Meri Nana-Ama Danquah
| Meri Nana-Ama Danquah | |
|---|---|
| Born |
September 13, 1967 Accra, Ghana |
| Occupation | Writer |
| Notable work | Willow Weep for Me: A Black Woman’s Journey Through Depression |
Meri Nana-Ama Danquah (born Mildred Mary Nana-Ama Boakyewaa Brobby[1]) is a Ghanaian-American writer, best known for her memoir Willow Weep for Me: A Black Woman’s Journey Through Depression.
Life
Meri Nana-Ama Danquah was born Mildred Mary Nana-Ama Boakyewaa Brobby in Accra, Ghana. Her maternal grandfather is Dr. J.B. Danquah, a writer and prominent Ghanaian political figure.[2] Danquah moved to the United States at six years old to live with her mother, who had immigrated three years earlier.[3] to attend Howard University.[1] Her parents divorced six years later, separating when Danquah was eleven.[1] While attending Foxcroft, an all-girls’ boarding school located in Middleberg, Virginia, Danquah decided to change her name from Mildred Brobby to Meri Danquah.[1]:130 After dropping out of the University of Maryland,[4] Danquah eventually moved to Los Angeles at the age of twenty.[1]:27 She has one sister, Paula. They are ten years apart.[1]:76
Danquah gave birth to her daughter in 1991.[1]:39 and the two of them lived with Danquah’s then-boyfriend and the father of her daughter. After filing for a restraining order from her daughter’s father on the basis of domestic violence,[1]:41 Danquah and her daughter moved back to Washington D.C. where her parents and sister still lived.
While in D.C., Danquah recognized that she suffered from clinical depression, an illness that would become the basis for her memoir Willow Weep for Me: A Black Woman’s Journey Through Depression. The memoir was published in 1998 to critical praise.[5][6][7] Excerpts from the book were published in the anthology Out of Her Mind: Women Writing on Madness.[8]
In 1999, Danquah earned her Master of Fine Arts degree in Creative Writing and Literature, concentrating in Creative Nonfiction, from Bennington College despite never completing an undergraduate degree.[4] In 2011,[9] Danquah announced she is currently working on a novel.
Bibliography
As author
- Willow Weep for Me: A Black Woman’s Journey Through Depression, 1998, ISBN 9780393045673
As editor
- Shaking the Tree: A Collection of New Fiction and Memoir by Black Woman, 2003, ISBN 978-0393050677
- The Black Body, 2009, ISBN 978-1583228890
- American Woman: Personal Essays by First Generation Immigrant Women, 2012, ISBN 978-1609804084
References
- 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Danquah, Meri Nana-Ama (1998). Willow Weep for Me: A Black Woman's Journey Through Depression (First ed.). W.W. Norton & Co. p. 103. ISBN 9780393045673.
- ↑ Danquah, Meri Nana-Ama (6 February 2015). "Ideals that Last". Graphic Online. Retrieved 26 February 2016.
- ↑ Danquah, Meri Nana-Ama (17 May 1998). "Life as an Alien". Washington Post Magazine. Retrieved 26 February 2016.
- 1 2 "Meri Danquah". aalbc.com.
- ↑ Jones, Rachel (5 April 1998). "Up from Despair". The Washington Post.
- ↑ "Willow Weep for Me: A Black Woman's Journey Through Depression". Publisher's Weekly. Retrieved 26 February 2016.
- ↑ "Meri Nana-Ama Danquah: Willow Weep for Me". Kirkus Reviews.
- ↑ Shannonhouse, Rebecca (2000). Out of Her Mind: Women Writing on Madness (First ed.). The Modern Library. pp. 151–155. ISBN 9780679603306.
- ↑ Danquah, Nana Meri-Ama (20 September 2011). "Nana Meri Danquah". The Africa Report.