Press and Praise
Winner of the 2013 Flaherty-Dunnan First Novel Prize, awarded by New York City’s Center for Fiction
Fiction Runner-Up for the Dayton Literary Peace Prize, presented by the Dayton Literary Peace Prize Foundation
Recipient of a 2014 American Book Award, awarded by the Before Columbus Foundation
TIME.com, “These Are the 21 Female Writers You Should Be Reading,” Culture section, April 16, 2014
The WSJ Best Fiction of 2013 List
“The voices of the past cannot speak for themselves and must rely on the artists of the future to honor them. It’s a profound responsibility and one that Margaret Wrinkle meets in her brilliant novel, Wash.”
The Wall Street Journal (pdf)
“Wrinkle’s tender first novel…is both redemptive and affirming.”
The New York Times Editor’s Choice (pdf)
“A masterly literary work….This debut occasions celebration. Haunting, tender and superbly measured, Wash is both redemptive and affirming.”
The New York Times Book Review (pdf)
“Original and profound…[An] ambitious, powerful debut.”
The Washington Post (pdf)
“Unflinching, stunningly imagined.”
Vanity Fair
Shortlisted for the 2014 Chautauqua Prize, presented by the Chautauqua Institution
Longlisted for the Crook’s Corner Book Prize for Exceptional Debut Southern Novel, awarded by the Crook’s Corner Book Prize Foundation, in Chapel Hill, N.C.
A 2013 selection for the Women’s National Book Association’s list of “Great Group Reads” for National Reading Group Month
“Never has a fictionalized window into the relationship between slave and master opened onto such believable territory….Wash unfolds like a dreamy, impressionistic landscape….[A] luminous book.”
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution (pdf)
“Books like William Styron’s The Confessions of Nat Turner, Toni Morrison’s Beloved, Edward P. Jones’ The Known World, and Russell Banks’ Cloudsplitter form a kind of Truth and Reconciliation Commission of their own. Add Margaret Wrinkle’s Wash to that illustrious company.”
The Dallas Morning News (pdf)
“…Wash achieves something extraordinary: a full-fledged confrontation with one of the most difficult aspects of our nation’s history… Wrinkle has given us an honest and important expression of hope… a firm foothold that leads in the direction of truth and reconciliation. We would do well to take this step.”
The Charleston Post and Courier (pdf)
“A marvel. By turns grim and lyrical, heart-wrenching and hopeful.”
People (4 stars; a People Pick) (pdf)
“A powerful novel.”
-O, The Oprah Magazine
“A magnificent and challenging novel of slavery, full of wisdom and the divinity of nature, that paints an ultimately uplifting portrait of the resilience of the human spirit.”
Shelf Awareness (pdf)
“[A] deeply researched, deeply felt debut”
Publishers Weekly (starred review) (pdf)
“A moving and heart-rending novel.”
Kirkus Reviews (pdf)
“The result is a powerful, poetic, and entirely human exploration of the thoughts, experiences, and hard truths of people—slaves and slaveholders alike.”
The A-List: Black & White, B-Metro: The Magazine of Metro Birmingham Living (pdf)
The Los Angeles Times, “Fiction Writing: Character & Culture,” April 13, 2014 (pdf)
Elle, November 14, 2014
Le Monde, November 14, 2014
The Santa Fe New Mexican, Pasatiempo (pdf)
Chapter 16, Nashville City Paper (pdf)
Birmingham News (See for photos from the launch event)
The Birmingham Times (pdf)
TELEVISION & RADIO
“A Word on Words” with John Siegenthaler, Nashville Public Television, Feb. 16, 2014
“Everyone in America ought to read this book. . . . It’s a fascinating story. . .and it’s wonderfully well written. . . . Buy this book today. ”
“Imus in the Morning,” Dec. 10, 2013
Sirius Radio, The Bob Edwards Show, Dec. 3, 2013
KNEW, San Francisco, California: “Conversations on the Coast”
KWMR, Pt. Reyes, California: “The Place We Live”
“Boldly conceived and brilliantly written, Margaret Wrinkle’s Wash reveals the horrible human predation of slavery and its nest of nightmares. With a truthfulness even beyond Faulkner, Wrinkle makes her novelistic debut in a monumental work of unflinching imagination.”
–Sena Jeter Naslund, author of Ahab’s Wife
“A significant and hugely troubling book.” –Pinckney Benedict, author of Dogs of God
“Wrinkle masterfully takes us on a powerful journey through the darkest past and present of this country, boldly addressing the chasm of racial divide with the scalpel of a gruesome truth. Wash is the epitome of courage and determination to heal the central wound of this culture.”
–Malidoma Patrice Some, author of The Healing Wisdom of Africa
“Margaret Wrinkle’s Wash is a marvelous window into the world of nineteenth century American slavery—a powerful fusion of knowledge and imagination.”
–Madison Smartt Bell, author of All Souls Rising
“Wash is bold, unflinching, and when finished, certain to haunt the reader for a long, long time.”
–Ron Rash, author of Serena and The Cove
“A unique and powerful story, Wash tells a chapter of our past that we would rather look away from. Margaret Wrinkle makes sure we cannot.”
–Kevin Baker, author of Strivers Row
“This exquisite novel is a gift of healing. It exposes the dark and fearsome sin that stains our history. But in the genius of the telling, we are led to the tenderness at the bone, the humanity at the core, and buoyed by joy.”
–Beverly Swerling, author of Bristol House
