Evette Dionne

American culture writer
SubjectAfrican-American history, feminism, pop cultureNotable worksLifting As We Climb (2020)Websiteevettedionne.com

Evette Dionne is an American culture writer. Her young adult debut Lifting As We Climb (Viking) was longlisted for the 2020 National Book Award for Young People's Literature. Dionne was editor-in-chief of Bitch from 2018 until 2021.[1][2]

Early life and education

Dionne was raised in New York.[3] She initially matriculated at University of Maryland Eastern Shore and later transferred to the HBCU Bennett College, where she received her bachelor's degree in 2012.[3] She later received her master’s degree in media management and women, gender, and sexuality studies from Southern Illinois University Carbondale.[4]

Career

Dionne is a culture writer whose work centers Black feminism and current events.[5][6] She has published her writing in Teen Vogue, the New York Times, and Harper's Bazaar among others.[4] Dionne was previously a senior news editor at The Revelist[7] and Clutch Magazine. She was named editor-in-chief of Bitch in 2018 and held the position until September 2021.[5] Issue #92 was the final issue of Bitch she produced during her tenure.[8]

Her commentary has been cited in several outlets on topics such as Toni Morrison,[9] Kobe Bryant's legacy,[10] and gynecological health.[1][11][12] She is a contributing writer to the books Burn It Down (2019) and Can We All Be Feminists?: New Writing From Brit Bennett, Nicole Dennis-Benn, and 15 Others On Intersectionality, Identity, and the Way Forward for Feminism (2018).[13][14] Dionne's tweets have been cited by AJC[15] and NBCNews.com.[16]

In 2021, Dionne was recruited to Netflix to develop editorial strategy and manage a team of staffers for a new initiative, Tudum.[17] Seven months later, she and her team were among the 150 laid off.[17]

Books

Dionne published her first book, Fat Girls Deserve Fairy Tales Too: Living Hopefully On the Other Side of Skinny, in 2019 under Seal Press.

Her first middle grade book, Lifting As We Climb: Black Women’s Battle for the Ballot Box, was published by Viking Books and released on April 21, 2020.[2] Dionne was inspired to write the book in 2016 when she noticed women visiting to the graves of various white female suffragettes like Elizabeth Cady Stanton in the lead-up to the presidential election.[18] She wanted to highlight the contributions of Black women in earning the right to vote. It was written for a middle grade audience. The book received positive critical reception. In a starred review for the School Library Journal, Susan Catlett called it a "must-purchase."[19] Kirkus Reviews referred to the book as "a lively and critical addition as the United States commemorates the centennial of women’s suffrage."[20]

Dionne's memoir, Weightless: Making Space for My Resilient Body and Soul was released by Ecco Press in December, 2022.[21]

Works

  • Fat Girls Deserve Fairy Tales Too (2019, Seal Press; ISBN 9781580059268)
  • Lifting As We Climb (2020, Viking; ISBN 978-0-451-48154-2)

Awards

For Lifting As We Climb:

