Breena Clarke’s first novel River, Cross My Heart was selected as an Oprah’s Book Club pick and went on to become an international bestseller, earning her comparisons to Eudora Welty and Toni Morrison. Her writings have also appeared in the anthologies Contemporary Plays by Women of Color and Street Lights: Illuminating Tales of the Urban Black Experience. Clarke infuses history, survival, and adventure into her second novel, Stand the Storm, the story of one family’s journey to absolute freedom at the brink of the Civil War.