Kim McLarin – författare

After a series of stressful personal transitions, Grace Jefferson finds herself in a new house in a new city and in a new career for which she feels dangerously unsuited: a stay-at-home mom. An educated and accomplished modern woman, a child of the Civil Rights dream, she is caught between the only two models of mothering she has ever known—a sharecropping grandmother who abandoned her children to save herself and a mother who sacrificed all to save her kids—as she struggles to find a middle ground. But as the days pass and the pressures mount, Grace begins to catch herself in small acts of abandonment that she fears may foretell a future she is powerless to prevent . . . or perhaps secretly seeks.

Jump at the Sun is a novel about an isolating suburban life and the continuing legacy of slavery, about generational change and the price of living the dream for which our parents fought. In her bold and fearless voice, Kim McLarin explores both the highs and lows of being a mother, and how breaking the cycle of suffocation and regret, while infuriatingly difficult, is absolutely necessary.

“Lucid, candid reflections on Black identity.”—KIRKUS

Set mainly in Greenwich Village and Harlem, James Baldwin’s 1962 novel, Another Country, is a groundbreaking work of sexual, racial and artistic passions that is stunning for its emotional intensity and haunting sensuality.

In her volume in Ig’s acclaimed Bookmarked series, award winning author and essayist Kim McLarin shares her appreciation of this seminal novel, demonstrating how its myriad themes— including relations between men and women (gay and straight, Black and white), the meaning of creativity, and the ecstasy and pain of love—mirror many of her own life experiences. In this critical and personal examination, we come to better understand a pioneering novel and writer, as well as the role race, class andgender have played in Kim’s life, and by extension, contemporary American society.

"Genuine, unrestrained musings, both political and personal, on life as a Black woman in contemporary America...A highly rewarding, commiserating nod as well as an astute rallying cry."—KIRKUS (starred review)

"Concise essays that clearly convey that the fight for racial justice must continue in the face of backlash. A must-purchase for all collections."—LIBRARY JOURNAL (starred review)

Everyday Something Has Tried to Kill Me And Has Failed is imbued with the same kind of unapologetic, raw and unflinching honesty as McLarin’s previous work, which makes it a welcome and timely read. McLarin wrangles boldly with topics such as aging and anti-Blackness, and in these essays I feel seen at a time when we—Black women approaching sixty and beyond—feel invisible, and/or seen in the worst possible light.”—DEESHA PHILYAW, author, The Secret Lives of Church Ladies

“These essays are a wake-up call. A call to arms. A collective North Star. This is the voice of a Black woman writer who knows who she is. A writer who speaks in a voice perfect for this moment when we are simultaneously all falling down and being lifted to new heights.”—MARITA GOLDEN,  author, The New Black Woman: Loves Herself, Has Boundaries, Heals Every Day

“The Black female body in peril, a gun purchased in response to the surge of white nationalism, the loss of racial innocence—the cumulative effect of these and the other essays in this provocative, exquisite collection confirms two things: there are prophets among us whom we ignore at our peril, and the spirit of Baldwin lives on. And for anyone familiar with McLarin’s work, you will find in Everyday Something Has Tried to Kill Me And Has Failed confirmation of this too: her assessments of America’s social landscape remain as powerful as the love she holds for her family, her friends, and her race.” —JERALD WALKER, author, How To Make A Slave and Other Essays, finalist for the National Book Award in Non-Fiction

“What does periracial mean? It’s a word I made up while casting about for a way to capture both the chronic nature of structural injustice and inequity of America and my own weariness. A way to label life under that particular tooth in the zipper of interlocking systems of oppression bell hooks called “imperialist white supremacist capitalist heteropatriarchy.” (What a lot to resist. No wonder we’re so tired!) To capture the endless cycle of progress and backlash which has shaped my one small life here in America during the end of the 20th century and the beginning of the 21st. To counter the idea―now largely abandoned but innocently believed for most of my adult life by white Americans on both ends of the political spectrum― that America has ever been post-racial. To suggest that I suspect, at this sad rate, we never will be.”―Kim McLarin, on the meaning of Periracial

With accumulated wisdom and sharp-eyed clarity, Everyday Something Has Tried to Kill Me And Has Failed addresses the joys and hardships of being an older Black woman in contemporary, “periracial” America. Award-winning author Kim McLarin utilizes deeply personal experiences to illuminate the pain and power of aging, Blackness and feminism, in the process capturing the endless cycle of progress and backlash that has long shaped race and gender.