Boston Globe Visits Book Release Party of Uzuri M. Wilkerson '05

The Boston Globe stopped by a book release party last week hosted by Uzuri M. Wilkerson ‘05 in honor of Sour (Aziza Publishing, 2013), the second installment in Wilkerson’s Boston-based vampire series Bitten.

With her series, Wilkerson joins a cohort of Wellesley alumnae who have published fantasy novels. Among them: Malinda Lo ’96 is the author of Ash (2009), a Cinderella retelling with a lesbian twist, and several other well-received fantasy novels. Heather Tomlinson ’86 most recently penned fantasy tale Toads and Diamonds (2011), which was a finalist for the Mythopoeic Fantasy Award for Children’s Literature. Greer Gilman ’73 has won numerous awards for Moonwise (1991) and Cloud & Ashes (2009), also a Mythopoeic Fantasy Award finalist.  

As a student, Wilkerson majored in Cinema and Media Studies and Spanish. “I think my Intro to Video Production and my screenwriting courses helped the most when it comes to writing,” she said. “The video production helped me to think visually. With screenwriting, which I had with Professor Cezair-Thompson and [Newhouse visiting fellow] Alicia Erian, it was very useful to be able to bounce ideas off my classmates and brainstorm to see what works on the page and what doesn't. It definitely helped me to get to the point quicker, since I suffered from the inability to end my stories in the past.”

Wilkerson started writing the manuscript of Sweet, the first installment of the series, after being inspired by a particular image. “I had this scene in my head of a young woman being confronted by a hunter,” said Wilkerson. “At the time, she didn't know her boyfriend was a vampire. But then I wanted to see what would happen if she did know he was a vampire. What would life be like for her? And from there, I'd have two routes to go: Does she want to be a vampire or not? The answer to each of those would lead to another question or dilemma.” Among other projects, Wilkerson is now at work on the third book, Bitter, which is expected to be published in the summer.