Author and Publisher Denene Millner On Her 32nd Book, One Blood, The Importance Of Understanding Every Side Of Adoption, and Her Passion For Youth Literacy
“Telling this story in this way allows me to air out what has gone unspoken all my life, with the intent of honoring the stories of the Black women in my own life.”
By Diana Tramontano
Zibby Mag is thrilled to showcase author and publisher Denene Millner, whose 32nd novel, One Blood, published on September 5. Millner has co-authored New York Times bestsellers including Act Like a Lady, Think Like a Man; Straight Talk, No Chaser; I am Charlie Wilson; Around the Way Girl; and Believing in Magic. Though each of her books tell an important story that spotlights and humanizes the Black experience, One Blood is unique as it was born out of Millner’s personal story of adoption.
In the spring of 2020, Millner launched her imprint Denene Millner Books through Simon & Schuster. In her own words: “I’m infinitely more interested in stories that celebrate the everyday beauty of being a little human. Black children believe in the tooth fairy, get scared when they contemplate their first ride on the school bus, look for dragons in their closets, have best friends who get into mischief with them. In other words, Black children have the same universal childhood experiences that any other human revels in as a kid, and they should be able to see that part of their lives reflected in the stories on their bookshelves.”
Read Millner’s full interview below to hear more behind-the-scenes stories of her latest novel, One Blood, her passion for youth literacy, and some of her favorite book recommendations.
Zibby Mag: One Blood is your 32nd book––wow! This is your most personal adult novel to date. Can you share what inspired you to write this story?
Millner: I am a child of adoption who found out at age 12 that my parents weren’t my parents of origin. I’d been snooping through their private papers and found my adoption certificate and whew, I had to deal with the truth that came with that discovery all by myself, as I never copped to my parents that I knew. I was afraid to admit I was snooping because I thought I would get into trouble, and beyond that, I figured if it was important to my parents for my adoption to be a secret, then I would keep the secret, too. It wasn’t until I had babies of my own that I really swung back around to considering who my birth mother was and what parts of her were in me. Did I look like her? Laugh like her? Did she have a health issue that I should keep an eye out for in my own health journey?
At the same time, I wondered about the lives of my mother and her friends–these solidly-middle class Black women who lived quiet lives, invisible to pop culture, society, even their men–and I wanted to know more. What made my mom fall in love? What was her currency as a Black woman in America at a time when Black women occupied the lowest rungs in American society? What were her ambitions before she became a wife and mother, and what did it take for her to tuck them away in order to fit into the box society had carved for her? How did she learn to love me as her daughter when she was never able to have one biologically with my father? I had so many questions for my mother that I never got to ask her because she passed away before I knew what to ask.
When I was 34, I was struggling to balance my two little babies, my marriage, and an intense career as a journalist and author. I wrote this story because I have many questions and zero answers about my past–because I am curious about it but also scared of what I will find or who I will hurt. I wrote this story because my birth mother and many more like her deserve context. They deserve some color in the stark black-and-white judgment we reserve for women who give their babies away. I wrote this story for my mother and the Black women of her generation who were led to believe that their very survival was wholly dependent on their being mothers and wives and that this should be the sole source of their ambition, even as American racism conspired to stop Black women like my mother from succeeding at those very roles.
Telling this story in this way allows me to air out what has gone unspoken all my life, with the intent of honoring the stories–indeed lives and plights–of the Black women in my own life, who represent in no small measure the lives of Black women in general. That my mothers–and Black mothers like them––fought through this gauntlet of heartache, loss, subterfuge, patriarchy, and pain and came out on the other side of it is a miracle. A miracle that warrants exploration.
We love that the book is told in three parts connected through three women: a birth mother who has her child taken away; the adoptive mother who raises that child; and the child. What do you hope people gain from reading each perspective and experience?
I really do hope that readers remember to have grace for the birth mothers when they read Grace’s story and understand that the women who carry the babies but do not raise them are not villains. That the circumstances behind making them, giving them up, and having someone else be their mothers are complicated and painful, but love is there. I hope that when people read LoLo’s story they understand how invisibility, boxes, abuse, and trauma can manifest themselves in the way a mother interacts with her own daughters, her husband, her friends, herself, and that they show a bit of grace for people like her too. I also hope that people recognize that Black women like my mom deserved to be seen––really seen––as humans who had dreams, ambitions, and hearts full of love, even if society closed its eyes to those facts. They deserve an airing. And finally, with Rae, I hope people understand that balancing marriage, children, and a career with patriarchy, racism, trauma, and other people’s baggage is no cakewalk. The women who make the hard choice to refashion their lives into their own image, rather than what society expects of them, are superheroes deserving of our respect and not our ridicule. Ultimately, I hope that readers can see themselves and the women they love in these stories.
