In Conversation: On Three Girls from Bronzeville: A Uniquely American Memoir of Race, Fate, and Sisterhood

Dawn Turner is a journalist and the author of the novels Only Twice I’ve Wished for Heaven and An Eighth of Augus. A former columnist and reporter for the Chicago Tribune, she has written commentary for The Washington Post, PBS NewsHour, CBS Sunday Morning, NPR’s Morning Edition, Chicago Tonight, and elsewhere. Three Girls from Bronzeville: A Uniquely American Memoir of Race, Fate, and Sisterhood (Simon & Schuster) is about three Black women – Dawn, tall and studious; her sister, Kim, younger by three years and headstrong as they come; and her best friend, Debra, already prom-queen pretty by third grade – friends since childhood. Third-generation daughters of the Great Migration, they come of age in the 1970s, in the warm glow of the recent civil rights movement. But promises of “friends forever” fade as fate intervenes, first slowly and then dramatically, sending them careening in wildly different directions. In examining their fortunes, Turner explores race, opportunity, friendship, sisterhood, and the forces that allow some to flourish while others falter. Publishers Weekly praised the book, saying “by turns beautiful, tragic, and inspiring, [It] is a powerful testament to the bonds of sisterhood and the importance of understanding the conditions that shape a person’s life choices.”

Michel Martin is the weekend host of NPR's All Things Considered. Outside the studio, she has also hosted "Michel Martin: Going There," an ambitious live event series in collaboration with Member Stations. Martin also launched Tell Me More, a one-hour daily NPR news and talk show that aired on its stations nationwide from 2007-2014. Previously, Martin worked at ABC News, beginning in 1992, serving as a correspondent for Nightline from 1996 to 2006. She also reported for the ABC newsmagazine Day One, winning an Emmy for her coverage of the international campaign to ban the use of landmines, and was a regular panelist on This Week with George Stephanopoulos.