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. Breena Clarke's debut novel, River, Cross My Heart, was an October 1999 Oprah Book Club selection and was named by Publisher’s 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. 

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. She is co-founder of The Hobart Festival of Women Writers, an annual three-day celebration of the work of diverse 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. Breena Clarke is co-editor of NOW, an online journal of the Hobart Festival of Women Writers

Breena Clarke is co-editor with Amy Newmark of I. I’m Speaking Now: Black Women Share Their Truth in 101 Stories of Love, Courage and Hope, a collection of first-person essays by Black women that includes two written by Breena Clarke.

Breena, who has survived the death of her only child, writes with depth and clarity about grief. Her work is marked by compassion and the magnificent use of language. A graduate of Howard University, Breena Clarke is a co-author with Glenda Dickerson of Remembering Aunt Jemima: A Menstrual Show, which is anthologized in Contemporary Plays by Women of Color, edited by Kathy Perkins and Roberta Uno and Colored Contradictions, An Anthology of Contemporary African-American Plays, edited by Harry Elam, Jr. and Robert Alexander. 

Her short fiction is included in Black Silk, A Collection of African American Erotica, and Street Lights: Illuminating Tales of the Urban Black Experience. Her recollections of Washington, D.C., her hometown, are included in Growing Up In Washington, D.C., An Oral History, published by The Historical Society of Washington, D.C. 

Breena credits having learned to swim after her retirement from administrative work at TIME Magazine with changing her life. After completing a course of classes at New York's Asphalt Green Aqua Center, she has become a member of an aqua aerobics class, swims three times a week, writes each day, and practices Qi Gong.