Ladee Hubbard

Hubbard was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Her mother found work as a lawyer on Saint Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands, and Saint John, U.S. Virgin Islands, so she spent some of her childhood in the Virgin Islands,{{Cite news |last=Johnson |first=Chevel |date=17 November 2017 |title=Former V.I. Resident Wins Gaines Award for Literary Excellence |url=https://www.virginislandsdailynews.com/news/former-v-i-resident-wins-gaines-award-for-literary-excellence/article_68ef6ebd-a371-5f9e-bc4a-9dfc4120ee8a.html |access-date=14 September 2024 |work=The Virgin Islands Daily News |language=en}} and spent summers in Florida with her grandparents. Hubbard has lived in New Orleans since 2003. She earned her bachelor's degree from Princeton University,{{Cite news |date=25 October 2018 |title=Novelist Ladee Hubbard's Reading List Focused on Black Identity |url=https://www.tampabay.com/features/books/novelist-ladee-hubbards-reading-list-focused-on-black-identity-20181026/ |access-date=14 September 2024 |work=Tampa Bay Times |language=en}} and studied at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, where she received her Master of Fine Arts in creative writing.{{Cite journal |date=2016 |title=Contributors |journal=Callaloo |volume=39 |issue=4 |pages=962–966 |issn=0161-2492}} She has a PhD in Folklore and Mythology from the University of California, Los Angeles.{{Cite web |title=Ladee Hubbard |url=https://www.gf.org/fellows/ladee-hubbard/ |access-date=14 September 2024 |website=John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation |language=en}}

Hubbard began work on her first novel, The Talented Ribkins, while studying at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. The book won the Ernest J. Gaines Award for Literary Excellence and the Hurston/Wright Legacy Award for Debut Novel,{{Cite web |title=Winner, Ladee Hubbard |url=https://www.ronajaffefoundation.org/2016/winner/ladee-hubbard |access-date=14 September 2024 |website=The Rona Jaffe Foundation |language=en}} and Hubbard herself won the Rona Jaffe Foundation Writers' Award.{{Cite journal |last=McCluskey |first=John |date=2016 |title=LADEE HUBBARD: 2016 Rona Jaffe Foundation Writers' Award Winner |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/26776223 |journal=Callaloo |volume=39 |issue=4 |pages=773–774 |issn=0161-2492}} The central characters of the story each possess odd superpowers. Protagonist Johnny Ripkins is capable of drawing a map of any place regardless of whether he has any firsthand knowledge. Ripkins begins the novel on the run, and Hubbard has said that "debt and paying back what you owe" as motivating factors inspired her.{{Cite news |last=Fisher |first=Rich |date=28 November 2017 |title="The Talented Ribkins" by Ladee Hubbard (Encore Presentation) |url=https://www.publicradiotulsa.org/studiotulsa/2017-11-28/the-talented-ribkins-by-ladee-hubbard-encore-presentation |access-date=14 September 2024 |work=Public Radio Tulsa |language=en}} The odd powers were influenced by W. E. B. Du Bois's idea of the talented tenth and common misinterpretations of the concept.

The Rib King, her second novel, is a revenge story set in the early 20th century in a fictional city based on Chicago, Illinois.{{Cite news |last=Enjetti |first=Anjali |date=23 March 2021 |title=Who Gets to Profit off Black Culture? |url=https://electricliterature.com/ladee-hubbard-novel-the-rib-king/ |access-date=14 September 2024 |work=Electric Literature}}{{Cite news |last=Jackson |first=Naomi |date=21 January 2021 |title=Ladee Hubbard’s ‘The Rib King’ Is a Fascinating Look at Ambition, Race and Revenge |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/books/rib-king-book-review/2021/01/21/61b56c0c-5b2d-11eb-a976-bad6431e03e2_story.html |access-date=14 September 2024 |work=The Washington Post}} It is a prequel to her debut novel.{{Cite news |last=Bancroft |first=Colette |date=8 January 2021 |title=Ladee Hubbard’s ‘The Rib King’ Looks Beyond the Labels |url=https://www.tampabay.com/life-culture/arts/books/2021/01/08/ladee-hubbards-the-rib-king-looks-beyond-the-labels/ |access-date=14 September 2024 |work=Tampa Bay Times |language=en}} The first half follows the story of Mr. Sitwell, the Black groundskeeper for the White Barclay family. The Barclays sell bottled barbecue sauce with a cartoonish version of Sitwell—the "Rib King"—on the label. The book focuses on racism, inequality, the Black middle class, and unpunished violence.{{Cite news |last=Gillespie |first=Karin |date=30 January 2021 |title=By the Book: Money, Class Issues Are Theme in Southern Books |url=https://www.augustachronicle.com/story/lifestyle/columns/2021/01/30/book-money-class-issues-theme-southern-books/4246932001/ |access-date=14 September 2024 |work=The Augusta Chronicle}}

