Featured Writings

How Black Lives Matter Came to the Academy

On a Saturday night in early June, Shardé Davis, an assistant professor in the Department of Communication at the University of Connecticut, was sitting on a couch in a rented apartment in San Diego, scrolling through her Twitter feed.

Queen Sugar: How Ava DuVernay Elevated Women Directors (With Oprah’s Help)

It wasn’t so long ago that Black family dramas were virtually nonexistent on television—a fact that makes Queen Sugar, now in its final season, an even more extraordinary feat.

As a kid, I was biracial (and black). Today, I'm black (and biracial).

All in the Family: A Multicultural Memoir

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Kristal has a good ear, a calm manner, and high expectations. She knows exactly what works on the page and why.

Jill Kirschenbaum, Executive Producer, Wall Street Journal

We value her commitment to taking on even the most difficult stories in the interest of serious journalism.

Diane Weathers, Former editor-in-chief, Essence magazine

Kristal Brent Zook has written an honest, illuminating look at her life, loves and culture.

Nelson George, Award-winning journalist and author of City Kid: A Writer’s Memoir of Ghetto Life and Post-Soul Success

A powerful memoir about a woman’s odyssey for connection, self-identity, and love.

Kirkus Reviews

Kristal Brent Zook’s memoir is a wrenching, riveting and luminous coming-of-age story about what it means to grow up biracial. Her journey reads like a multigenerational tale woven by strong biracial and Black women—in this case, the daughters, mothers and grandmothers of Zook’s family. With grace and generosity, Zook offers a universal testament to the power of forgiveness and healing—and the strength found through discovering one’s authentic identity. At a time when we often feel lost, this memoir reveals what it means to be found.

Katrina Vanden Heuvel, Publisher, The Nation

Kristal’s story touched me deeply. It will touch everyone who has struggled with feeling the ‘in-betweenness’ that propels her riveting heroine’s journey to define herself and create the family for which she yearned. The writing is as powerful as the message: love ultimately triumphs.

Gloria Feldt, New York Times bestselling author of Intentioning: Sex, Power, Pandemics, and How Women Will Take the Lead for (Everyone’s) Good

Zook recalls a childhood haunted by her missing father—and complicated by his return. A brave, heart-stirring memoir.

PEOPLE Magazine

In this intimate and generous memoir, Kristal Brent Zook explores the complexities of her past and the consummation of her present as a biracial daughter of a white father who left and the Black mother and grandmother who raised her.

Ms. Magazine

Kristal is blessed with genuine intellectual curiosity, along with the instincts and drive of an old-fashioned reporter. Both her and her work are truly special.

Eugene Robinson, Associate editor and columnist, The Washington Post

After thirty years of reporting, Kristal Brent Zook has turned inward to write a deeply personal, frank, and inspirational story about race and class.

Ada Calhoun, New York Times bestselling author of Why We Can't Sleep: Women’s New Midlife Crisis

Kristal Brent Zook’s coming-of-age memoir is a thought-provoking tale of triumph outdistancing pain, of never giving up on love and hope despite childhood traumas and a broken family. Kristal writes so beautifully and urgently. The Girl in the Yellow Poncho will absolutely absorb you.

Kevin Merida, Co-author of Obama: The Historic Campaign in Photographs

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