Camille Acker
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Articles by Camille Acker
Camille Acker’s Book Notes music playlist for her novel A Very Special Episode
In the Book Notes series, authors create and discuss a music playlist that relates in some way to their recently published book. Previous contributors include Jesmyn Ward, Lauren Groff, Bret Easton Ellis, Celeste Ng, T.C. Boyle, Dana Spiotta, Hanif Abdurraqib, Andrew Sean Greer, Roxane Gay, and many others. Camille Acker’s novel A Very Special Episode is an irreverent and insightful debut focusing on race and class.
Proof of Progress
Elizabeth Castellano. Harper, $26.99 (240p) ISBN 978-0-06-349027-7 Castellano (Save What’s Left) shines in this charming and sharp-witted tale of an aging character actor and the memoir she was supposed to write decades earlier. The novel is cleverly framed as the published memoir of Maria Astorini, now 65. In an author’s note, Maria explains that she signed a book contract back in 1988, when she was a B-list actor and regular on the late-night TV circuit.
A Very Special Episode
After spending her whole life in the shadow of her mother, Delores, Nina Johnson --- the grand dame of the Black social set in Washington, D.C. --- is finally ready to step into the spotlight. She's assuming the presidency of The Tenth, the elite Black society (named for W. E. B. Du Bois' concept of “the talented tenth”) that holds immeasurable power and cachet in D.C. What's more, she's on track to get married to Booker T. Bruce, who’s on track to become the city's next mayor.
A Very Special Episode
Acker (Training School for Negro Girls) serves up an intense satire about the abuses of class privilege. When Nina Johnson is elected president of the Tenth, a membership organization her family founded for well-to-do Black Americans in Washington, D.C., she is determined to take the organization in a different direction from past president Delores, her conservative mother, by injecting it with youthful energy.
Television to the Rescue! Camille Acker on the Craft Potential of TV
This first appeared in Lit Hub’s Craft of Writing newsletter—sign up here. Article continues after advertisement I have always loved television, but as a kid, television was the “idiot box.” According to experts, this device could rot my brain, influence me to commit immoral acts, and even ruin my eyesight. Sitcoms and, in later years, reality television were the lowest common denominators of the genre.
Unprecedented Times
In the tender and sharp-witted adult debut from YA novelist Kannan (All the Yellow Suns), an Indian American undergrad explores an alternative path for her life during Covid-19.
What to Read When Celebrating Black History
What to Read When Celebrating Black History This week, the editors have put together a list of books we love by Black authors. Some are forthcoming, some are several years old; some are fiction, some are memoir; all are absolutely worth your time, regardless of the month.
Forget 'The Star-Spangled Banner'-listen to the black national anthem
This image was removed due to legal reasons. The first football game I ever attended at Howard University, a historically black college in Washington, D.C., started off like most football games. When our marching band began playing “The Star-Spangled Banner,” thousands of spectators in the stands stood quietly, some hand over heart, others reflexively mouthing the words of America’s national anthem.
Mothers and Daughters and Oscars
When a movie centers on the relationship between a mother and daughter, it means that there is more than one important female role in the movie and that there are roles for an older and younger woman. (This is rare enough, but hopefully changing.) And for those two women to be nominated for Oscars from the same movie is a true rarity. Only ten times in Oscar history have the lead actress and supporting actress nominees appeared in the same film.
"Black Panther" and Hollywood’s Mythic Creation of a Continent
In a pivotal scene in Black Panther, Erik Killmonger, the complicated antagonist to King T’Challa (otherwise known as the Black Panther), recalls his father telling him about the beauty of the sunsets in the mythical African country of Wakanda. “Can you believe that?” he asks. “A kid from Oakland running around believing in fairytales.” For a long time now, the hope of films told from the non-white perspective of the people and places of Africa have felt as distant as the Killmonger’s fairytales.
