Silva, K.E. (Kimberly E. Silva)

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Silva, K.E. (Kimberly E. Silva)

PERSONAL:

Born in the Midwestern United States. Ethnicity: West Indian.

ADDRESSES:

Home—Northern CA.

CAREER:

Writer, attorney. Civil rights lawyer.

WRITINGS:

A Simple Distance (novel), Akashic Books (Brooklyn, NY), 2006.

SIDELIGHTS:

K.E. Silva investigates what it is like to have grown up as a West Indian in the American Midwest. Silva's first novel, A Simple Distance, tells the story of Jean Sousa, a young lesbian attorney of mixed race living in Oakland, California, whose volatile relationship with her mother, Sophia, a native of a fictional Caribbean island, Baobique, is the primary source of her emotional difficulties. Even when Sophia returns to her homeland, Jean still feels affected by her mother's beliefs and opinions. Silva mined her own experiences growing up a lesbian in a household where such preferences were considered unacceptable, as well as the feelings of isolation that stemmed from her parents' separation from Jamaica. During a reading in Park Slope, Brooklyn, chronicled at the Bookish Love Web site, Silva noted that due to "lack of opportunities for higher education where her mother is from, young students continuously go abroad, not always with the intention to return," and as a result "when a family is split into two places, one cannot feel complete without encompassing both in one's life." In Kirkus Reviews, one writer noted: "Lushly evoked island atmosphere and cadenced language as circuitous as a Pascal family fight make for an impressive first novel, despite disjointed narration and remarkably tame conflicts." A reviewer for Publishers Weekly wrote: "The scenes in Baobique convey the most interest and tension, a convincing portrait of a place at an economic and cultural crossroads." A Tikkun contributor called the book "a delightfully subversive narrative."