 |
| Maya Angelou |
“Whitney, who’s your person?” I clenched my hands together under the desk. It was my turn to report which author I hoped to interview for professor Carolyn Hembree’s assignment. I knew I had picked a long shot, but I had to believe.
When Rachel Eliza Griffiths’ memoir The Flower Bearers (Random House, 2026) begins in September 2021, unease underlies the joyfulness of a wedding celebration. While Griffiths delights in having her hands decorated with henna and staying up chatting with her sister the night before her wedding to fellow writer Salman Rushdie, her closest friend and chosen sister, poet Kalimah Aisha Moon, has not arrived to participate in the festivities. It isn’t until after the ceremony that Griffiths learns that Moon suddenly died, and the discovery sends her spiraling into grief. Eleven months later, as she pieces together her life as a newlywed without her friend’s presence, an attack nearly kills Rushdie. During an appearance in Chautauqua, New York, the renowned writer sustained stab wounds to his face, neck, and torso, resulting in partial blindness and nerve damage.
