Beverly Jenkins Biography
Beverly Jenkins is an American romance novelist who specializes in nineteenth-century African-American life. Jenkins was nominated for an NAACP Image Award in 2013 and named one of the Top 50 Favorite African-American Writers of the 20th Century by the African American Literature Book Club in 1999.
Beverly Jenkins Age
Beverly was born in 1951, in Detroit, Michigan, United States of America. She is 73 years old as of 2023.
Beverly Jenkins Education
Jenkins studied at Michigan State University as a Journalism and English Literature major.
Beverly Jenkins Family- Parents
Jenkins was born in Detroit in 1951 to her parents, a high school teacher and an administrative assistant. Jenkins grew up around words. Jenkins’ mother read to her in the pregnancy and bought her cloth books as a baby.
Beverly Jenkins Career
Jenkins worked full-time at the Michigan State University library’s circulation department. She used to read articles from The Journal of Negro History (now The Journal of African American History) during her lunch hour. Jenkins and her husband eventually settled in Ypsilanti, where she worked at Parke Davis Pharmaceuticals’ reference desk and began writing romantic novels for pleasure. Jenkins looked for an agency and publisher after a coworker recommended it. In 1994, Avon released her first novel, Night Song. Jenkins has produced books in a variety of romance sub-genres, although the majority of her works are historical romances. Jenkins describes herself as a “kitchen table historian.”
She compares American history to a quilt with some pieces taken out—the ones representing minority history. Jenkins utilizes her works to re-weave the patchwork by disclosing pieces of black history that are rarely taught in schools. Slavery and the Civil Rights Movement are significant aspects of African American history, but they are not the only ones. For example, her first three novels, Night Song, Vivid, and Indigo, have characters like a schoolteacher, a cavalry officer, a female doctor, and Underground Railroad heroes. They were all inspired by genuine history. Jenkins was inspired by two fascinating historical events when writing Forbidden. First, she read a news story about a high-end African American-owned hotel discovered during an archaeological dig in Virginia City.
Beverly Jenkins Net Worth
She has an estimated net worth of 9 million dollars.