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Ladee Hubbard

Biography

Ladee Hubbard

Ladee Hubbard is the author of THE LAST SUSPICIOUS HOLDOUT, THE RIB KING and THE TALENTED RIBKINS, which received the 2018 Ernest J. Gaines Award for Literary Excellence and the Hurston/Wright Legacy Award for Debut Fiction. Her writing has appeared in Guernica, the Times Literary Supplement, Copper Nickel and Callaloo. She received a 2016 Rona Jaffe Foundation Writers’ Award as well as fellowships from the MacDowell Colony, Art Omi, the Sacatar Foundation, the Sustainable Arts Foundation, Hedgebrook, and the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts. Born in Massachusetts and raised in the U.S. Virgin Islands and Florida, Hubbard currently lives in New Orleans.

Ladee Hubbard

Books by Ladee Hubbard

by Ladee Hubbard - Fiction, Short Stories

These 13 gripping tales deftly chronicle poignant moments in the lives of an African American community located in a “sliver of southern suburbia.” Spanning from 1992 to 2007, the stories represent a period during which the Black middle class expanded while stories of "welfare Queens," "crack babies" and "super predators" abounded in the media. Characters spotlighted in one story reappear in another, providing a stunning testament to the enduring resilience of Black people as they navigate the “post-racial” period that THE LAST SUSPICIOUS HOLDOUT so vividly portrays.

by Ladee Hubbard - Fiction, Historical Fiction

For 15 years, August Sitwell has worked for the Barclays, a well-to-do white family who plucked him from an orphan asylum. The groundskeeper is part of the household’s all-Black staff, along with “Miss Mamie,” the talented cook, pretty new maid Jennie Williams, and three young kitchen apprentices. But the Barclays’ fortunes have fallen, and their money is almost gone. When a prospective business associate proposes selling Miss Mamie’s rib sauce to local markets under the brand name “The Rib King” --- using a caricature of a wildly grinning August on the label --- Mr. Barclay agrees. Yet neither Miss Mamie nor August will see a dime. August grows increasingly distraught, his anger building to a rage that explodes in shocking tragedy.

by Ladee Hubbard - Fiction

Johnny Ribkins has just one week to come up with the money he stole from his mobster boss or it’s curtains. What may or may not be useful to him as he flees is that he comes from an African-American family that has been gifted with very odd superpowers. In the old days, the Ribkins family tried to apply their gifts to the civil rights effort, calling themselves The Justice Committee. But when their superpowers proved insufficient, the group fell apart. Out of frustration, Johnny and his brother used their talents to stage a series of burglaries. Now Johnny is on a race against the clock to dig up loot he's stashed all over Florida, and he has an unexpected sidekick: his brother's daughter, Eloise, who has a special superpower of her own.