Stop Dating Assholes
Years ago when I was living in New York, I went on a date with an investment banker. He made snide, self-satisfied comments the entire night about how great he was and how questionable the greatness of all other men was. He was rude to the waiter and warned me to not get the Salade Nicoise, accented with sardines, in case we kissed later. I ordered and ate it with deep satisfaction. I left that date thinking, “What an asshole.” And then the next week went out with him a second time.
A Post-Election Guide To Rebuilding
A Post-Election Guide To Rebuilding Courtesy of StockSnap.io I’ve cried a lot in these last few days. In the shower. On the phone with my mother. When I wake up in the middle of the night. Maybe you are beginning to accept the results of Tuesday night’s election, but being black (the ones Trump said lived in hell) and a woman (the ones Trump grabbed by their pussies), it is nearly impossible for me too.
What Does Your Bank Account Have to Do with Your Mental Health?
It’s the day before payday or the week before that freelance check you’ve been waiting for finally hits your mailbox. You take a look at the balance of your bank account and start to feel a thousand knots form in your stomach. In your mind, you calculate all of the bills you have yet to pay and the vacation with your girlfriends you’ve already booked. Your bank account is feeling the pain and your psychological health probably is feeling it too.
How To Deal With Period Leaks
In April, LOLA launched our First Period Kit. It’s filled with everything a girl needs for her first period including tampons, pads, and liners made with organic cotton. We also included a carrying pouch and stickers for cycle tracking. As we developed the kit, we talked to teens, parents, doctors, and teachers and a common thread became clear: many girls don’t feel prepared for their first period. Through April, we’re tackling some of the most requested first period topics on The Broadcast.
Why is the average onset age of puberty dropping?
Nearly a century ago, the average age that a girl started puberty was fourteen and a half. By 2010, that age had dropped to ten and a half and researchers see the age continuing to decrease by four or five months every decade. In a seven year study of 1,200 girls that was published in the medical journal Pediatrics in 2010, black girls started puberty at an average age of 8.8 years old; Hispanic girls at 9.3 years old; and white and Asian girls at 9.7 years old.
What’s The Science Behind PMS?
Everyone is getting on your nerves and did you just tear up at that insurance commercial? Take a look at the calendar because it’s probably your body preparing for your period. According to the American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology, 85% of menstruating women experience one or more PMS symptoms on a regular basis.
How Does Xenoestrogen Impact Your Health?
When our period rolls around each month, we care a whole lot about our hormones. We know that estrogen might be affecting our emotions, our moods, and the severity of our PMS symptoms. What we might not be thinking about is how hormones affect us every single day and that those hormones aren’t just inside our body but also in our environment. Ever heard of xenoestrogen? It’s a synthetic or natural chemical that mimics estrogen.
What Do Swollen Glands Mean?
‘Tis the season… flu season, that is. Symptoms like a runny nose, scratchy throat, or fever are all telltale signs, but there is another way to know your body might soon be down for the count. If you drag yourself to the doctor, she will likely feel behind your ears and under your jaw and declare that your glands are swollen. Those glands, also called lymph nodes, are a group of small cells that both catch and break down the viruses that get into the body.
What Factors Affect A Woman’s Sex Drive?
Has your “Netflix and chill” become more “Netflix and can we just keep watching Netflix?” Sexual desire and drive is as individual as the woman who experiences it. Ask your female friend what “sexual satisfaction” means to her and the frequency, methods, and psychological associations with that phrase could be very different from yours. Same with her drive to want to have sex. What we do all have in common, though, are the hormones that trigger sexual desire.
When Did Women Start Shaving?
Summer heat means short shorts, sleeveless dresses, bikinis, and, oftentimes, hair removal. Body hair trends may vary by culture or change from year to year, but every body part is subject to hair removal somewhere in the world. For American women, hair removal usually centers on underarm hair, leg hair, and pubic hair.
What Should I Know About Fibroids?
