Mecca Jamilah Sullivan and Glory Edim for BIG GIRL *IN-PERSON*

Loyalty is so excited to welcome Mecca Jamilah Sullivan and Glory Edim for a LIVE and IN-PERSON event celebrating Big Girl! Join us at Jackie Lee's at 7 PM on Wednesday, July 13th for a fantastic chat between Mecca and Glory, followed by a meet + greet & book signing! 

This is a ticketed event taking place at Jackie Lee's at 116 Kennedy St. NW, Washington DC 20011—grab your tickets using the button below! There are three ticket options: one includes a copy of Big Girl, one includes a copy of Big Girl AND one drink ticket for a specialty themed cocktail or mocktail, and one includes one drink ticket for a specialty themed cocktail or mocktail and admission to the event! Additional copies of Big Girl, as well as copies of Glory's books, will be available for sale at the event. Proof of vaccination will be required, as well as a temperature check at the door. Please email events@loyaltybookstores.com with any questions.

ABOUT THE BOOK

Exquisitely compassionate and witty, Big Girl traces the intergenerational hungers and desires of Black womanhood, as told through the unforgettable voice of Malaya Clondon.

In her highly anticipated debut novel, Mecca Jamilah Sullivan explores the perils—and undeniable beauty—of insatiable longing.

Growing up in a rapidly changing Harlem, eight-year-old Malaya hates when her mother drags her to Weight Watchers meetings; she’d rather paint alone in her bedroom or enjoy forbidden street foods with her father. For Malaya, the pressures of her predominantly white Upper East Side prep school are relentless, as are the expectations passed down from her painfully proper mother and sharp-tongued grandmother. As she comes of age in the 1990s, she finds solace in the music of Biggie Smalls and Aaliyah, but her weight continues to climb—until a family tragedy forces her to face the source of her hunger, ultimately shattering her inherited stigmas surrounding women’s bodies, and embracing her own desire. Written with vibrant lyricism shot through with tenderness, Big Girl announces Sullivan as an urgent and vital voice in contemporary fiction.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Mecca Jamilah Sullivan, Ph.D. is the author of the novel Big Girl (W.W. Norton & Co./ Liveright), a 2022 most anticipated pick from VultureMs, Goodreads and SheReads.com. Her previous books are  The Poetics of Difference: Queer Feminist Forms in the African Diaspora (University of Illinois Press, 2021), and the short story collection, Blue Talk and Love (2015), winner of the Judith Markowitz Award for Fiction from Lambda Literary. She is Associate Professor of English at Georgetown University. A native of Harlem, she currently lives in Washington, DC. 

ABOUT THE IN CONVERSATION PARTNER

Glory Edim is the founder of Well-Read Black Girl, a book club and digital platform that celebrates Black literature and sisterhood. The author and editor of Well-Read Black Girl, Edim won the 2017 Innovator’s Award from the Los Angeles Times Book Prizes.

Please note Loyalty has a zero tolerance policy for harassment or intimidation of any kind during this event. 

Event date: 
Wednesday, July 13, 2022 - 7:00pm
Event address: 
Jackie Lee's
116 Kennedy St. NW
Washington, DC 20011
Staff Pick Badge
Big Girl: A Novel By Mecca Jamilah Sullivan Cover Image
$27.00
ISBN: 9781324091417
Availability: Not In Store - Available to special order for pickup or ship. For even speediest shipping we suggest our Bookshop.org page!
Published: Liveright - July 12th, 2022

Staff Pick Badge
On Girlhood: 15 Stories from the Well-Read Black Girl Library By Glory Edim (Editor) Cover Image
By Glory Edim (Editor)
$23.95
ISBN: 9781631497698
Availability: Not In Store - Available to special order for pickup or ship. For even speediest shipping we suggest our Bookshop.org page!
Published: Liveright - October 26th, 2021

Well-Read Black Girl: Finding Our Stories, Discovering Ourselves By Glory Edim Cover Image
$20.00
ISBN: 9780525619772
Availability: On Our Shelves Now - Click on the title to see which location!
Published: Ballantine Books - October 30th, 2018