References

  1. ^ a b Lee, Dr Danielle N. (2016-07-22). "Will Black People Ever Trust Clinical Trials?". EBONY. Retrieved 2020-01-29.
  2. ^ a b "Lifting as We Climb by Evette Dionne". Penguin Random House Canada. Retrieved 2020-01-29.
  3. ^ a b Mathewson, Eryn. "How Students at Black Colleges Are Addressing Sexual Assault on Campus". Truthout. Retrieved 2020-09-04.
  4. ^ a b Barsukova, Ira (2017-06-24). "Why Does Feminism Need 'Bitches' Like Evette Dionne". Yonah Channel. Retrieved 2020-09-04.
  5. ^ a b Ryan, Ella Cerón, Lisa (2018-12-19). "7 Women on What A League of Their Own Meant to Them". The Cut. Retrieved 2020-01-29.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  6. ^ Groth, Leah (2018-11-14). "This Viral Twitter Rant Reveals Why Women Shouldn't Blindly Trust Their Doctors". Prevention. Retrieved 2020-01-29.
  7. ^ "Reporters on race". www.cbsnews.com. Retrieved 2020-09-04.
  8. ^ Dionne, Evette [@freeblackgirl] (September 7, 2021). "One last time. One last issue. It is a beauty with work from @annfosterwriter, @SultanReina, @ShaileeKoranne, @aliciakennedy, @sesmith, @abaki_b, @NicoleFroio, @cohaug, @book_nerd212, and more. I'm no longer a magazine editor, but I'm grateful to have done it. Onward! 💜" (Tweet). Retrieved 2021-09-10 – via Twitter.
  9. ^ Drell, Cady (2019-08-06). "The Literary Community Reacts to Toni Morrison's Death". Marie Claire. Retrieved 2020-01-29.
  10. ^ Wise, Justin (2020-02-08). "Kobe Bryant's complicated legacy sparks tough conversations". TheHill. Retrieved 2020-09-04.
  11. ^ "The Complicated Part of Kobe Bryant's History". NowThis News. Retrieved 2020-01-29.
  12. ^ Haines, Errin (2020-07-06). "Black female voters say they want what they're owed: power". Washington Post. ISSN 0190-8286. Retrieved 2020-09-04.
  13. ^ Dancyger, Lilly (8 October 2019). Burn It Down. ISBN 978-1-58005-893-3.
  14. ^ Eric-Udorie, June (2018-09-25). Can We All Be Feminists?: New Writing from Brit Bennett, Nicole Dennis-Benn, and 15 Others on Intersectionality, Identity, and the Way Forward for Feminism. Penguin. ISBN 978-0-525-50435-1.
  15. ^ Pirani, Fiza. "Atlanta-filmed 'Black Panther' takes home 3 Academy Awards #Oscars2019". ajc. Retrieved 2020-09-04.
  16. ^ "A professor labeled Bret Stephens a 'bedbug.' Here's what the NYT columnist did next". NBC News. Retrieved 2020-09-04.
  17. ^ a b Lee, Wendy (2022-05-24). "After layoffs at Netflix, questions mount over diversity efforts". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 2022-07-28.
  18. ^ Terrell, Kellee (2020-04-21). "Evette Dionne's New Book Explores the Little Known History of Black Suffragettes". Shondaland. Retrieved 2020-09-04.
  19. ^ Evette, Dionne. "Lifting as We Climb: Black Women's Battle for the Ballot Box". School Library Journal. Retrieved 2020-04-22.
  20. ^ LIFTING AS WE CLIMB | Kirkus Reviews.
  21. ^ Hartman, Elizabeth. "U.S. Book Show 2022: PW Editors' Picks Panels". PublishersWeekly.com. Retrieved 2022-07-28.
  22. ^ Yorker, The New. "The 2020 National Book Awards Longlist: Young People's Literature". The New Yorker. Retrieved 2020-09-16.
  23. ^ "Orbis Pictus Award (Nonfiction for Children)". NCTE. Retrieved 2021-01-25.
  24. ^ "ALA announces 2021 Youth Media Awards". ALA. 2021-01-25. Retrieved 2021-01-25.

