Donna

Hemans

Critically Acclaimed Novelist

Short Story Author

Travels from: Baltimore, MD

“Tea By the Sea is a powder keg of a novel, where secrets and lies explode into truth and consequences, all told with spellbinding, shattering power. Hemans doesn’t just fulfill the promise of her debut— she soars past it.” — Marlon James, Man Booker Prize Winning author

Donna Hemans is the author of three novels, River Woman, Tea by the Sea, and The House of Plain Truth. Her short fiction and essays have appeared in Electric Literature, Ms. Magazine, and Crab Orchard Review, among others.

Her first novel, River Woman, was named co-winner of the 2003-4 Towson University Prize for Literature, and in 2015, she won the Lignum Vitae Una Marson Award for Adult Literature for Tea by the Sea.

Hemans was the 2007-2008 Black Mountain Institute (University of Nevada, Las Vegas) International Women’s Forum Fellow and twice served as the Lannan Visiting Creative Writer in Residence at Georgetown University. She has received grants from the Maryland State Arts Council and the Prince George’s County Arts Council, as well as residential fellowships from Hedgebrook, Millay Colony for the Arts, and the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts.

She received her undergraduate degree in English and Media Studies from Fordham University and an MFA from American University. She serves on the board of The PEN/Faulkner Foundation. She lives in Maryland, and is also the owner of DC Writers Room, a co-working studio for writers based in Washington, D.C.

Donna's Featured Titles

The House of Plain Truth: A Novel

Zibby Books |

January 30, 2024

Literary Fiction

A lyrical, lush, evocative story about a fractured Jamaican family and a daughter determined to reclaim her home.

When Pearline receives grave news about her ailing father, she abruptly leaves Brooklyn for her childhood home in Jamaica. But Pearline isn’t prepared for a tense reunion with her sisters or for her father’s startling deathbed wish that she repair their long-broken family legacy and find the sister and two brothers no one has seen in more than 50 years.

Moving through time and place, from modern-day Brooklyn and Montego Bay to 1930s Havana and back again, The House of Plain Truth is a journey through generational secrets and a family coming to terms with its past.

Inspired by the author’s own history, this soulful novel explores a fascinating story of immigration, divided loyalties, and what one woman must sacrifice in her attempt to find home.

BIPOC Representation, Black Voices, Fiction, Historical Fiction

Tea by the Sea

Red Hen Press |

June 9, 2020

Novel

A seventeen-year-old taken from her mother at birth; an Episcopal priest with a daughter whose face he cannot bear to see; a mother weary of searching for her lost child: Tea by the Sea is their story–that of a family uniting and unraveling. To find the daughter taken from her, Plum Valentine must find the child’s father who walked out of a hospital with the day-old baby girl without explanation. Seventeen years later, weary of her unfruitful search, Plum sees an article in a community newspaper with a photo of the man for whom she has spent half her life searching. He has become an Episcopal priest. Her plan: confront him and walk away with the daughter he took from her. From Brooklyn to the island of Jamaica, Tea by the Sea traces Plum’s circuitous route to find her daughter and how Plum’s and the priest’s love came apart.

Fiction

River Woman

Washington Square Press |

January 1, 2003

Novel

As she washes her laundry in the Rio Minho, Kelithe is startled from her daydreams by women’s screams. It is not until she sees a small body in the shallow water that she realizes what has happened. Her young son has drowned. The Women of Standfast, Jamaica, whisper that she let Timothy die so that she could seize her chance to join her mother in America. Numb with grief, Kelithe lacks the strength to confront them. She can only wait for the funeral. And for her mother to come stand by her at last.

What really happened at the river? It is a question Kelithe’s mother cannot ask and an accusation Kelithe will not answer. And it lies at the heart of this shattering novel of promises kept and broken. In spare prose, Donna Hemans lays bare the human heart, exploring the unyielding bonds joining mother and child and the many facets of truth.

Fiction, Immigrant & Refugee Perspectives

Making Space for Creativity

A talk offering practical tips and resources to explore creative endeavors, including building community and making time in our busy lives.

Finding The Heart Of Your Story—A Craft Talk On Revision

A reflection on choices a writer makes when revising. Donna shares examples from her work to show how she makes the difficult choice to start afresh with a manuscript, revive a dormant story, or pivot away from it.

Immigrant Narratives: Finding Empathy Through Fiction

In this talk, Donna reflects on the immigrant experience in literature, and discusses how her family’s experience with migration in Cuba and the United States influences the stories she writes. This talk is based on the anecdotes and research she drew on to write The House of Plain Truth.

Writing Culture

In this talk, Donna discusses the lingering influence of colonial rule in present-day Jamaica and the ways in which it continues to influence how Jamaican culture is represented in literature. She draws on her experience being forbidden to speak Jamaican patois and draws parallels to the present-day efforts to erase cultural stories in the U.S.A.

What We Leave Behind, What We Hold

This talk focuses on the traditions immigrants leave behind or hold on to as they build new lives in their new country. From foods and music to severed relationships. This talk references Donna’s three novels and the mother/daughter relationships that are complicated by immigration.

Leaning Into Your Obsessions: Writing About What Matters to You

In this talk Donna explores ways to write fiction from personal stories and experiences, no matter how small.

“A literary exploration of grief [and] family schisms. Fractured memories and dreams of the past infuse this unassuming story with a rich and elusive history spanning three countries, and they depict a family that’s more orchard than tree. The novel’s sedate pacing, which evokes rocking-chair musings on mortality and responsibility, brings a welcome reprieve from stories laden with plot twists and action for the sake of it. Hemans’ thoughtful family tale is a balm for readers.” ― Kirkus Reviews

“Emotionally honest, The House of Plain Truth is ripe with secrets and sacrifice. Teeming with family drama, and lush descriptions that leapt off the page and rooted me in place. Hemans’ writing is lyrical and her characters stayed with me long after the book was over.” ― Sadeqa Johnson, author of The House of Eve

“Shifting ideas of home, family and culture collide in this evocative tale of memory and reconciliation. The House of Plain Truth meanders through the Jamaican countryside and one family’s troubles in a way that feels unique yet universal in its exploration of migration, broken promises and forgiveness.” ― Charmaine Wilkerson, author of Black Cake

“The House of Plain Truth is a rich and layered novel. It’s not only a compelling family mystery and a moving story of generational healing and reconciliation, but also a profound portrait of the emotional aftermath of voluntary and forced migration. An extraordinary achievement.” ― Maisy Card, author of These Ghosts Are Family

“In prose that pulses with the tempo, climate, and luxuriant beauty of Jamaica, Donna Hemans chronicles the tragic consequences of intergenerational migration and estrangement, colonial brutality, and the chaos of revolution on one Jamaican family. The House of Plain Truth is a heart-wrenching novel of loss and grief with profound resonance in today’s migratory world.” ― Aimee Liu, author of Glorious Boy

“A luminous tale of one Jamaican family’s legacy, with vivid historical insights into early 20th century Caribbean life. Very few Caribbean writers today render ordinary Caribbean people with the extraordinary acuity of Hemans. The House of Plain Truth stands out not only for its keen and rich development of the inner lives of its characters, but also for its thematic echoing of a family’s past and present grief, as it attempts to right its future.” ― Lauren Francis-Sharma, author of Book of the Little Axe

“Donna Hemans tends to her words with the patience of a gardener deep in roses. The quality of Ms. Hemans’ pacing is so telling―tenacious and epic―that the reader will remain transfixed from the very first to the very lovely end.” ― Tara Stringfellow, author of Memphis