The wife of a popular and powerful megachu rch pastor upends her charmed &ldquo\;rags-to-Rolex&rdquo\; life when her secretive past comes roaring into the spotlight&mdash\;in this much-antici pated\, splendidly unruly debut novel from Deesha Philyaw\, author of the award-winning hit short story collection The Secret Lives of Church La dies.
\nFrom the moment Scharisse Freeman ditched her humble ro ots and married a megachurch pastor fifteen years her senior\, she&rsquo\; s been labeled too brash and too &ldquo\;of the world&rdquo\; by church fo lks who grudgingly accepted her into their fold\, and too holy by her estr anged childhood bestie Petra. Schar doesn&rsquo\;t have many allies\, but that hasn&rsquo\;t stopped her from building an enviable business empire s panning books to clothing to branded products\, and living the comfortable life her husband's power affords her.
\nOn the eve of her 40th birt hday\, Schar gets the final bit of validation she&rsquo\;s always dreamt o f: a coveted invitation to participate in the First Lady USA pageant. This is her chance to be accepted by the other pastors&rsquo\; wives&mdash\;Fi rst Ladies&mdash\;who are &ldquo\;like Jesus&rsquo\; disciples if they had been a group of mean girls.&rdquo\; Finally\, blissfully\, the ice betwee n Schar and the other First Ladies begins to thaw.
\nBut as the page ant nears\, a sensational scandal breaks with Schar at its center\, and he r carefully curated life implodes. Schar faces down shame and terrible sec rets from her childhood and is reminded that in the eyes of the church\, o ptics can matter more than the truth.
\nBooks will be available for sale and signing. \;
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Registration is requested.&n bsp\;
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Author D eesha Philyaw&rsquo\;s debut short story collection\, The Sec ret Lives of Church Ladies\, won the PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction\, the Story Prize\, the LA Times Book Prize: The Art Seidenbaum Aw ard for First Fiction and was a finalist for the National Book Award for F iction. Deesha is a Kimbilio Fiction Fellow\, a Baldwin for the Arts Fello w\, a United States Artists Fellow\, and co-host of two podcasts\, Ursa Sh ort Fiction (with Dawnie Walton) and Reckon True Stories (with Kiese Laymo n). She is currently at work developing TV shows based on her short fictio n.
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Moderator Dr. Regina N. Bradley \;is an award-winning writer and researche r of the Black American South. She is Professor of English and African Dia spora Studies at Kennesaw State University\, a faculty editor for Sout hern Cultures journal\, and co-director of the Hip Hop Studies Consor tium at Georgia State University. She is also an alumna Nasir Jones HipHop Fellow (Hutchins Center\, Harvard University). \;
\nDr. Bradley is also the author of the critically acclaimed book Chronicling Stank onia: the Rise of the Hip-Hop South. Chronicling Stankonia explores h ow Atlanta\, GA hip hop duo OutKast and hip hop influences the culture of the Black American South in the long shadow of the Civil Rights Movement. She is also the editor of An OutKast Reader\, a collection of ess ays about OutKast\, and co-editor of the third edition of That&rsquo\; s the Joint!: the Hip Hop Studies Reader with Murray Forman and Mark Anthony Neal.
\nPresented by Adult Services.
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