A writer of “wrenching and sweet truths that feel familiar to any reader” (Philadelphia Magazine), Diane McKinney-Whetstone is the author of five acclaimed novels, including Tumbling, Tempest Rising, and Trading Dreams at Midnight, a multigenerational story of abandonment, blackmail, and familial love set in West Philadelphia. A two-time recipient of the American Library Association Black Caucus Literary Award for Fiction and winner of a Zora Neale Hurston Society award, she teaches creative writing at the University of Pennsylvania. In Lazaretto, McKinney-Whetstone returns to Philadelphia with an historical novel set in a legendary 19th-century quarantine hospital.