Uploaded February 2023 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
Evenings with an Author hosted Deesha Philyaw in conversation with Emilie Biggs. Filmed on 22/02/23 with a live audience on Zoom.
Deesha Philyaw speaks on Black female desire and the sanctity of love in the context of her phenomenal work, The Secret Lives of Church Ladies.
The Secret Lives of Church Ladies, a debut short story collection from author Deesha Philyaw, places Black female desire on proud display. The work, currently being adapted for television by HBO Max with Tessa Thompson executive producing, is populated by a rich cast of voices spanning multiple generations in the South of the United States. Exploring the varied intersections of religion and sexuality, from trysts with pastors to suppressed queer attraction, the stories celebrate women who learn what it means to want. Philyaw sanctifies the sinful, demonstrating that that the most godly activity of all is that of shameless, embodied love. She spoke virtually at the library about writing worship in all of its different, sensual forms.
About the speaker:
Deesha Philyaw’s debut short story collection, The Secret Lives of Church Ladies (2020), won the 2021 PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction, the 2020/2021 Story Prize, and the 2020 LA Times Book Prize: The Art Seidenbaum Award for First Fiction and was a finalist for the 2020 National Book Award for Fiction. Philyaw is also a Kimbilio Fiction Fellow and will be the 2022-2023 John and Renée Grisham Writer-in-Residence at the University of Mississippi.
Evenings with an Author is generously sponsored by GRoW @ Annenberg.
Evenings with an Author hosted Deesha Philyaw in conversation with Emilie Biggs. Filmed on 22/02/23 with a live audience on Zoom.
Deesha Philyaw speaks on Black female desire and the sanctity of love in the context of her phenomenal work, The Secret Lives of Church Ladies.
The Secret Lives of Church Ladies, a debut short story collection from author Deesha Philyaw, places Black female desire on proud display. The work, currently being adapted for television by HBO Max with Tessa Thompson executive producing, is populated by a rich cast of voices spanning multiple generations in the South of the United States. Exploring the varied intersections of religion and sexuality, from trysts with pastors to suppressed queer attraction, the stories celebrate women who learn what it means to want. Philyaw sanctifies the sinful, demonstrating that that the most godly activity of all is that of shameless, embodied love. She spoke virtually at the library about writing worship in all of its different, sensual forms.
About the speaker:
Deesha Philyaw’s debut short story collection, The Secret Lives of Church Ladies (2020), won the 2021 PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction, the 2020/2021 Story Prize, and the 2020 LA Times Book Prize: The Art Seidenbaum Award for First Fiction and was a finalist for the 2020 National Book Award for Fiction. Philyaw is also a Kimbilio Fiction Fellow and will be the 2022-2023 John and Renée Grisham Writer-in-Residence at the University of Mississippi.
Evenings with an Author is generously sponsored by GRoW @ Annenberg.
