Today, 46 years ago, a great writer, Nella Larsen died all alone.
Although she'd been one of the most celebrated and acclaimed Harlem Renaissance writers, she lived the last 30+ years of her life in obscurity working as a nurse in NYC after a difficult divorce and being accused of plagiarism.
I think of her as my literary muse. Like me, she had a Danish mother and a black father. And she wrote about the experience. Her voice---her stories written 80 years ago--gave me permission to tell a similar story in The Girl Who Fell From the Sky.
For that I am forever grateful. Thank you, Nella. Today, I am remembering you!
This is a photo of the headstone I had installed for her in 2006--her grave had gone unmarked all those years.
