Our Gen

Diane McKinney-Whetstone

Diane McKinney-Whetstone is the author of seven novels. The latest — Our Gen—will be published July 5, 2022. She mines the city of Philadelphia for her material. The blocks and neighborhoods themselves become characters as she tells stories of everyday people existing in families and communities; characters faltering, yielding to their desires, falling, fighting, climbing, reaching for their better selves. Twice awarded the American Library Association Black Caucus Literary Award for Fiction, she is also a recipient of a Pennsylvania Council on the Arts grant.

Her work has appeared in the Atlantic, Essence Magazine, Philadelphia Magazine, and the Philadelphia Inquirer. She is a past lecturer in the writing program at the University of Pennsylvania. She lives with her husband Greg in Philadelphia.