If you’ve ever been tested for fibroids, your doctor probably told you how common they are. According to the Office on Women’s Health, anywhere from 20 to 80 percent of women will develop fibroids by the time they’re 50 years old. But knowing they are common doesn’t answer all the questions you might have: what exactly are fibroids? Why do women get them? What symptoms should you expect to experience? And at what point do fibroids become an issue that requires medical treatment? What is a fibroid?
Why Does Shopping Make Me Feel So Good?
We know how often you move and what you eat can certainly have an impact on how you feel. In addition to your vinyasa yoga and quinoa bowl, it turns out that your next shopping trip might also impact your health. So, can science really help you justify that pair of boots you just bought? Shopping can restore your sense of control According to a 2014 study in the Journal of Consumer Psychology, when you’re sad you believe that your life is not in your control.
How Should I Prevent Aging In My 20s?
In our 20s, we may not think that much about our bodies. Why bother when most of us are pretty healthy? Our bodies tend to do what we want them to do with ease. But, taking good care of our bodies more in our 20s, may help us stay fit in our later years. Your body is already aging even if isn’t visible. Eating well and exercising are great places to start, but there are also specific ways to keep yourself in shape to enjoy this decade and all the decades to follow.
How Can I Prevent Aging In My 30s?
Your 20s might have been lots of fun, but chances are they were also confusing. In your 30s, life is finally starting to make sense. Your career path is clearer, your friend circle is closer, and you may have found your life partner or at least you know the kind of person you’re looking for. However, just as your life is coming together, it might feel like your body is starting to fall apart. Hangovers are an all-day affair, instead of being easily conquered by a hearty brunch.
What Are The Signs Of Aging At 40?
It’s your fabulous 40s and if you’ve been minding your health, your body could be feeling pretty fabulous too. Aging is a dirty word, but it shouldn’t be. We all get older, but the challenge is to adapt to how our bodies are changing. With a doctor as a partner and a focus on maintaining or increasing healthful habits, your body can still do a stellar downward-facing dog. Your 40s are the gateway to your later years, so what’s going on in your body now?
Look at the Woman You Fail to See
Look at the Woman You Fail to See Camille Acker Writer. Ranter. Auth-er. Uh, author of Training School for negro Girls. Share article “All The Things You’ll Never Do” by Camille Acker Bess liked to wear her uniform to Chuck and Billie’s Restaurant and Bar for Long Island Iced Tea Thursdays. She could have changed in those all-automated bathrooms in the airport terminal if she felt like it, so that she wouldn’t have to use the nasty one in the TSA breakroom.
Look at the Woman You Fail to See
Look at the Woman You Fail to See Camille Acker Writer. Ranter. Auth-er. Uh, author of Training School for negro Girls. Share article “All The Things You’ll Never Do” by Camille Acker Bess liked to wear her uniform to Chuck and Billie’s Restaurant and Bar for Long Island Iced Tea Thursdays. She could have changed in those all-automated bathrooms in the airport terminal if she felt like it, so that she wouldn’t have to use the nasty one in the TSA breakroom.
Five Essay Collections by Women of Color (Published 2019)
Book Review|Five Essay Collections by Women of Color https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/12/books/review/thick-tressie-mcmillan-cottom.html The Shortlist Feb. 12, 2019 WOMANISH A Grown Black Woman Speaks on Love and Life By Kim McLarin Image When black women gather, unrehearsed refrains are often heard, surrounded by voices of encouragement or disbelief. In “Womanish,” McLarin incorporates these black female voices into her writing, itself blisteringly honest, funny and vulnerable.
Washington Independent Review of Books
From the mansion-lined avenues of the Gold Coast to the rundown streets of Anacostia, from the 1980s of Marion Barry’s “Chocolate City” to today’s rapidly gentrifying neighborhoods of the nation’s capital, Camille Acker’s powerful, poignant debut collection of short stories, Training School for Negro Girls, takes us into the unmapped territory of the hearts and minds of a too-often-neglected demographic: black women and girls.
