Called "a powerful storyteller, frankly sensual [and] mortally funny" by a reviewer for the New York Times, Lorene Cary is the author of Pride, Black Ice, and The Price of a Child, a historical novel about the Underground Railroad which was the inaugural One Book, One Philadelphia featured book selection. Her new novel, If Sons, Then Heirs, follows the intertwined stories of different African American families struggling to establish or maintain relationships in spite of the sacrifices they have made to survive. A lecturer at the University of Pennsylvania, Cary is the founder of Art Sanctuary, an African American lecture and performance program in Philadelphia; her many honors include the 2003 Philadelphia Award and a Pew Fellowship in the Arts.