Author
Donna Hemans
Media: Reviews, Interviews, Features, Podcasts
The House of Plain Truth | Publication: January 30, 2024
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Publishers Weekly
Review <Read more.>
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Kirkus Reviews
Hemans' thoughtful family tale is a balm for readers. <Read more.>
New York Times Book Review
Newly Published: January 28, 2024
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ABC7NY
Interview with Sandy Kenyon <Read or watch.>
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USA Today
Some of the Best Books By Black Authors to Read in 2024. <Read more.>
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Book Trib
New Zibby Books Release Is a Lyrical Exploration of Family Secrets in Jamaica <Read more.>
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Electric Literature
Donna Hemans' novel "The House of Plain Truth" investigates the painful sacrifices that come with immigrating <Read more.>
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The Writers Center Magazine
With Distance and Time: A Discussion With Novelist Donna Hemans About The House of Plain Truth <Read more.>
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Ms. Magazine
January 2024: Reads for the Rest of Us <Read more.>
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Rolling Out
Why Donna Hemans went back to her roots for ‘The House of Plain Truth’ <Read more.>
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Book Riot
The Best New Book Releases Out February 20, 2024 <Read more.>
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DC Trending
MD Author Donna Hemans' New Novel, The House of Plain Truth, Explores Migration and Belonging
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Writer's Digest
Donna Hemans: On Giving Characters Control Over Their Own Stories <Read more.>
Podcasts
Moms Don't Have Time to Read Books: Interview
My Simplified Life: Interview
Brown Girl Collective: Interview
Write the Damn Book Already: Interview
The Shit No One Tells You About Writing: Interview
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Tea By the Sea | Publication: June 9, 2020
Oprah Magazine
The 7 Best Caribbean Books for Your 2021 Reading List, According to Rebel Women Lit's Readers' Awards. <Read More.>
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Caribbean Beat Magazine
Bookshelf (Jan/Feb 2021) | Book reviews. <Read more.>
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Fordham Magazine
Seen, Heard, Read: ‘Los Espookys,’ ‘Blindspot,’ and ‘Tea By the Sea’. <Read more.>
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LitHub
5 Books You May Have Missed in June: From Harvard to Jamaica to Northern Ireland. <Read more.>
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DC Trending
A story of family, survival & agency: Review by Norah Vawter. <Read more.>
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New York Post
Named a Best Book of the Week - June 13, 2020. <Read more.>
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Ms. Magazine
Featured in the June 2020 Reads for the Rest of Us. <Read more.>
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Poets & Writers
Featured in Page One: Where New and Noteworthy Books Begin. <Read more.>
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The Rumpus
An Exploration of Belonging: Talking With Donna Hemans, where I chat with author Aimee Liu about the story of Tea by the Sea, the themes that haunt me, as well as process, structure, agency, and being identified as a postcolonial Caribbean immigrant writer. <Read more.>
Moms Don’t Have Time to Read
On this podcast with Zibby Owens, I talked about piecing Tea By the Sea together, my biggest takeaway from an MFA program, and the process of writing and evoking emotions that I haven't experienced myself. <Listen.>
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Washington Independent Review of Books
A discussion of identity, belonging, releasing a book during the pandemic, and my ideal cup of tea. <Read more.>
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Booklist
One man’s drastic decision has heartbreaking consequences for the women in his life in the latest novel from Hemans. <Read more.>
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Pree, September 2019.
An interview with Donna Hemans, author of Tea by the Sea. <Read more.>
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Jamaica Gleaner, November 11, 2015.
In the category for children up to 12 years old, Morrison, walked away with The Jean D'Costa Award for her manuscript, A Better Me: A Better You. McCaulay received The Vic Reid Award in the young adult category for her novel, Gone to Drift, and Hemans took home The Una Marson Award in the adult category with, Tea By the Sea. <Read more.>
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River Woman | Publication: January 2002
New York Times, July 2002.
In this graceful, absorbing first novel, the swell of gossip rises like a spring tide through the child's funeral and burial as the accusations run unchecked. Standfast itself is the novel's true protagonist, its moods shifting according to a sort of collective emotional climate that alternates between the tempestuous and the merely bleak. <Read more.>
Kirkus Reviews, December 2001 (starred review).​
A remarkably assured and insightful debut offers a finely tuned, sympathetic portrait of a teenaged mother whose toddler drowns accidentally in the river where she’s washing clothes...Flawlessly interweaving personal and social tragedy with the imagery of interior and exterior spaces. Jamaica-born Hemans’s rare and distinctive debut is not only a tale for our time, but one for all time. <Read more.>
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Publisher's Weekly, December 2001.​
The Rio Minho in Jamaica provides much more than a setting for this potent, accomplished debut. <Read more.>