Look at the Woman You Fail to See – Electric Literature
Bess liked to wear her uniform to Chuck and Billie’s Restaurant and Bar for Long Island Iced Tea Thursdays. She could have changed in those all-automated bathrooms in the airport terminal if she felt like it, so that she wouldn’t have to use the nasty one in the TSA breakroom. She could have just walked in with some tight jeans on and ordered a drink, as if she was just anybody, as if she worked just anywhere.
Camille Acker's 'Training School for Negro Girls' Is An Impressive Debut: Review
Training School for Negro Girls By Camille Acker (The Feminist Press at CUNY) With this impressive debut short story collection, author Camille Acker establishes herself as a gifted and agile writer with an assured and masterful voice. The collection is centered around the lives of ordinary residents of Washington, D.C., over the past several decades.
A Reading List of Short Story Collections by Black Women Writers
Camille Acker, author of ‘Training School for Negro Girls,’ on brief but spectacular stories by writers who aren’t white men Black women novelists have won the Nobel Prize (Toni Morrison), garnered the Pulitzer Prize (Alice Walker), and conquered the New York Times bestseller list (Tayari Jones) but black women short story writers aren’t always as visible. When readers think of masters of the short from, they most likely draw from a canon of writers who are white and those who are male.
A Reading List of Short Story Collections by Black Women Writers
Black women novelists have won the Nobel Prize (Toni Morrison), garnered the Pulitzer Prize (Alice Walker), and conquered the New York Times bestseller list (Tayari Jones) but black women short story writers aren’t always as visible. When readers think of masters of the short form, they most likely draw from a canon of writers who are white and those who are male.
7 Essential Washington, D.C. Books (That Aren't About Politics)
Camille Acker's sharp debut collection, Training School for Negro Girls, traces the lives of black women and girls in Washington, D.C., across different neighborhoods, socioeconomic statuses, and decades. Acker, who grew up in D.C., picks some of her favorite books set in D.C. Washington, DC is this country’s political center but politics is not the only source of DC’s identity. Not all streets in DC are occupied by federal government buildings.
Brilliant Book Covers: The Best Covers of October 2018
You can’t judge a book by its cover, but you can admire a beautiful cover design anyway. At least, that’s how the Bookish editors feel about it. Here, we’ve rounded up October 2018’s best book covers and selected three favorites in each genre. We suggest adorning your shelves with these beauties in addition to, of course, reading them!
19 New Books By Women And Nonbinary Authors To Read In October 2018
A new month is here, and it's a great month for books! See which October books by women and nonbinary authors we're most excited about—we'll note when we've reviewed or covered them, or have coverage planned. All You Can Ever Know: A Memoir by Nicole Chung Nicole Chung's debut memoir tells the story of growing up as a Korean adoptee in an all-white town, and her search for her birth family as an adult. Out October 2. Read our review here.
Can Issa Rae’s “Insecure” Start a Sexual Revolution?
In episode five of the Issa Rae’s HBO show Insecure, the protagonist (also named Issa) stands in front of a mirror after having had sex. At first she’s joyous then incredulous, sad, and ultimately compelled to get the hell out of there. She is in a complicated situation and the moment doesn’t shy away from showing the range of her feelings. Scenes like this one are likely what led Rae to get nominated for a Golden Globe for best actress on the series she created.
Could ‘Love Jones’ Be the Same Love Story Under Trump?
Twenty years ago, the big-screen romance Love Jones opened in theaters, its first images of a darkened Chicago cityscape set to a jazz-inflected R&B soundtrack. The story of an on-again, off-again relationship between two artists in Chicago, Darius Lovehall (Larenz Tate) and Nina Moseley (Nia Long), was a celebration of Black love and Black creativity.
WORD Reads October Pick: Training School for Negro Girls
Camille Acker will be in our Brooklyn store in conversation with Glory Edim of Well Read Black Girl on October 16th. Signed book orders will ship out the day after the event! You can request personalization in the comments field of the order.