It is so exciting that you have your own imprint, Denene Millner Books, through Simon & Schuster! What do you most love about publishing books and are there any upcoming titles you’re publishing that we should look out for?
Oh goodness, I just love children’s books–the color, the whimsy, the beauty of the stories. I love that they teach, make kids laugh, and remind them of themselves while also introducing the world all around them. I’ve been collecting Black children’s books since the months before my first daughter was born in 1999, and I’ve focused on filling my shelves and my booklist at Denene Millner Books with stories that celebrate the everyday humanity and beauty of being a little human of color. I just love shining a light on these things, and I especially love creating those opportunities for Black authors and illustrators to do the same. But the ultimate? Seeing a kid hug one of the DMB books tight with a big, cheesy grin, proud that the book in their arms reflects who they are. It makes my heart beat fast. Look out for Ninja Nate, Markette Sheppard’s book about a little boy trying to reconcile the loss of his limb by pretending to be a superhero; Not My Cat, by Stacey Patton, about a lady who doesn’t like cats until she meets a stray that takes up residence on her front porch; and YaYa and the Sea, by Karen Good Marable, about a little girl who witnesses her mother and friends travel through NYC to the beach to perform a ritual meant to help them embrace spring and renewal.
After 32 books, has your writing process changed at all? What does your process look like and where do you draw from for inspiration, plot, and characters?
My non-fiction work has required a lot of research, and my process for One Blood was the same. The story is set across decades–1940s to the early 2000s, so to be historically accurate and really understand the challenges Black women faced being both Black and women in America during those times, I had to study everything from post-war government policy and orphanages in Manhattan, to the Black Power movement, the Civil Rights Movement, pop music in the ‘90s and even midwifery and ancient healing practices utilized in the South. So always, I do a lot of reading and mapping just so that I’m clear about time and place and how those things play with my characters’ choices. What’s changed is my actual writing; I think it’s grown a lot and matured. Like me. I’m constantly inspired by art of all kinds–a good TV show, the latest work of a fine artist, the art we see in our environment, in trees, waterways, or a rainbow dancing in a light rain. All of it makes me slow down and think rather than rushing to a conclusion, which ultimately services my art. I’ve learned to take my time with the writing. To savor it.
After reading One Blood, what books do you recommend readers pick up next?
I’m feeling like One Blood can take a lot out of a reader, so maybe something that is well-written but not as heavy would be lovely. Check out Tia Williams’ Seven Days in June. It’s a love story, but thick, interesting, and page-turning. I was thoroughly addicted. You might also want to read Ocean Vuong’s On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous, a novel rooted in the author’s personal immigration and coming-of-age story. It is beautifully written, complicated, and searing, and I just love how I sat with the tale long after I finished the book. Personally, I’m headed for Ayana Mathis’ The Unsettled, simply because she is an incredible storyteller and, to this author, deeply inspiring. I can’t wait to dig into her new work.
Are you working on anything new and exciting that you can share?
I’m working on a book tentatively titled What They Created Was Love. It’s the story of Lucy Wright, an unwed, pregnant Black teen who has her life and womb upended when she runs headfirst into Negro respectability and systematic racism at the most vulnerable time in her life. She is coerced into leaving behind all she loves to give birth in a home for unwed mothers, only to have her motherhood challenged, her race pathologized, and her baby adopted. When she returns home and is expected to work in her father’s funeral home as if nothing had happened, her life is upended by respectability politics, familial subterfuge, and an irreparably broken heart. What They Created Was Love is a soaring tale of loss, secrets, and love that explores race, Black familial structures, and what makes up the DNA of a family, a heart, a soul. It begs the question: Can the body ever forget, and, most importantly, forgive itself?
Denene Millner is a New York Times bestselling author, award-winning journalist, and director of the Denene Millner Books imprint. She has written thirty books for adults, teens, and children, among them Around the Way Girl, a memoir with actress Taraji P. Henson; and Early Sunday Morning, a children’s picture book. She is also the founder of MyBrownBaby.com, a critically acclaimed blog that examines the intersection of parenting and race, and the host of Speakeasy with Denene, a podcast produced by Georgia Public Broadcasting. Denene lives in Atlanta with her two daughters and their adorable Goldendoodle, Teddy.
Posted September 15, 2023
