For her very first novel Wench, Dr. Dolen Perkins-Valdez takes a real setting to weave together a story of slavery from a new perspective. Wench was inspired by a historical biography on civil rights activist, W.E.B. Du Bois entitled Biography of a Race (David Levering Lewis). A casual mention of Wilberforce University in that book, was the fertile ground for a new take on slavery and the relationships between the master and his property as well as the dynamics between the slaves.

Perkins-Valdez was surprise enough that the university was once a resort for slave owners and their slave mistresses, but she was also surprised that children born from the master/slave affair were sent to college.

Perkins-Valdez spares no one’s feeling as she presents the horrors of that period in time, but every detail is for a reason, not for the sake of shocking the reader. And despite her lead character being a slave, it is Lizzy who she most identifies with.

Wench could have easily become just another slavery story, but the author has carefully woven an intricate examination of the history of racial intermingling whether forced or coerced.

Click onto the three media bars for:

What surprised the author.

Who she identifies with most.

Why she held nothing back.