Virginia DeBerry & Donna Grant

Virginia DeBerry and Donna Grant, best friends for more than 25 years, have turned a friendship into the most successful collaboration to date in African-American fiction. They are the co-authors of three bestselling novels such as "Tryin' to Sleep" "in the Bed You Made", "Far From the Tree"," Better Than I Know Myself" and the re-released "Exposures", (written as Marie Joyce) originally published in 1990 by Warner Books. In January 2008, "Gotta Keep on Tryin’" , the sequel to "Tryin’ to Sleep in the Bed You Made" was published by Touchstone/Simon & Schuster.

Biography

Donna and Virginia first met in New York as plus size models vying for the same assignments. Their modeling careers led to the opportunity to launch Maxima, a fashion and lifestyle magazine for plus-size women, where Virginia was editor-in-chief and Donna the managing editor. When publication of Maxima ceased, Virginia and Donna decided to try writing a book together. Their first effort, Exposures was published under the pseudonym Marie Joyce (for Donna Marie and Virginia Joyce). It was also published in Spain as Instantaneas. Their next book, written as DeBerry and Grant, was "Tryin' to Sleep in the Bed You Made", which was a critical success, an Essence Bestseller, as are all three of their books, and won the Merit Award for Fiction from the Black Caucus of the American Library Association, as well as the 1998 Book of the Year Award from the Blackboard Bestseller List/African American Booksellers Conference-Book Expo America. More than that, it hit an emotional nerve with tens of thousands of readers from all over the world who continue to write to Virginia and Donna ten years after the book's publication. "Far From the Tree" became a New York Times Bestseller, and "Better Than I Know Myself" received two Open Book Awards, and was included on the Best African-American fiction of 2004 lists of both Borders and WaldenBooks.

In addition to speaking at book fairs and literary festivals around the country for the past eight years, Virginia and Donna have been keynote, motivational/inspirational speakers and served on panels for a wide variety of meetings, organizations, companies, churches, cultural and educational institutions, including: Dell North America, Women Work!, Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority Inc., FAMU, Speaking of Women's Health (Proctor and Gamble) & the Texas Conference for Women. Their honest and powerful messages have received praise from literary, business and academic audiences. They have also appeared on CNN, Good Day New York and been featured on the pages of Essence, Glamour, American Woman, and Black Issues Book Review.

Donna attended Barnard College and is a graduate of New York University. She is a Brooklyn, New York native and currently lives in the borough with her husband. Before becoming a novelist, she spent more than a decade as a plus size model, represented by the 12+ division of Ford Models.

Virginia is a former high school English teacher from Buffalo, New York. She attended Fisk University and is a graduate of SUNY at Buffalo. She now lives in New Jersey.

Last year, Donna and Virginia joined with partners Tyrha Lindsey and Tracey Kemble to form 4 Colored Girls Productions. The movie Tryin’ to Sleep in the Bed You Made, based on their 1997 novel, is their first independent feature. Their next novel, "What Doesn’t Kill You", will be published in January 2009.

Bibliography

"Tryin' to Sleep in the Bed You Made
"Far From the Tree"
"Better Than I Know Myself""
"Exposures" (written as Marie Joyce)
"Gotta Keep on Tryin" (January 2008)

Awards

Black Caucus of the American Library Association, showing Virginia Deberry & Donna Grant as 1998 recipients of a BCALA Honor Award in fiction for Tryin'.http://www.bcala.org/awards/past_litwinners2.htm

BlackBoard 1998 Book of the Year Winners--Award presented at BookExpo, the Book and Author Breakfast, Sunday May 31, 1998, McCormack Place Convention Center, Chicago, IL(Tryin' was the largest selling hardcover work of African American fiction for 1997)

Girl Book Club, 1997 New Author of the Year Award, (click on Award Winners Hall of Fame)
http://www.goongirl.org/events/author_awards/

African American Literary Awards Show--Open Book Award, September 29, 2004,
http://www.literaryawardshow.com/

References

http://www.deberryandgrant.com/

http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=83603641

Glamour Magazine--an article about Virginia DeBerry & Donna Grant appeared in the Between Friends column, January 1997 issue, pg 104. The article is titled "Friend Power"
Essence--February 1997--Word Star column pg 56

Black Issues Book Review, Sept-Oct 2000, Partners in Their Prime by Sharon Fitzgerald (pg 64-66)

Fox After Breakfast --Feb 6, 1997

Good Day New York--Feb 9, 1997