Breena Clarke

Breena Clarke is the author of three novels, most recently published, Angels Make Their Hope Here, set in an imagined mixed-race community in 19th century New Jersey. Her debut novel, River, Cross My Heart, was an October 1999 Oprah Book Club selection and was named by Publishers Weekly as one of the seven essential books about Washington, D.C. Her critically reviewed second novel, Stand The Storm, was named one of 100 Best for 2008 by The Washington Post. A graduate of Howard University, Breena's recollections of her hometown are included in Growing Up In Washington, D.C., An Oral History. Her short fiction has appeared in Washington Post Magazine, Kweli Journal, Stonecoast Review, Nervous Breakdown, Mom/Egg Review, The Drabble, Catapult, and Now, the Hobart Festival of Women Writers online magazine that she co-edits.

She is co-founder of the Hobart Festival of Women Writers, an annual celebration of the work of women writers. She has been a member of the fiction faculty of Stonecoast MFA in Creative Writing at The University of Southern Maine since 2013.