Rachel Eliza Griffiths

Rachel Eliza Griffiths, American multimedia artist, poet and writer, discusses her debut novel Promise. Telling the story of two Black sisters growing up in small-town New England at the end of the 1950s, the novel explores their fight to protect their home, their bodies and their dreams as the civil right movement sweeps the nation. Highly praised by Man Booker Prize-winners Kiran Desai and Marlon James, it is a story that celebrates resistance and love in times of adversity.

Griffiths’ literary and visual work has been published in major magazines and newspapers including The New Yorker and The New York Times. Author of various poetry collections, her most recent is Seeing the Body. She has received fellowships from the Robert Rauschenberg Foundation and the Cave Canem Foundation.