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GROWING UP NIGGER RICH

A Novel
By Gwendoline Y. Fortune

"Nigger rich" is a colloquialism encompassing class distinctions, a term used mainly by African Americans in reference to other African Americans, with an intent similar to that of other people's use of the term "nigger" to refer to any person of color. It was, and remains, an expression of fear, of anger, and. of envy.
Through the complex web of this narrative, Gwendoline Y. Fortune juxtaposes "old South" and new, privilege and powerlessness, and various visions of racial identity in this refreshing, heartbreaking novel about growing up and coming home.
From the moment Gayla Tyner returns to her hometown of Carolton, South Carolina after thirty years away "up North," she is struck by the reminders of her segregated youth. As she seeks to ease the pain of having grown up "nigger rich" with relative privilege in some places, reviled and teased in others she must also come to terms, with her philandering husband, domineering father, and all of the relationships, secrets, and pleasures that continue to call her home.

About the Author
Gwendoline Y. Fortune
Growing Up Nigger Rich

Gwendoline Y. Fortune has always been an avid reader and describes herself as a seeker. She describes her first novel as an adventure into revelation, remembrance, and reconciliation, a story that will ring true to readers across genders and racial backgrounds.
Born in Houston, Texas, her mother often shared stories of relatives from both sides of her family: Native Americans, Scots-Irishmen, a free-born black great-grandfather, a Confederate great-grandfather, a cowboy grandfather, and relatives who were missionaries in pre-World War 11 China. She was inspired to write Growing Up Nigger Rich, a project she started as a fifteen-year-old college freshman at Bennett College because "Every story I read about my people they're barefoot, pregnant, and in the field. I know a different life and I never read about the kind of people I know."
Dr. Fortune began writing professionally in 1981 and has since won a number of prestigious grants and awards. Selections from Growing Up Nigger Rich were finalists in the annual Pirate's Alley Faulkner Society competition and the National Black Writers' Conference Awards.
Active in community organizations, Dr. Fortune enjoys singing with the Chapel-Hill Carrboro Community Choir and is actively involved in writer's organizations nationwide. She formerly sat on the Board of Directors of the North Carolina Writers' Network and the Off-Campus Writers Network. Education has always been a high priority, and Dr. Fortune holds advanced degrees in education, social science, and social science education. She is active in the alumni associations of Bennett College, J. C. Smith, Roosevelt, and Nova Southeastern Universities.
Dr. Fortune lives in Saxapahaw, North Carolina, where she offers individual, relationship, and group courses and human growth counseling in her home. She has three sons and one granddaughter.

GROWING UP NIGGER RICH
By Gwendoline Y. Fortune
PUBLICATION DATE: March 2002
256 pp. 6 x 9
ISBN: 1-56554-963-5 $22.00
All rights held by Pelican Publishing Company, Inc.
Edited by Cynthia Williams
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