For more information:
Frank R. Scatoni
619-807-1887
frank@ventureliterary.com

"No Kill Date"

Venture Literary Sells Emotional African-American Eating-Disorder Memoir to Lawrence Hill Books

On September 21, 2007, Jennifer de la Fuente of Venture Literary, representing Stephanie Covington, freelance writer, playwright, and screenwriter, sold world rights to Not All Black Girls Know How to Eat: A Memoir of Bulimia to Susan Betz at Lawrence Hill Books/Chicago Review Press.

This book blows the lid off of the misconception that only white women from well-heeled backgrounds have eating disorders. In a tone that is neither victim nor apologetic, Covington shares her story, a searching and fearless moral inventory describing all the things that led her to an anorexic’s and bulimic’s life. On her way to recovery, she’ll explain how she needed to forgive herself for being bulimic, for being molested, for feeling like a burden, and for loads of other things she used against herself as weapons against her self-esteem.

According to The Renfrew Center Foundation, 24 million people in the United States experience an eating disorder. Equally alarming is the fact that minorities and poor women are suffering in silence because they don't fit the typical profile that doctors and therapists use to diagnose an eating disorder. Recent stories exposing this new, raging epidemic—USA Today’s “Not Just a White Woman’s Issue: Eating Disorders Cross Color Lines” and The New York Times’ “Blacks Join the Eating-Disorder Mainstream”—demonstrate that there is a huge market for this book. In addition, celebrities such as Kerry Washington and Thandie Newton have recently come forward and admitted that they are afflicted with an eating disorder.

Based in Los Angeles, Stephanie Covington wrote a commentary for NPR titled “Digesting the Truth,” about black women and eating disorders. She has written for Essence, Sassy, Mademoiselle, and Venice magazines, among other publications. She authored the screenplay for “Contradictions of the Heart” (20th Century Fox), starring Vanessa Williams. Her plays Three Stories Down, The Outside Sisters, and The Long Journey Home have been performed in theaters in Los Angeles and New York.


To learn more about Venture Literary, visit: www.ventureliterary.com.
To learn more about Chicago Review Press, visit: http://www.chicagoreviewpress.com