Dawnie Walton

Dawnie Walton (born 1976 or 1977) is an American journalist and novelist. She is known for her novel, The Final Revival of Opal & Nev, which won the 2022 Aspen Words Literary Prize and the 2022 VCU Cabell First Novelist Award, and was longlisted for the Women's Prize for Fiction.

Education and life Walton was born in the 1970s and grew up in Jacksonville, Florida, where she attended Stanton College Preparatory School. She went to college at Florida A&M University in Tallahassee, a historically Black university, and she received her MFA from the Iowa Writers' Workshop.

She lives in Brooklyn with her husband.

Career Journalism In 1994, Walton began her career in journalism after graduating high school interning for The Florida Times-Union — she wrote for the Teen Rap section of the paper that existed at the time. Her journalism career continued after college at The Oregonian in Portland and The Washington Post in D.C. She then moved to New York City, where she worked as a magazine editor for a number of publications, including Essence, Entertainment Weekly, Getty Images, and LIFE.

Writing Walton published her debut novel, The Final Revival of Opal & Nev, in 2021 to critical acclaim. The book covers the fictionalized oral history of a 1970s interracial rock duo. She was inspired to write the book after seeing the documentary 20 Feet from Stardom about backing vocalists. It features Lynn Mabry and Ednah Holt singing with the Talking Heads.

While working on this novel, Walton attended writing residencies at MacDowell Colony and the Tin House Summer Workshop,

The novel won the 2022 VCU Cabell First Novelist Award, the 2022 Mark Twain American Voice in Literature Award, and the 2022 Aspen Words Literary Prize.

Awards and honors In 2021, Barack Obama and Booklist included The Final Revival of Opal & Nev on their lists of the year's best books.

Publications

The Final Revival of Opal & Nev (2021)