WHITE, Evelyn C. 1954–

PERSONAL:

Born March 29, 1954, in Chicago, IL; daughter of Andrew and Amanda White. Ethnicity: "African-American." Education: Wellesley College, B.A., 1976; Columbia University, M.S., 1985; Harvard University, M.P.A., 1991.

ADDRESSES:

Home—Oakland, CA. Agent—c/o Faith Childs Literary Agency, 915 Broadway, Ste. 1009, New York, NY 10010.

CAREER:

Writer, journalist, and editor. San Francisco Chronicle, San Francisco, CA, reporter, 1986-95.

WRITINGS:

Chain, Chain, Change: For Black Women Dealing with Physical and Emotional Abuse, Seal Press (Seattle, WA), 1985, expanded 2nd edition, 1995.

(Editor) The Black Women's Health Book: Speaking for Ourselves, Seal Press (Seattle, WA), 1990, revised and expanded edition, 1994.

Alice Walker: A Life, Norton (New York, NY), 2004.

Author of foreword to Black like Us: A Century of Lesbian, Gay, and Bisexual African American Fiction, edited by Devon W. Carbado, Dwight A. McBride, and Donald Weise, Cleis Press (San Francisco, CA), 2002.

ADAPTATIONS:

Alice Walker was made into an audiobook.

SIDELIGHTS:

Evelyn C. White has published two books, Chain, Chain, Change: For Black Women Dealing with Physical and Emotional Abuse and The Black Women's Health Book: Speaking for Ourselves, on black women's health issues. She has also written a biography of noted author Alice Walker.

White's first volume, Chain, Chain, Change, is "unlike other books," according to Frada L. Mozenter in the Library Journal, because it not only deals with the issues faced by women who are battered, but it "considers the dual pressures of sexism and racism" faced by both victims and perpetrators. Booklist reviewer Connie R. Miller wrote that the author "speaks to black women in the context of their own experience," specifically addressing the effects of racial- and gender-based prejudice on their circumstances. Besides the issue of abuse, White informs the reader of the practical realities of expected responses from others, such as from the legal system, the police, friends, family, the church, and even counselors. Information about finding and utilizing shelters is also given.

The Black Women's Health Book has been characterized as honest, compelling, and comprehensive. The volume presents essays written by a number of noted writers from a variety of backgrounds, and treats such topics as suicide, disease, career issues particular to black women, women's reproductive issues, and substance abuse. The authors whose works appear in the volume include Alice Walker, Byllye Avery, Faye Wattleton, Angela Davis, Lucille Clifton, and White herself.

In the 1994 book Alice Walker: A Life, White provides a biography of the famed author best known for her novel The Color Purple. White not only explores the writer's past, beginning with her childhood and an accident that made Walker blind in the right eye, but also her Civil Rights activism and interracial and bisexual relationships. Commenting on the biography in an interview with Ann Burns in the Library Journal, White noted: "Walker did not request, nor would I have been interested in writing a biography of a person who requested, manuscript approval." Writing in the Gay & Lesbian Review Worldwide, Janet Mason commented: "This compelling biography brings us the sources and inspirations for Walker's formidable work while detailing the ups and downs of a vulnerable human being." Stacey D'Erasmo noted in the New York Times Book Review: "The rich, complex story White tells, however, is never less than fascinating." D'Erasmo also commented that White "doesn't hesitate to mine the darker terrain" of the author's life. Washington Post contributor Farah Jasmine Griffin wrote that White's "attentiveness to personal stories as well as their historical context is the greatest achievement of this important work." Griffin went on to call the biography an "invaluable contribution to our understanding of a major author."

White told CA: "In all that I do, I seek to shed light on the complexity of Black women. We are never solely what we appear. We are much more than most ever imagine."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

periodicals

Belles Lettres, summer, 1990, review of The Black Women's Health Book: Speaking for Ourselves, p. 27.

Black Scholar, spring, 1994, review of The Black Women's Health Book, p. 43.

Booklist, October 15, 1985, Connie R. Miller, review of Chain Chain Change: For Black Women Dealing with Physical and Emotional Abuse, p. 295; May 1, 1990, review of The Black Women's Health Book, p. 1676.

Bookwatch, May, 1994, review of The Black Women's Health Book, p. 10.

Choice, October, 1991, review of The Black Women's Health Book, p. 247.

Essence, June, 1990, review of The Black Women's Health Book, p. 25; July, 1995, review of Chain, Chain, Change, p. 56.

Gay & Lesbian Review Worldwide, November-December, 2004, Janet Mason, review of Alice Walker: A Life, p. 39.

Kliatt, July, 1994, review of The Black Women's Health Book, p. 30.

Lambda Book Report, August, 1990, review of The Black Women's Health Book, p. 45; March, 1994, review of The Black Women's Health Book, p. 41

Library Journal, October 15, 1985, Frada L. Mozenter, review of Chain, Chain, Change, p. 91; April 15, 1990, Barbara Kormelink, review of The Black Women's Health Book, p. 112; January, 1995, p. 55; September 15, 2004, Ann Burns, "Q&A: Evelyn C. White," p. 55.

Ms. Magazine, July-August, 1990, Beverly Guy-Sheftall, review of The Black Women's Health Book, pp. 68-69.

New York Times Book Review, August 5, 1990, Linda Villarosa, review of The Black Women's Health Book, p. 19; October 24, 2004, Stacey D'Erasmo, review of Alice Walker, p. 24.

Publishers Weekly, January 31, 1994, review of The Black Women's Health Book, p. 86.

Reference Services Review, 1996, review of The Black Women's Health Book, p. 30.

School Library Journal, November, 1994, review of The Black Women's Health Book, p. 145.

Washington Post, October 6, 2004, Farah Jasmine Griffin, review of Alice Walker, p. C04.

Women's Review of Books, March, 1986, review of Chain, Chain, Change, p. 5.*