Author

Deesha Philyaw

3 books, mostly bipoc literature, for Mariner Books and Tantor Media, 2020–2026

Deesha Philyaw is an award-winning American writer, essayist, and speaker from Jacksonville, Florida. Her debut short story collection, The Secret Lives of Church Ladies, explored Black women’s lives, sexuality, faith, and the Black church, earning the PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction, the Story Prize, and the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for First Fiction, while also becoming a National Book Award finalist. She is also the author of Co-Parenting 101 and the forthcoming debut novel The True Confessions of First Lady Freeman.