Penny Mickelbury

Penny Mickelbury (born May 31, 1948) is an African-American playwright, short story writer, mystery series writer, and historical novelist who worked as a print and television journalist for ten years before concentrating on fiction writing. After leaving journalism, she taught fiction and script writing in Los Angeles and saw two of her plays (Waiting for Gabriel and Hush Now) produced there. She began writing detective novels with Keeping Secrets, published by Naiad Press in 1994, in the first of a series featuring Gianna Maglione, a lesbian chief of a hate-crimes unit based in Washington, D.C., and her lover 'Mimi Patterson', a journalist. Her second series of four books features Carole Ann Gibson, a Washington, D.C., attorney, who is widowed in the first book and subsequently runs an investigation agency with Jake Graham, the detective who investigated her husband's death. Her third series features Phil Rodriguez, a Puerto Rican private investigator on the Lower Easter Side of New York City. Mickelbury has also written short story collections and historical novels highlighting the Black experience in America.

Selected plays Time Out (produced 1989) Waiting for Gabriel (produced 1991, re-staged 2000) Warm Robes of Remembrance (1993) Hush Now (produced 2000)

Novels, short stories, and anthologies

Gianna Maglione novels Keeping Secrets: A Gianna Maglione Mystery, Naiad Press, 1994 Nights Songs: A Gianna Maglione Mystery, Naiad Press, 1995 Love Notes, Naiad Press, 2002 Darkness Descending, 2005 Death's Echoes, Bywater Books, 2018 You Can't Die But Once, Bywater Books, 2020

Carole Ann Gibson novels One Must Wait, Simon & Schuster, 1998 Where to Choose, Simon & Schuster, 1999 The Step Between, Simon & Schuster, 2000 Paradise Interrupted, Simon & Schuster, 2001

Phil Rodriguez novels Two Graves Dug, Five Star Press, 2005 A Murder Too Close, Five Star Press, 2008

Historical novels Belle City, Whitepoint Press, 2014 Two Wings To Fly Away, Bywater Books, 2019 Two Wings To Hide My Face, Bywater Books, 2025

Short story collections That Part of My Face: Short Stories, 2016 God's Will and Other Lies: Stories, BLF Press, 2019

Anthologies Stories included in: The Mysterious Naiad, ed. Grier and Forrest, Naiad, 1994 Spooks, Spies and Private Eyes: Black Mystery, Crime and Suspense Fiction, ed. Paula L. Woods, Doubleday, 1995 Shades of Black: Crime and Mystery Stories by African-American Authors, ed. Eleanor Taylor Bland, Berkley Prime Crime Press, 2004 Send My Love and a Molotov Cocktail, ed. Gary Phillips and Andrea Gibbons, PM Press, 2011

Awards and recognition

Literary awards 1995 Lambda Literary Award Finalist, Night Songs, Naiad 2001 Golden Pen Award, National Black Writer's Alliance, for Paradise Interrupted 2005 Lambda Literary Award Finalist, Darkness Descending, Kings Crossing 2019 Golden Crown Literary Award Finalist, Death's Echoes, Bywater Books 2019 Independent Book Publisher Award, Bronze winner, Death’s Echoes, Bywater Books 2020 Golden Crown Literary Award Finalist, Two Wings to Fly Away, Bywater Books 2020 Alice B Readers Award for career achievement 2025 Golden Crown Literary Society Winner, Trailblazer Award for life and career achievement

Recognition

1998 Residency at the Hedgebrook Women Writers Retreat 2001 Prix du Roman d'Adventures from Les Éditions du Masque for the Carole Ann Gibson mystery series 2003 Audre Lorde Estate Grant 2017 Special Keynote Speaker at the Golden Crown Literary Society conference 2019 Inducted with the Washington Post Metro Seven into the National Association of Black Journalists Hall of Fame