Donna Hemans, THE HOUSE OF PLAIN TRUTH: A Novel
Totally Booked with Zibby
Zibby Owens
4.4 • 602 Ratings
🗓️ 30 January 2024
⏱️ 26 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Zibby Books author alert!! Zibby interviews award-winning author and repeat MDHTTRB guest Donna Hemans about THE HOUSE OF PLAIN TRUTH, a lush, evocative story about a fractured Jamaican family, a tapestry of family secrets that has been buried for decades, and a daughter determined to reclaim her home. Donna shares the personal history that inspired her novel—it involves her own family’s migration from Jamaica to Cuba and eventually to the United States. She also delves into her book's themes of home, family, memory, identity, and the quest for belonging across generations and continents. Finally, she shares insights into her writing process, the journey of self-discovery through storytelling, and her current reading interests!
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Welcome to Moms Don't Have Time to Read Books with Zivie. I'm the host, Zivie Owens. I am an author. My latest is blank, |
| 0:12.0 | pub date March 1st, a novel. I'm also a podcaster, obviously, a publisher, a bookstore owner, |
| 0:17.8 | and so much more. If you love books, you're in the right place. In fact, |
| 0:22.2 | we call it the Zivieverse, or really, the L.A. Times called it the Zippyverse, and we're going |
| 0:26.4 | with it. Go to Zivie Owens.com to learn more and follow me on Instagram at Zivie Owens. |
| 0:33.5 | Donna Hemans is the author of The House of Plain Truth, a novel. This is one of our Zibi books. |
| 0:39.5 | I met Donna when she came on my podcast. Actually, that's not even true. I met Donna at a lunch, |
| 0:44.4 | a media lunch for Red Hen Press, which is where her previous book was published. I went down |
| 0:50.3 | somewhere in like the 20s or something for a lunch in this dark boardroom type library-ish |
| 0:57.0 | room. I didn't with about 10 other people. And I met her there and was just enchanted by her |
| 1:03.7 | and loved the beauty of her writing in Tea by the Sea. I had her on my podcast for that book. |
| 1:09.5 | And when we got the submission for her next book, |
| 1:12.6 | I was like, oh my gosh, I love Donna. So we read it. It's gone through a lot of changes. And it is |
| 1:17.6 | absolutely beautiful. If you haven't read it yet, you must pick this book up. It was included in |
| 1:26.2 | the roots most anticipated books by black authors for |
| 1:29.3 | 24, among other roundups and has gotten attention from Oprah Daly and others. It's called |
| 1:36.6 | The House of Plain Truth and the cover was designed by our own Grasotito. Donna Hemmins is the |
| 1:41.2 | author of two previous novels, River Woman and Tea by the Sea, which won the Lingnam Vitai Una Marston Award. |
| 1:48.2 | Her short fiction and essays have appeared in electric literature, Ms. Magazine, and Crab Orchard Review, among others. |
| 1:53.9 | She is also the owner of D.C. Riders Room, a co-working studio for writers based in Washington, D.C. |
| 1:59.2 | Born in Jamaica, she lives in Maryland and received |
| 2:01.8 | her undergraduate degree in English and Media Studies from Fordham University and an MFA from |
... |
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