Diane McKinney-Whetstone


Diane McKinney-Whetstone is an American author and is a member of the University of Pennsylvania Creative Writing program faculty. Her works of fiction have won numerous awards, including the BCALA Literary Award for Fiction from the Black Caucus of the American Library Association, Inc. in 2005 and 2009.

Biography

McKinney-Whetstone is African American. She is the second of five daughters born to Pennsylvania State Senator Paul McKinney and his wife Bessie, with an older sister from her father's previous relationship, and also an older brother and sister from her mother’s first marriage. Diane received a BA in English from the University of Pennsylvania in 1975. She is married to Greg Whetstone and they have twins, Taiwo, a daughter and Kehinde, a son.
McKinney-Whetstone began writing when she was 39, joining the, founded by University of Pennsylvania instructor James Rahn. She won a Pennsylvania Council on the Arts grant for a 500-page first draft. Her first novel, Tumbling, was published in 1996 by William Morrow and Company.
She is mentioned in:Booklist, April 15, 1996, February 15, 1998, February 15, 2000.

Selected works

Tumbling, 1996Tempest Rising, 1998Blues Dancing, 1999Leaving Cecil Street, 2004Trading Dreams at Midnight, 2008Lazaretto: A Novel, 2016Our Gen, 2022Family Spirit, 2025

Awards and recognition