negression Creative

Meet Kalisha Buckhanon, negression Creative Director

I have 25 years of experience as a writer, media talent and project help with 20 years of experience in major fiction publishing as an author of five acclaimed novels. I help serious projects and works on a select basis.

My career in arts, letters and media began as work-study at University of Chicago, as an Editorial Assistant in both its News Office and its Press.

In school, I volunteered on teams to create campus events for my youth’s rock stars such as Derek Walcott, Sonia Sanchez, Gwendolyn Brooks and Angela Davis. I resurrected the defunct Black student newspaper The Black Light, with jazz great Maggie Brown and long-time Jet/Ebony Features Editor Clarence Waldron as early subjects. This formed my plan to be a journalist interviewing notables.

I was a writer always. I entered my first story contests in elementary school, won my first in middle school. Yet first, I had reality of a blue-collar background to fend for myself from. Next, I didn’t think the drama and characters I itched to write were important or real stories. Then, I got SULA from literature professor William Veeder and things changed.

I turned down recruitment to lucrative management consulting firms for fear I’d never write again. My former Dean now Forever First Lady Michelle Obama had moved her community ambassadorship to University of Chicago Hospitals, to pull me into its high-end temp pool. My first call made me the emergency new secretary to famed Chief of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery Dr. Robert Walton. Then I was hired for it as my first “real job.”

I rose to the occasion of this crash course in assisting by day and wrote a practice novel at night. One day, I was confused to keep picking up main office calls the receptionist neglected. I learned it was the fault of Bernice McFadden’s novel SUGAR. She could not put it down. So I went to get it. Lightning struck: Black women novelists weren’t limited to the scarce legends my elite education rotated, but alive today in variety and number I could join.

I finished my practice novel, won an Illinois Arts Council Fellowship for it, subscribed to Poets & Writers magazine, and learned from it how writers go from tapping up pages to books I bought. This was back when writers had to find grants or prizes in magazines, comb through entries and addresses in the Guide to Literary Agents, pay Kinko’s to copy manuscripts and pay to mail them off (including stamped envelopes for rejection).

I was shocked I wasn’t that rejected. I wasn’t shocked a famous agent who loved my writing couldn’t sell it into a book, but it was so exciting to try. If I work with would-be authors and current authors, I’m clear that I’m just an assistant to their good old-fashioned college try. It may not always be enough win the race, but it’s your step onto the field to play.

Meanwhile, I moved to a communications job at National Black MBA Association, Inc. in Chicago. It was a proud introduction to the business world and priceless experience in media. I cherish my time working on PR and events for late greats Dr. Maya Angelou and Jesse Jackson, Sr. It was amazing to see a Black woman CEO, Antoinette Malveaux.

But praise for my writing gift from agents and editors haunted me to take a risk.

Plus: I stumbled on Sapphire’s PUSH in a Black woman’s bookstore, got arrested at page one, and finished it (twice) by the next night. I visited college besties in New York to see a big subway ad for The New School’s Creative Writing M.F.A. It listed Sapphire as Faculty. I applied, I got in. I gave up makings of the perfect young bachelorette life in Chicago for Harlem, where I had dreamed to live like its Renaissance writers.

This move led to requisite teaching artist life with the incredible kids of New York City. I temped at Essence magazine for its then-Chairman Ed Lewis, sent out stories until Michigan Quarterly Review bought my first when I was 23 and worked on my thesis Upstate with Sapphire advising.

I thought I was in the Big Apple to continue my communications and culture work- a dream come true in and of itself. Apparently, I was also there for Sapphire to get my thesis to an agent to sell it at auction to St. Martin’s Press for a mid-six figure deal- a communications and culture work of the rarer sort. My debut was the dream experience every writer who wants it deserves.

I was blessed to undergo my life changing while I worked for media, style icon and Jumping the Broom author Harriette Cole. Her wisdom, and my front row seat to high end media show business, helped me greatly. It would be too many other names to list and too much risk to leave some out to convey the number of generous geniuses like her in my life.

In breathing room between my second and third novels, I started negression.com in 2012. I wanted to publish myself on my own terms and reach readers quickly. It remains my creative home atop a body of work on women, arts, culture and justice.

Beyond my solo writing, I’ve done collaborative work as a dramaturg and literary manager in Chicago community theaters, a Course Assistant for Intro to Acting at UChicago and a frequent inner-city teacher as a commitment to education I would be nowhere without. Most recently I taught English to foreigners in Midtown Manhattan for a year.

I also write in other forms than novels. My screen adaptation of my first novel was a Diverse Voices Competition Finalist. I’ve been on network television as an expert on true crime cases I write about. Recently, I returned to my journalism dream to write for women’s beauty, fashion and style outlets as a Staff Writer for Beauty News NYC.

I continue to write novels and stories with usually some mystery, crime and justice while I work with others on meaningful communications work. I’m always open to more students, creatives and businesses to work with.

Testimonials

“Though I am a midcareer literary artist, I’ve been experimenting with other genres. As an emerging crime fiction writer, I looked to my colleague Kalisha Buckhanon, who gracefully navigates the common ground between literary and crime fiction. Kalisha gave valuable feedback on a very early version of Savvy Summers and the Sweet Potato Crimes, a mystery novel that went on to win the Malice Minotaur Award for First Mystery Novel. When the work was scheduled for publication, she provided me with a lovely back cover blurb. No matter how seasoned a writer may be in one genre, it can be a bit trepidatious trying to tiptoe into another. I will always be grateful that Kalisha Buckhanon’s generosity helped make that transition easier. ” –Sandra Jackson-Opoku, Acclaimed Novelist

“Kalisha Buckhanon is a dynamic and talented writer. Her work draws from a deep well of knowledge, informed by a career of writing and reading across a wide variety of genres. Her warmth, humanity, professionalism, and reliability make her a valuable part of any writing project. I have worked with her as an editor before and look forward to hiring her again.” –Tiffany Gholar, Mixed Media Art Design Founder

“I have known Kalisha in creative, professional, and communal forums for longer than I recall. Her roles are manifold in scope and profound in impact. Kalisha wields an acute critical eye as reader, reviewer, editor, etc. It is her inkling to both cultivate and nurture the work of fellow well-published writers and aspirant acolytes alike. Combine these traits with her professional honesty and sheer humanity, and Kalisha is a rare combination as a presence within contemporary Arts & Letters. Her eye, voice, and work leave lasting impressions on those whom she encounters.” –Bayo Ojikutu, Acclaimed Novelist & Lecturer

“Kalisha Buckhanon is an incredibly talented writer and editor. I was so grateful for her work in helping me finalize an essay in a companion booklet for a documentary film that I produced. I could trust Kalisha to hold the historical and anthropological material in this essay with an informed sensitive perspective. I was so happy with how Kalisha brought the final draft to life into a colorful accessible read. After being stuck for so long on trying to finish the essay, having Kalisha’s support was a life saver. Kalisha is completely professional, timely, and trustworthy and I would highly recommend her work as a writer and editor.” – Maya Jensen, Infinite Earth Body Founder

“Working with Kalisha is a joy! As she edited and evaluated my middle grade novel, Kalisha was always generous, positive, and supportive. She gave me great suggestions for improvements and her line edits were spot on. I’m currently querying the revised novel.” –Diane Englert, Author & Actress

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