REVIEWS
"This sharp and sensitive collection, Acker’s debut, traces the lives of black women and girls in Washington, D.C., across different neighborhoods, socioeconomic statuses, and decades. Grappling with ideas like gentrification and social-climbing through the fine-tuned eyes of her characters, Acker never oversimplifies or neatens the complexities that make up life.”
Publishers Weekly
"It's hard to believe this brilliant collection of stories is a debut, so beautifully does Camille Acker navigate difficult fictional terrain and complicated themes, including issues like gentrification, race, and "respectability" politics."
NYLON
“An exciting literary achievement by a significant emerging talent. This flawlessly executed work reinvigorates the short fiction genre.”
BUST
"A timely, welcome book."
The Millions
“These stories pulse with vitality as ordinary people look for a future in a world that doesn’t expect them to have one. . . . A striking cross-section view of the capital’s corners, these stories contain, and sometimes restrain, hope; in fleeting glimpses, they also reveal the beginning of a way out.”
Foreword Reviews
"Acker shows that the lives of black girls and women are vast and varied, pushing back on the monolithic ways they are often portrayed."
Kirkus Reviews
“Acker navigates her characters’ lives with humor, heart, and grace. I loved these stories.”
Lisa Ko, author of The Leavers
"Camille Acker channels voices and visions like a literary medium. Captivating, insightful, this is a debut of an already accomplished author. Through richly imagined profiles, Training School for Negro Girls creates a world on the page.”
Mat Johnson, author of Loving Day
“The lives of the girls and women featured in these stories are rendered with tremendous warmth, humor, and care. Camille Acker has written pages that are saturated with the stuff of black life in Washington, DC: the cadences, the music, the aspirations, the trouble, the disappointments, the inventiveness, and the laughter. Training School for Negro Girls is a wonderful debut.”
Jamel Brinkley, author of A Lucky Man
“A vivid, engaging book and a necessary new voice.”
Robert Boswell, author of Tumbledown
“Camille Acker’s compelling stories vibrate with fresh portrayals, vivid prose, and real attitude. Training School for Negro Girls is both a rich compilation of storytelling and a deft guide for living; as you witness these characters learn their heartbreaking lessons, you too might never be the same.”
Bridgett M. Davis, author of The World According to Fannie Davis: My Mother’s Life in the Detroit Numbers
"A devastating and subtle portrayal of what it is to be black and female in America: the ache, the rage, the sorrow, the unending will to rise."
Shobha Rao, author of Girls Burn Brighter
“Each page of Training School for Negro Girls stands as a wise testament to possibility, laying out the means by which we can all weather the worst circumstances and survive the most perilous times. A stunning achievement.”
Jeffery Renard Allen, author of Song of the Shank