#camille acker

[thefeministpress]

“In her debut short story collection, Camille Acker unleashes the irony and tragic comedy of respectability onto a wide-ranging cast of characters, all of whom call Washington, DC, home. A "woke" millennial tries to fight gentrification, only to learn she's part of the problem; a grade school teacher dreams of a better DC, only to take out her frustrations on her students; and a young piano player wins a competition, only to learn the prize is worthless.”

Buy here! x

[universitybookstore]

A great debut from Feminist Press and Washington, D. C. writer Camille Acker, Training School for Negro Girls. 

“ Acker shows that the lives of black girls and women are vast and varied, pushing back on the monolithic ways they are often portrayed while giving readers everything but go-go music in a generally lovely ode to D.C. life.” -- from Kirkus Review (read the full review here.)

[judgingbooksbycovers]

A Very Special Episode: A Novel

By Camille Acker.

[blackofbook]

Bridgette Davis, author of The World According to Fannie Davis: My Mother’s Life in the Detroit Numbers, recommends Training School for Negro Girls by Camille Acker.

[inkantation18]

The Beauty of Struggle - Training School for Negro Girls Review

Our nation’s capital is the backdrop for Camille Acker’s debut collection of eleven short stories, Training School for Negro Girls, following black girls and women directing facing off against their individual trials and tribulations.

From girlhood to adulthood, each character is considering her own belonging within her story. In “Mambo Sauce,” a sculptor and her white boyfriend move into the city and she takes it upon herself to prevent a local fried chicken restaurant from being gentrified only to harshly discover that her action is unwarranted. A young girl partakes in a piano recital in “Cicadas” only to have her talent belittled and by a white, wealthier rival. A college hopeful addresses the importance of acceptance in “FInal Draft of College Essay.”

Underneath many stories rooted in complex themes are the ordinary female protagonists that lead them. A teacher has the ability to alter a troubled girl’s life. A pre-teen witnesses that last of her brother’s innocence wilt away with some of her own as they transition into new areas of life. A woman criticizes her family dynamic for admission into an elite social group. Despite conflict, both internal and external, each character’s humanity is explored through her perseverance. It is a celebration of the black female spirit, that even when the odds are against us, we always find the right solution.

Acker’s writing is impressionable and intimate. The details she gives of her main characters are always important and relate back to the story, but are still reserved for the reader’s eyes only. The crude teens that wreak havoc on public transportation are not aggressors but victims in their own rights. A father and his grown daughter cruise the streets at night and reveal their own secrets to one another. These glimpses into black femalehood provide narratives that unlikely to be written today, but are much needed.

While many of the novellas are impressive, some fell short on impact. Some characters drowned in their own stories, the action around them becoming more relevant than themselves. Despite not adoring every story included, the ones that excelled made for a well put together debut. Reading the range of voices, perspectives and styles of writing she included, I hope she continues to create more variety in future pieces.

Across all platforms, the black female voice is the most outspoken today. Camille Acker’s strong debut breathes life into a plethora of girls and women from all social and economic backgrounds, asserting our diversity and familiarizing our struggles with the written word. The environments many of Acker’s characters come from are tough, but their will to overcome is tougher.

[thoughtportal]

Bridgett M. Davis recommends “All the Things You’ll Never Do,” by Camille Acker, a story about a TSA agent and young mother

This girl was hiring other dumb-ass people to work those dumb-ass jobs. Couldn’t waste your life much more than that.