As you all know, I love featuring authors on my blog. Today, I’m featuring Author/Poet DuEwa Frazier. She’s here to tell us about her latest work as well as allow us to get to know her on a more personal level. We connected via social media a few years ago. It’s refreshing to have support from fellow authors. #authorssupportingauthors
DuEwa featured me on her blog a few days ago. If you would like to read the interview, please click on the link below.
Help me give DuEwa a big Kickin' It With KeKe welcome...
About the Author:
DuEwa Frazier is an educator, poet, children's/young adult author, performer and speaker. Born in Brooklyn, New York and raised in St. Louis, Missouri, she is the author of two young adult novels to date - Quincy Rules (2016) and Deanne in the Middle (2014). DuEwa is also the author of several books of poetry: Goddess Under the Bridge: Poems (2013), Ten Marbles and a Bag to Put Them In: Poems for Children (2010), Stardust Tracks on a Road (2005), and Shedding Light From My Journeys (2002). She is the editor and publisher of the award nominated anthology, Check the Rhyme: An Anthology of Female Poets & Emcees (2006). Check the Rhyme received the coveted NAACP Image Award nomination for Outstanding Literary Work - Poetry, in 2007. DuEwa is a publisher who founded Lit Noire Publishing in 2002. DuEwa has shared stages with esteemed poets, actors and authors, and has produced numerous events including the 2010 "Haiku and Handgrenades" tribute to Sonia Sanchez at The Harlem Book Fair and the 2016 "I Rise" Women's History Month tribute to women poets at The Missouri History Museum. She is featured in the Rhyme and Reason documentary on poetry. Her poetry and essays have been featured in numerous publications including: Crossing the Divide Anthology, Eleven Eleven Literary Journal, Split This Rock, Essence Magazine, For Harriet, Poetry Ink Anthology, Poetry In Performance, Stanford University's Black Arts Quarterly, Black Renaissance/Renaissance Noire, Tidal Basin Review, Reverie Journal, Drumvoices Revue and others. In addition to earning the B.A. degree in English at Hampton University, DuEwa earned the following advanced degrees: M.Ed. in Curriculum and Teaching at Fordham University (NY), Master of Fine Arts (MFA) degree in Creative Writing at The New School (NY), Ed.M. in Educational Leadership at Columbia University (NY). Visit her website at http://www.duewaworld.com./
So tell us, how long have you been writing?
I’ve been writing since I was a child. I always kept a journal. I started writing poetry in college.
What genre do you write or prefer writing?
Poetry has been a passion of mine, but I first started writing professionally as a journalist. I started writing fiction stories years ago, but my first fiction publication is my first young adult novel, Deanne in the Middle (2014). I don’t have one genre I prefer, I just enjoy writing and being creative.
How did you know you wanted to become an author/writer?
Probably since college when I became an English major.
What inspires you to write?
Everyday life, reading the work of others, social issues, things that go wrong, things that go right, history, art, music and education.
What message do you want readers to take away from your work?
For my YA novels, I want young readers to feel like they can relate to the characters and visualize the scenes. For my poetry I want to take the reader or hearer on a journey, and maybe they can reflect and think about something in a different way.
How would you describe your writing style?
Sometimes poetic, sometimes humorous, sometimes inspiring.
Who are some of your favorite authors? Zora Neale Hurston, Flannery O’ Connor, J. California Cooper, Langston Hughes, Ntozake Shange, Sonia Sanchez, James Baldwin, Lucille Clifton, Ralph Ellison, Gwendolyn Brooks, Virginia Hamilton, Walter Dean Myers, and many others.
What are some of your favorite books? Their Eyes Were Watching God, Invisible Man, The Book of Night Women, Creative Visualization, Rotten English, Wrapped in Rainbows, Sassafras, Cypress & Indigo and many others.
What is your formula when working on a new project? (Do you listen to music, use an outline, meditate, or simply start typing?)
Sometimes I write in silence, sometimes I listen to music. I don’t have a formula.
If you could collaborate with any of your peers, who would it be and why?
I’d actually love to collaborate with illustrator Bryan Collier or Christopher Myers on a picture book. They both have exquisite illustrations in award winning books for children.
What advice would you give aspiring authors?
Keep at it. Write. Reflect. Learn. Grow.
I love it! Write. Reflect. Learn. Grow. I'll definitely be borrowing that. A great mantra to add to my list of daily inspiration.
What are you reading currently? Poetry, short stories, children’s stories.
Tell us about your latest book.
It was actually fun for me to write my latest book, Quincy Rules. It is a story about a 15-year old teen named Quincy Lyles. She's a sophomore in high school. She teaches yoga classes at her mother's studio, loves thrift shopping, and has a BFF - Delaney Rojas who is always with her. Quincy wants to find her father, who she receives cards and letters from with no return address. Her mother and stepfather don't really want to get involved. This is where Quincy's search begins. It's an interesting story, and it's so different from my last young adult story, Deanne in the Middle. I hope the young readers who pick up this book will find some value in it, and see themselves in one of the characters.
Quincy Rules
Genre: Young Adult/Juvenile Fiction/Teens/Mystery
192 pages
Publisher: Lit Noire Publishing / CreateSpace, October 2016
Available in Kindle or Paperback via Amazon.com
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How can readers find you? www.duewaworld.com
Links:
As an author, do you think using social media is a great source for gaining new readers/supporters? Totally.
What’s next for you? I have some events coming up.
Do you believe networking is crucial to being successful in the writing industry? Why? Why not? Networking just to network is a waste of time. It’s better to form long-term connections with those where each of you finds a mutual benefit. Don’t focus on networking. Focus on doing what you came here to do.
Where do you see yourself in five years? Still creating.
Where do you want to be with your writing in five years? Growing and developing.
Tell us something that you live by daily, that we can carry with us that should inspire and motivate us to pursue our purpose? Tomorrow is a new day. Change is inevitable. Keep your eye on the prize (whatever that may be). Faith. Hope.
If there is something I didn’t ask that you want readers to know about you, please include it at this time. Follow me via Twitter @duewaworld and ‘Like’ my Facebook Author Page www.facebook.com/duewafrazier
Please connect with DuEwa and learn about all the wonderful things she has coming in the near future. Authors love to connect with readers. It’s how we exist! Thank you DuEwa for Kickin’ It With KeKe.
Until next time, Be Inspired, Be Encouraged & BE YOU!
Purple Hugs,
KeKe Chanel
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