TRAINING SCHOOL FOR NEGRO GIRLS
In her debut collection, Acker pays tribute to Washington, D.C.—the Chocolate City—and the changes it went through during the last years of the 20th century. The 11 stories, each centered on the life of a black woman, depict D.C. life beyond the monuments and government antics outsiders normally associate with the city. In fact, the tourist D.C. is barely background scenery in Acker’s milieu, which manages to go more local without alienating readers who are unfamiliar with life inside the Beltway.
Black Filmmakers and the Altered Universe
In recent years, mainstream depictions of blackness have ventured into new territories, led by the work of filmmakers like Ava DuVernay, Ryan Coogler, Jordan Peele, and Barry Jenkins, but black surrealist films or films that employ surrealist techniques have often ventured places Hollywood was not willing to go. Any filmmaker whose work is outside the mainstream may receive fewer opportunities to make films and those films will often draw smaller audiences.
Training School for Negro Girls — Feminist Press
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.
Why Can’t I Sleep? 7 Reasons You Wake Up Tired
You wake up just as tired as when you went to sleep. You try to get more sleep on the weekends, but you never seem to be able to get enough. Next week will be better you think, but it never is. Every morning you wonder: Why can’t I sleep? Welcome to the grumpiest club on earth. Lack of sleep has become an epidemic and it’s not getting better. Plus, the state of world isn’t making for a restful day much less a restful night. So, other than the world crumbling under our feet, why can’t you sleep?
Could 'Love Jones' Be the Same Love Story Under Trump?
Twenty years ago, the big-screen romance Love Jones opened in theaters, its first images of a darkened Chicago cityscape set to a jazz-inflected R&B soundtrack. The story of an on-again, off-again relationship between two artists in Chicago, Darius Lovehall (Larenz Tate) and Nina Moseley (Nia Long), was a celebration of Black love and Black creativity.
What Does Your Bank Account Have to Do with Your Mental Health?
It’s the day before payday or the week before that freelance check you’ve been waiting for finally hits your mailbox. You take a look at the balance of your bank account and start to feel a thousand knots form in your stomach. In your mind, you calculate all of the bills you have yet to pay and the vacation with your girlfriends you’ve already booked. Your bank account is feeling the pain and your psychological health probably is feeling it too.
Can Issa Rae's "Insecure" Start a Sexual Revolution?
In episode five of the Issa Rae’s HBO show Insecure, the protagonist (also named Issa) stands in front of a mirror after having had sex. At first she’s joyous then incredulous, sad, and ultimately compelled to get the hell out of there. She is in a complicated situation and the moment doesn’t shy away from showing the range of her feelings. Scenes like this one are likely what led Rae to get nominated for a Golden Globe for best actress on the series she created.
Is Being Single Hard?
One night several years ago, on my way home from meeting up with a friend, I passed out on the subway. I probably hadn’t had enough to eat and not enough water to drink. The subway car was stuffy and hot. I felt myself getting faint and thought, even with my cute dress on, it might be best to sit on the floor of the car just in case. But no sooner had I thought that, than I woke up on the floor.
Listen to the black national anthem
The first football game I ever attended at Howard University, a historically black college in Washington, D.C., started off like most football games. When our marching band began playing “The Star-Spangled Banner,” thousands of spectators in the stands stood quietly, some hand over heart, others reflexively mouthing the words of America’s national anthem.
Forget 'The Star-Spangled Banner'-listen to the black national anthem
The first football game I ever attended at Howard University, a historically black college in Washington, D.C., started off like most football games. When our marching band began playing “The Star-Spangled Banner,” thousands of spectators in the stands stood quietly, some hand over heart, others reflexively mouthing the words of America’s national anthem.
F*** That: A Birthday Manifesto
For my 30th birthday, I put on a show. One that included red leather boots and a peek of thigh for an audience of onlookers at a Brooklyn bar. I’m not now nor have ever been a burlesque dancer, but that night I got close. I risked the judgment of an audience about my body and my sense of rhythm and I channeled a sexiness I didn’t even know I had until I was 22. That night was the same autumn I took another big risk: applying to grad school for creative writing.
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