PENNY MICKELBURY is the author of three successful mystery series and an award-winning playwright. She is a two-time Lambda Literary Award finalist, was a writer in residence at Hedgebrook Women Writers Retreat, and is a recipient of the Audre Lorde Estate Grant. In 2001 she was awarded the Gold Pen Award for Best Mystery/Thriller from the Black Writers Alliance, and the Prix du Roman d’Adventures from Les Éditions du Masque. In 2017, she was commissioned by the Jo Howarth Noonan Foundation for the Performing Arts to write a ten-minute play in celebration of “women of a certain age”.
Prior to focusing on literary pursuits, Penny was a pioneering newspaper, radio and television reporter, based primarily in Washington, D.C., wrote journalistic non-fiction, and was a frequent contributor to such publications as Black Issues Book Review, Africana.com, and the Washington Blade.
Mickelbury and her partner split their time between California, Texas, and Georgia.
Select Bibliography
Novels
Belle City (2014) • That Part of My Face: Short Stories (2016) • Two Wings to Fly Away (2019) • God’s Will and Other Lies: Stories (2019) •Two Wings to Hide My Face (2023) • Payback (2025)
Mimi Patterson/Gianna Maglione Mystery Series
Keeping Secrets (1994) • Nights Songs (1995) • Love Notes (2002) • Darkness Descending (2005) • Death’s Echos (2017) • You Can’t Die But Once (2020)
Carol Ann Gibson Mystery Series
One Must Wait (1998) • Where to Choose (1999) • The Step Between (2000) • Paradise Interrupted (2001)
Phil Rodriguez Mystery Series
Two Graves Dug (2005) • A Murder Too Close (2008)
Anthologies
The Mysterious Naiad: Love Stories by Naiad Press Authors, ed. Katherine V. Forrest (1994) • Spooks, Spies and Private Eyes: Black Mystery and Suspense Fiction, ed. Paula L. Woods (1995) • Shades of Black: Crime and Mystery Stories by African American Authors, ed. Eleanor Taylor Bland (2004) • Crime Ink: Iconic, ed. John Copenhaver and Salem West (2025)
Selected Plays
Time Out (produced 1989) • Waiting for Gabriel (produced 1991, re-staged 2000) • Warm Robes of Remembrance (1993) • Hush Now (produced 2000)
