Mecca Jamilah Sullivan

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| name = Mecca Jamilah Sullivan

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| birth_place = Harlem, New York

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| occupation = Writer, professor

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| awards = Judith A. Markowitz Award, Lambda Literary Foundation

| website = {{URL|meccajamilahsullivan.com}}

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| thesis_title = Interstitial Voices: The Poetics of Difference in Afrodiasporic Women's Literature

| thesis_url = https://search.worldcat.org/title/1250435387

| thesis_year = 2012

| doctoral_advisor = Thadious Davis

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Mecca Jamilah Sullivan is an American writer and professor, best known for her debut novel Big Girl (2022). Her short story collection Blue Talk & Love received the 2018 Judith A. Markowitz Award for emerging LGBTQ writers from Lambda Literary. Sullivan is currently an associate professor of English at Georgetown University, where she teaches courses in African-American poetry, Black queer and feminist literature, and creative writing.

Early life and education

Sullivan was born and raised in Harlem, New York.{{Cite news |title=Mecca Jamilah Sullivan: 'The culture of disordered eating and dieting is still thriving' |url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2023/jul/29/mecca-jamilah-sullivan-the-culture-of-disordered-eating-and-dieting-is-still-thriving-big-girl-novel |work=The Guardian |last=Morris |first=Kadish |date=29 July 2023 |access-date=24 November 2023 |language=en}}

She earned her BA in Afro-American Studies from Smith College in 2003, followed by a MA in English and Creative Writing from Temple University in 2006. Sullivan was awarded a PhD in English Literature from the University of Pennsylvania in 2012.{{Cite web |title=Mecca Jamilah Sullivan |url=https://www.english.upenn.edu/people/mecca-jamilah-sullivan |website=University of Pennsylvania |access-date=24 November 2023 |language=en}}

Career

Sullivan published her first short story collection entitled Blue Talk & Love in 2015. The collection was praised for offering stories "about Black queer women written by a Black queer woman".{{Cite web |title=Stephanie reviews Blue Talk and Love by Mecca Jamilah Sullivan |url=https://lesbrary.com/stephanie-reviews-blue-talk-and-love-by-mecca-jamilah-sullivan/ |last=Ellis |first=Danika |website=lesbrary.com |date=14 July 2016 |access-date=27 November 2023 |language=en}} In 2021, she published her first non-fiction book, The Poetics of Difference, which explores the writings of Black queer women.

In 2022, Sullivan released her debut novel, Big Girl. The novel tells a coming-of-age story set in Harlem in the 1990s, focusing on an eight-year obese Black girl as she grows up and navigates her family, weight, and sexuality.{{Cite magazine |title=Here Are the 9 New Books You Should Read in July |url=https://time.com/6191971/best-books-july-2022/ |magazine=Time |last=Haupt |first=Angela |date=29 June 2022 |access-date=25 November 2023 |language=en}} The New York Times said the book "triumphs as a love letter to the Black girls who are forced to enter womanhood too early – and to a version of Harlem that no longer exists".{{Cite news |title=For Black Girls, Womanhood Comes Too Early |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2022/07/06/books/review/big-girl-mecca-jamilah-sullivan.html |work=The New York Times |last=Natera |first=Cleyvis |date=6 July 2022 |access-date=26 November 2023 |language=en}} The book was praised for its examination of "what we do to Black girls and women: how even our best intentions squeeze them into small shapes."{{Cite web |title=Mecca Jamilah Sullivan: Interviewed by Annie Liontas |url=https://bombmagazine.org/articles/mecca-jamilah-sullivan-interviewed/ |last=Liontas |first=Annie |website=Bomb |date=20 July 2023 |access-date=25 November 2023 |language=en}} Sullivan cites the importance of coming-of-age stories, stating that she was "reading Toni Morrison's The Bluest Eye, reading Ntozake Shange's For Colored Girls and Sassafrass, Cypress & Indigo, reading Jamaica Kincaid's Lucy" when she was eleven years old.{{Cite web |title=An Interview with Mecca Jamilah Sullivan, 2022 First Novel Prize Finalist for Big Girl |url=https://centerforfiction.org/interviews/an-interview-with-mecca-jamilah-sullivan-2022-first-novel-prize-finalist-for-big-girl/ |last=McNair |first=Melanie |website=Center for Fiction |date=2022 |access-date=27 November 2023 |language=en}}

Publications

Blue Talk & Love (2015)
The Poetics of Difference: Queer Feminist Forms in the African Diaspora (2021)
Big Girl (2022)

Awards and honors

In 2008, Sullivan won the Charles Johnson Fiction Award{{Cite web |title=Mecca Jamilah Sullivan |url=https://www.pw.org/directory/writers/mecca_jamilah_sullivan |website=Poets & Writers |date=1 September 2022 |access-date=24 November 2023 |language=en}}
In 2011, Sullivan was awarded the Emerging Writer Fellowship by the Center for Fiction in New York City{{cite book |title=All about Skin: Short Fiction by Women of Color |publisher=University of Wisconsin Press |editor-last1=Ortiz |editor-first1=Jina |editor-last2=Spencer |editor-first2=Rochelle |date=11 November 2014 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PVRfBAAAQBAJ&q=%22Mecca+Jamilah+Sullivan%22 |page=295 |isbn=9780299301941 |access-date=26 November 2023}}
In 2012, Sullivan won the Alan Collins Scholarship from the Bread Loaf Writers' Conference
In 2018, Sullivan won the Judith A. Markowitz Award for emerging LGBTQ writers from Lambda Literary{{Cite news |title=Jeanne Thornton and Mecca Jamilah Sullivan named winners of the Judith A. Markowitz Award for Emerging LGBTQ Writers |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/879848531/?terms=%22Mecca%20Jamilah%20Sullivan%22&match=1 |work=Seattle Gay News |date=11 May 2018 |access-date=26 November 2023 |language=en}}
In 2021, her work The Poetics of Difference: Queer Feminist Forms in the African Diaspora won the William Sanders Scarborough Prize from the Modern Language Association{{Cite web |title=Exclusive Interview with Mecca Jamilah Sullivan |url=https://shereads.com/exclusive-interview-mecca-jamilah-sullivan/ |website=SheReads.com |date=16 June 2023 |access-date=25 November 2023 |language=en}}
In 2023, Big Girl was selected as a finalist for the Gotham Book Prize, an annual award honoring the best new book about New York City{{Cite web |last=Culgan |first=Rossilynne Skena |date=2023-02-13 |title=The 2023 Gotham Book Prize finalists have been announced; add these NYC books to your list |url=https://www.timeout.com/newyork/news/the-2023-gotham-book-prize-finalists-have-been-announced-add-these-nyc-books-to-your-list-021323 |access-date=2024-04-17 |website=Time Out New York |language=en-US |archive-date=2023-03-30 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230330210335/https://www.timeout.com/newyork/news/the-2023-gotham-book-prize-finalists-have-been-announced-add-these-nyc-books-to-your-list-021323 |url-status=live }}