice President of BB/LW, an agency for plus size and petite models as well as a spokeswoman for Hanes hosiery. Virginia now lives in New Jersey.
THE UNOFFICIAL STORY(It’s shorter than the official one!)
We don’t know the exact date or the exact way our friendship started – but it feels like we’ve known each other our entire lives—even though we didn’t meet until we were grown. And after more than a quarter of a century, now that we are “way grown,” we have NEVER run out of things to say to each other, we STILL love spending time together—which makes this working together thing we’ve managed to keep going, extra special.
We don’t fight—never have. We don’t always agree—and often agree to disagree, but that’s what makes us interesting as people—we have maintained our friendship and our individuality without compromising either.
Our friendship is real. It is our glue. We are sisters with different parents. Our writing partnership is not a gimmick, it never was something we “thought up” for publicity. We don’t know whose idea it was to attempt the first book – at this point it doesn’t even matter because whatever we do collectively is “our” idea. No ego. No ownership. We are equal creative and business partners and we really ENJOY what we do!
We want to give our readers a good, well crafted story—plot, characters, and of course language are all important. Our goal is to create a story and characters that will hang around a while --- even after the book is closed—and nothing pleases us more than the great emails and letters we have received over the years telling us just that! Thank you for being our readers and supporters long before there was a MySpace!!!
Please visit our website www.deberryandgrant.com and email us at [email protected]

My Interests

Latin ballroom dancing (watching--not doing--so far!), cooking, jazz (not the smooth kind), (DONNA-football, tennis, cello, acoustic guitar), eating wonderful food with great friends, travel, cocktails, (DONNA camping), modern dance, flea marketing, shopping for bargains, shoes, travel, great books, movies–esp. old ones and (VIRGINIA musicals), (VIRGINIA cooking), good conversation, solid debate, clothes/fashion, cars, wine (not to be confused with cocktails)

Movies:

This is only a partial list--and it's in no particular order. Some are favorites of one of us, some are both--but it's a place to start!
Tryin’ to Sleep in the Bed You Made (we’re workin’ on it!), Network, East of Eden, Key Largo, Desk Set, Adam and Eve, The Women, The Godfather, The Hustler, Twelve Angry Men, From the Terrace, The Graduate, It’s a Wonderful Life, The Birdcage, A Few Good Men, As Good as it Gets, Indian Jones and the Temple of Doom, Groundhog Day, The Days of Wine and Roses, Shaft, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, To Kill a Mockingbird, The Odd Couple, The Philadelphia Story, For Love of Ivy, Gigi, Claudine, Sunset Boulevard, The Sound of Music, My Fair Lady, Shopgirl, Chinatown, Calamity Jane, Eve’s Bayou, The Magnificent Seven, Carmen Jones, Dirty Harry, The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (and all the rest of the Clint Eastwood spaghetti western canon), The Bridges of Madison County, The Usual Suspects, La Dolce Vita, One True Thing, Daughters of the Dust, American Beauty, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Foreign Correspondent, Citizen Kane, The Killing Fields, The Apartment, Monty Python and the Holy Grail, Towering Inferno, Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner, Lilies of the Field, Ferris Beuler’s Day Off, In the Heat of the Night, To Sir With Love, Harry Potter (all), Cooley High, Jaws, The Sting, Excalibur, Strangers on a Train, Some Like it Hot, ET, Star Wars (the original trilogy), Three Days of the Condor, Casablanca, Singin’ in the Rain, The Maltese Falcon, High Noon, The Thomas Crown Affair (I), The Thomas Crown Affair (II), Four Weddings and a Funeral, Ben Hur, The Great Escape, His Gal Friday, Fargo, Bonnie and Clyde, M*A*S*H, Love Actually, When Harry Met Sally, The Green Mile, Annie Hall, Rain Man, La Dolce Vita, The Conversation, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, From the Terrace, Forrest Gump, The Right Stuff, Young Frankenstein, Dog Day Afternoon, The French Connection, Blazing Saddles, Apollo Thirteen, Raiders of the Lost Ark, The Incredibles, Being There, The Shawshank Redemption, North by Northwest, Lawrence of Arabia, Vertigo, 2001 A Space Odyssey, Rebecca, Inherit the Wind, Brief Encounter, Rear Window, It Happened One Night, Notorious, L.A. Confidential, Spartacus, The Best Years of Our Lives, To Have and Have Not, Laura, All About Eve, Bread and Chocolate, Terms of Endearment, Steel Magnolias

Books:

Like the movies--some are fav's of both of us, others are individual and these are in no particular order!
All of Ours , The Brothers Grimm,Beverly Cleary, Beatrix Potter, Alice in Wonderland ---Lewis Caroll, Heidi-, Tom Sawyer , Huck Finn, The Iliad, The Odyssey and all of Greek mythology, The Hardy Boys-Franklin Dixon, Nancy Drew-- Carolyn Keene, The entire Beany Malone series —Lenora Mattingly Webber, Peyton Place, Marjorie Morningstar, The Thorn Birds, The Autobiography of Malcolm X, Native Son, Their Eyes Were Watching God, Go Tell it on the Mountain, The Sun Also Rises, The Great Gatsby, The Pearl, Lord of the Flies, Catcher in the Rye, Of Mice & Men, The Call of the Wild, Cannery Row, The Grapes of Wrath, East of Eden, The Brothers Karamazov, Dr. Zhiavago, Anna Karenenia, Vanity Fair, Great Expectations, Moby Dick, Light in August, The Three Musketeers, Invisible Man, Agatha Christie, Native Son, Black Boy, Sherlock Holmes, Robert Ludlum, Danielle Steele, A Woman of Substance-Barbara Taylor Bradford, Judith Krantz, Kane and Abel, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime, The Thirteenth Tale, Gloria Naylor, The Sound and the Fury, The House of the Seven Gables, A Tale of Two Cities, Roots, Baby of the Family, The Hand I Fan With, Shogun, For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide, Kurt Vonnegut- Happy Birthday Wanda June, Cats Cradle, Breakfast of Champions, John Irving– The World According to Garp, Hotel New Hampshire, The Cider House Rules, A Prayer for Owen Meany, A Widow for One Year, Pat Conroy- Prince of Tides, Anne Tyler–A Slipping Down Life, Dinner a the Homesick Restaurant, Accidental Tourist, Saint Maybe, Breathing Lessons, Ladder of Years, Amy Tan- Joy Luck Club, Kitchen God’s Wife, 100 Secret Senses, The Bonesetter’s Daughter, J. California Cooper–In Search of Satisfaction, Some Love, Some Pain, Sometime, A Piece of Mine, Homemade Love, Bernice McFadden–The Warmest December, Sugar, This Bitter Earth, Clover, The Color Purple, Sula, The Song of Solomon, Beloved, Jubilee, Big Girls Don’t Cry, Mama, Waiting to Exhale, The DaVinci Code, The Harry Potter Series, Jean Auel–The Earth’s Children series: Clan of the Cave Bear, The Mammoth Hunters, Valley of the Horses, Shelters of Stone, Cane, To Kill a Mockingbird

Heroes:

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My Blog

Is Enough Enough?

So....we just read on our friend Eisa Ulen's blog http://www.eisaulen.com/blog/ that bestselling author Omar Tyree has just announced his "retirement" from street lit, stating that last July's, The La...
Posted by Virginia DeBerry & Donna Grant on Tue, 01 Jul 2008 10:07:00 PST

For Colored Girls: Official Press Release

We told you it was coming, and here it is! We are sooooo proud of our friend Keryl, who is a partner in DreamTeam Entertainment Group. And we can't wait for the poster so we can frame it--maybe one au...
Posted by Virginia DeBerry & Donna Grant on Wed, 25 Jun 2008 08:56:00 PST

And the survey says...

When we asked you to break down the five 'must have' scenes for Tryin' to Sleep in the Bed You Madethe Movie, we knew it was a hard assignment. Even David Letterman does a top ten list. Some of you f...
Posted by Virginia DeBerry & Donna Grant on Mon, 23 Jun 2008 07:11:00 PST

Broadway Dreamin --Yes We Can!!!!!

              Last night, in our separate homes, we watched the Tony Awards with particular glee. Yes, we were happy for all of the award rec...
Posted by Virginia DeBerry & Donna Grant on Mon, 16 Jun 2008 11:21:00 PST

Tryin Movie suggestions--THANKS!!

Tryin' Movie suggestions--THANK YOU!! We want to thank all of you for your responses to Regina's question. Your suggestions for scenes not to be left out of Tryin' the Movie have come pouring in. Many...
Posted by Virginia DeBerry & Donna Grant on Thu, 12 Jun 2008 09:13:00 PST

Cooling update

Mini-blog--also a correction regarding Hot! Hot! Hot! Mea culpa (Virginia who has central air and is not rubbing it in...) Donna does have an air conditioner in her bedroom and her home office--so she...
Posted by Virginia DeBerry & Donna Grant on Wed, 11 Jun 2008 05:34:00 PST

Hot! Hot! Hot!

It's 10 o'clock in the morning, early in June and it's already 92 degrees outside. And THEY're (and we all know who THEY are) promising us 100 by this afternoonaren't we lucky? We went from a May whe...
Posted by Virginia DeBerry & Donna Grant on Mon, 09 Jun 2008 09:42:00 PST

Help! All you lovers of Tryin’ to Sleep in the Bed You Made

We had a great time last week in LA for Book Expo America. It was a chance to catch up with fellow authors and friends like Donna Hill, Terry McMillan, Victoria Christopher Murray (we'll get to see ea...
Posted by Virginia DeBerry & Donna Grant on Tue, 03 Jun 2008 12:50:00 PST

We’ve Fallen Down but...

Boy, have we fallen down on the case. Not a peep since Donna's little tendon reconstruction. We could try to play it off on thatall the thumb therapy kept us busy. But that's not even the case (she d...
Posted by Virginia DeBerry & Donna Grant on Mon, 26 May 2008 11:52:00 PST

Thumbs Up!

We arrived at the hospital in the pre-dawn hours to find a waiting room jammed full of patients whose arrival time was clearly before our 6AM calltalk about cruel. The great thing about the early arr...
Posted by Virginia DeBerry & Donna Grant on Fri, 09 May 2008 12:47:00 PST