External links

  • v
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General winners (1974–1988)
  • Rosa Parks by Eloise Greenfield (1974)
  • Make a Joyful Noise Unto the Lord: The Life of Mahalia Jackson, Queen of the Gospel Singers by Jesse Jackson (1975)
  • Dragonwings by Laurence Yep (1976)
  • The Trouble They Seen by Dorothy Sterling (1977)
  • The Biography of Daniel Inouye by Jan Goodsell (1978)
  • Native American Testimony: An Anthology of Indian and White Relations edited by Peter Nabokov (1979)
  • War Cry on a Prayer Feather: Prose and Poetry of the Ute by Nancy Wood (1980)
  • The Chinese Americans by Milton Meltzer (1981)
  • Coming to North America from Mexico, Cuba and Puerto Rico by Susan Carver and Paula McGuire (1982)
  • Morning Star, Black Sun by Brent Ashabranner (1983)
  • Mexico and the United States by E.B. Fincher (1984)
  • To Live in Two Worlds: American Indian Youth Today by Brent Ashabranner (1985)
  • Dark Harvest: Migrant Farmworkers in America by Brent Ashabranner (1986)
  • Happily May I Walk by Arlene Hirschfelder (1987)
  • Black Music in America: A History Through Its People by James Haskins (1988)
Secondary level winners (grades 7–12, since 1989)
  • Marian Anderson by Charles Patterson (1989)
  • Paul Robeson by Rebecca Larsen (1990)
  • Sorrow's Kitchen: The Life and Folklore of Zora Neal Hurston by Mary E. Lyons (1991)
  • Native American Doctor: The Story of Susan LaFlesche Picotte by Jeri Ferris (1992)
  • Mississippi Challenge by Mildred Pitts Walter (1993)
  • The March on Washington by James Haskins (1994)
  • Till Victory is Won: Black Soldiers in the Civil War by Zak Mettger (1995)
  • A Fence Away from Freedom: Japanese Americans and World War II by Ellen Levine (1996)
  • The Harlem Renaissance by Jim Haskins (1997)
  • Langston Hughes by Milton Meltzer (1998)
  • Edmonia Lewis: Wildfire in Marble by Rinna Evelyn Wolfe (1999)
  • Princess Ka'iulani: Hope of a Nation, Heart of a People by Sharon Linnea (2000)
  • Tatan'ka Iyota'ke: Sitting Bull and His World by Albert Marrin (2001)
  • Multiethnic Teens and Cultural Identity by Barbara C. Cruz (2002)
  • The "Mississippi Burning" Civil Rights Murder Conspiracy Trial: a Headline Court Case by Harvey Fireside (2003)
  • Early Black Reformers by James Tackach (2004)
  • The Civil Rights Act of 1964 edited by Robert H. Mayer (2005)
  • No Easy Answers: Bayard Rustin and the Civil Rights Movement by Calvin Craig Miller (2006)
  • Dear Miss Breed: True Stories of the Japanese-American Incarceration During World War II and a Librarian Who Made a Difference by Joanne Oppenheim (2007)
  • Don't Throw Away Your Stick Till You Cross the River: The Journey of an Ordinary Man by Vincent Collin Beach with Anni Beach (2008)
  • Reaching Out by Francisco Jiménez (2009)
  • Denied, Detained, Deported: Stories From the Dark Side of American Immigration by Ann Bausum (2010)
  • An Unspeakable Crime: The Prosecution and Persecution of Leo Frank by Elaine M. Alphin (2011)
  • Black and White: The Confrontation between Reverend Fred L. Shuttlesworth and Eugene "Bull" Connors by Larry Dane Brimner (2012)
  • Stolen into Slavery the True Story of Solomon Northup, Free Black Man by Judith Fradin and Dennis Fradin (2013)
  • (none in 2014)
  • The Port Chicago 50: Disaster, Mutiny, and the Fight for Civil Rights by Steve Sheinkin (2015)
  • Passenger on the Pearl: The True Story of Emily Edmonson's Flight from Slavery by Winifred Conkling (2016)
  • March (Trilogy) by John Lewis, Andrew Aydin and Nate Powell (2017)
  • Twelve Days in May—Freedom Ride 1961 by Larry Dane Brimner (2018)
  • A Few Red Drops: The Chicago Race Riot of 1919 by Claire Hartfield (2019)
  • Infinite Hope: A Black Artist's Journey from World War II to Peace by Ashley Bryan (2020)
  • Lifting as We Climb: Black Women's Battle for the Ballot Box by Evette Dionne (2021)
Middle level winners (grades 5–8, since 2001)
  • Let it Shine: Stories of Black Women Freedom Fighters by Andrea Davis Pinkney (2001)
  • Prince Estabrook: Slave and Soldier by Alice Hinkel (2002)
  • Remembering Manzanar: Life in a Japanese Relocation Camp by Michael L. Cooper (2003)
