Kalisha Buckhanon - "Speaking of Summer"

"Kalisha Buckhanon's characters are both fearless and haunted, brave and burdened by the past. "Speaking of Summer" gives us a powerful song about what it means to survive as a woman in America." - Jesmyn Ward, National Book Award winner and author of "Sing, Unburied, Sing"

Kalisha Buckhanon discusses "Speaking of Summer." A Q&A and signing will follow the discussion.

About the book: The new novel from the author of "Upstate," one of five books selected by the National Book Foundation for the inaugural Literature for Justice Program: a literary thriller about one woman’s desperate search for her missing twin sister, a multi-layered mystery set against the neighborhoods of Harlem. On a cold December evening, Autumn Spencer’s twin sister Summer walks to the roof of their shared Harlem brownstone and is never seen again—the door to the roof is locked, and no footsteps are found. Faced with authorities indifferent to another missing woman, Autumn must pursue answers on her own, all while grieving her mother’s recent death. With her friends and neighbors, Autumn pretends to hold up through the crisis. She falls into an affair with Summer’s boyfriend to cope with the disappearance of a woman they both loved. But the loss becomes too great, the mystery too inexplicable, and Autumn starts to unravel, all the while becoming obsessed with murdered women and the men who kill them. In "Speaking of Summer," critically acclaimed author Kalisha Buckhanon has created a postmodern, fast-paced story of urban peril and victim invisibility, and the fight to discover truth at any cost.

About the author: Kalisha Buckhanon is the author of the novels "Solemn," "Conception," and "Upstate," which was selected as an inaugural National Book Foundation Literature for Justice title. Her other honors include an American Library Association Alex Award, an Illinois Arts Council Artist Fellowship, Pushcart Prize and Hurston/Wright Awards nominations, and a Terry McMillan Young Author Award. She also appears on "Investigation Discovery," "BET," and "TV One" as a true crime expert in cases involving women. She lives in Chicago.