Released in 2022, The Last Suspicious Holdout, is a collection of short stories, all set in the 1990s to early 2000s in a mostly Black suburb.{{Cite news |last=Summers |first=Juana |last2=Hodges |first2=Lauren |date=March 22, 2022 |title=Author Ladee Hubbard on Love, Family and Resilience |url=https://www.npr.org/2022/03/22/1088045981/resilience-family-hope-love-ladee-hubbard-the-last-suspicious-hold-out |access-date=14 September 2024 |work=All Things Considered |publisher=NPR}} The stories were written over a period several years beginning when Barack Obama was elected as the United States' first Black president. Hubbard says the stories reflect her experience growing up in "the post-civil rights era" and "the resiliency and artistry" in the Black community. Critic Mike Peed noted how the stories chart personal and political traumas that are intertwined.{{Cite news |last=Peed |first=Mike |date=6 May 2022 |title=Stories of Survival, In the Wilds, in Cities and at Home |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2022/05/06/books/review/newman-hubbard-macleod.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://archive.today/20240403190914/https://www.nytimes.com/2022/05/06/books/review/newman-hubbard-macleod.html |archive-date=2024-04-03 |access-date=14 September 2024 |work=New York Times}}

• {{Cite book |title=The Talented Ribkins |date=2017 |publisher=Melville House}} [https://lithub.com/the-talented-ribkins/ Excerpt.]
• {{Cite book |title=The Rib King |date=2021 |publisher=Amistad}}
• {{Cite book |title=The Last Suspicious Holdout |date=2022 |publisher=Amistad}}

• {{Cite magazine |date=March 2018 |title=False Cognates (1991) |url=https://www.guernicamag.com/false-cognates-1991/ |magazine=Guernica Magazine}}
• {{Cite journal |date=Summer 2018 |title=Yams |url=https://www.vqronline.org/summer-2018/fiction/yams |journal=Virginia Quarterly Review |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180720234936/https://www.vqronline.org/fiction/2018/06/yams |archive-date=July 20, 2018 |work=}}
• {{Cite magazine |date=September 2020 |title=Camila Pitanga |url=https://www.revistapessoa.com/artigo/3119/camila-pitanga |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201101060739/https://www.revistapessoa.com/artigo/3119/camila-pitanga |url-status=usurped |archive-date=2020-11-01 |magazine=Revista Pessoa}}
• {{Cite magazine |date=June 2021 |title=Five People Who Crave Sauce |url=https://oxfordamerican.org/magazine/issue-113-summer-2021/five-people-who-crave-sauce?utm_campaign=210706_fivepeoplewhocravesauce&utm_medium=referral&utm_source=soldsie |magazine=Oxford American Magazine}}
• {{Cite magazine |date=July 2021 |title=How The Sauce Is Made |url=https://www.oxfordamerican.org/web-only/how-the-sauce-is-made?utm_campaign=210719_howthesauceismade&utm_medium=referral&utm_source=soldsie |magazine=Oxford American Magazine}}

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Category:1970 births

Category:Living people

Category:American women short story writers

Category:Novelists from Louisiana

Category:Writers from New Orleans