About the Artist
Melanie S. Hatter is the author of two novels and one short story collection. Selected by
Edwidge Danticat, Malawi’s Sisters won the inaugural Kimbilio National Fiction Prize and is
published by Four Way Books, 2019. The Color of My Soul won the 2011 Washington Writers’
Publishing House Fiction Prize, and Let No One Weep for Me, Stories of Love and Loss was
released in 2014. Her short stories have appeared in The Whistling Fire, Defying Gravity,
TimBookTu and Diverse Voices Quarterly. She was a runner-up winner in the Fiction category
of the 2015 and 2016 Montgomery Writes contests sponsored by the Maryland Writers’
Association. She is a participating author with the PEN/Faulkner Writers in Schools program in
Washington, D.C., and serves on the board of the Zora Neale Hurston/Richard Wright
Foundation. Melanie received a bachelor’s degree in mass media arts from Hampton University
and a master’s in writing from Johns Hopkins University. She has a background in journalism
and corporate communications.
Melanie Hatter website View Website
Artist's Statement
This novel was inspired by the 2013 shooting death of Renisha McBride, and the many shooting deaths of black men and women across the United States in recent years.
My hope is for this book to stimulate discussion about the effects of racism and prejudice in America.