  • In America's Shadow by Kimberly Komatsu and Kaleigh Komatsu (2004)
  • The Voice that Challenged a Nation: Marian Anderson and the Struggle for Equal Rights by Russell Freedman (2005)
  • César Chávez: A Voice for Farmworkers by Bárbara Cruz (2006)
  • Freedom Walkers: The Story of the Montgomery Bus Boycott by Russell Freedman (2007)
  • Black and White Airmen: Their True History by John Fleischman (2008)
  • Drama of African-American History: The Rise of Jim Crow by James Haskins and Kathleen Benson with Virginia Schomp (2009)
  • Claudette Colvin: Twice Toward Justice by Phillip Hoose (2010)
  • (none in 2011)
  • Music Was It: Young Leonard Bernstein by Susan Goldman Rubin (2012)
  • Marching to the Mountaintop: How Poverty, Labor Fights, and Civil Rights Set the Stage for Martin Luther King, Jr.'s Final Hours by Ann Bausum (2013)
  • Emancipation Proclamation: Lincoln and the Dawn of Liberty by Tonya Bolden (2014)
  • The Girl from the Tar Paper School: Barbara Rose Johns and the Advent of the Civil Rights Movement by Teri Kanefield (2015)
  • (none in 2016)
  • (none in 2017)
  • Fighting for Justice—Fred Korematsu Speaks Up by Laura Atkins and Stan Yogi (2018)
  • America Border Culture Dreamer: The Young Immigrant Experience From A to Z by Wendy Ewald (2019)
  • Infinite Hope: A Black Artist's Journey from World War II to Peace by Ashley Bryan (2020)
  • Black Heroes of the Wild West by James Otis Smith (2021)
Elementary level winners (grades K–6, since 1989)
  • Walking the Road to Freedom by Jeri Ferris (1989)
  • In Two Worlds: A Yup’ik Eskimo Family by Aylette Jenness and Alice Rivers (1990)
  • Shirley Chisolm by Catherine Scheader (1991)
  • The Last Princess: The Story of Princess Ka’iulani of Hawai’i by Fay Stanley (1992)
  • Madam C.J. Walker by Patricia and Fredrick McKissack (1993)
  • Starting Home: The Story of Horace Pippin, Painter by Mary E. Lyons (1994)
  • What I Had Was Singing: The Story of Marian Anderson by Jeri Ferris (1995)
  • Songs from the Loom: A Navajo Girl Learns to Weave by Monty Roessel (1996)
  • Ramadan by Suhaib Hamid Ghazi (1997)
  • Leon's Story by Leon Walter Tillage (1998)
  • Story Painter: The Life of Jacob Lawrence by John Duggleby (1999)
  • Through My Eyes by Ruby Bridges (2000)
  • The Sound that Jazz Makes by Carole Boston Weatherford (2001)
  • Coming Home: A Story of Josh Gibson, Baseball's Greatest Home Run Hitter by Nanette Mellage (2002)
  • Cesar Chavez: The Struggle for Justice / Cesar Chavez: La lucha por la justicia by Richard Griswold del Castillo (2003)
  • Sacagawea by Liselotte Erdrich (2004)
  • Jim Thorpe's Bright Path by Joseph Bruchac (2005)
  • Let Them Play by Margot Theis Raven (2006)
  • John Lewis in the Lead: A Story of the Civil Rights Movement by Jim Haskins and Kathleen Benson (2007)
  • Louis Sockalexis: Native American Baseball Pioneer by Bill Wise (2008)
  • Lincoln and Douglass: An American Friendship by Nikki Giovanni (2009)
  • Shining Star: The Anna May Wong Story by Paula Yoo (2010)
  • Sit In: How Four Friends Stood Up By Sitting Down by Andrea Davis Pinkney (2011)
  • Red Bird Sings: The Story of Zitkala-Ša, Native American Author, Musician, and Activist adapted by Gina Capaldi and Q. L. Pearce (2012)
  • Fifty Cents and a Dream: Young Booker T. Washington by Jabari Asim (2013)
  • Hey Charleston!: The True Story of the Jenkins Orphanage Band by Anne Rockwell (2014)
  • Separate Is Never Equal: Sylvia Mendez and Her Family's Fight for Desegregation by Duncan Tonatiuh (2015)
  • Poet: The Remarkable Story of George Moses Horton by Don Tate; The Amazing Age of John Roy Lynch by Chris Barton (2016)
  • Mountain Chef: How One Man Lost His Groceries, Changed His Plans, and Helped Cook Up the National Park Service by Annette Bay Pimentel (2017)
  • The Youngest Marcher—The Story of Audrey Faye Hendricks, a Young Civil Rights Activist by Cynthia Levinson (2018)
  • The Vast Wonder of the World: Biologist Ernest Everett Just by Mélina Mangal (2019)
  • The Undefeated by Kwame Alexander (2020)
  • William Still and His Freedom Stories by Don Tate (2021)
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