Gwendolyn Fortune
North Carolina Bookwatch

Born in Houston, Texas, Gwendoline Y. Fortune grew up hearing stories of her "mixed blood" heritage: a free-born black great-grandfather, Native Americans, Scot-Irishmen, a cowboy grandfather, a Confederate great-grandfather and relatives who were missionaries in pre-World War II China. She went to college at the age of fifteen and has been writing ever since. Selections from Growing Up Nigger Rich placed in the top twelve entries of the annual Pirate's Alley Faulkner Society competition and earned second place in the National Black Writers' Conference Awards. She lives in Saxapahaw, North Carolina.