Landing a short story collection on the National Book Award shortlist, by itself, is an incredible accomplishment. Especially a debut collection. Especially a debut collection from a small, university press. But that’s exactly what writer Deesha Philyaw accomplished in 2020 with her collection The Secret Lives of Church Ladies.
The National Book Award judges wrote about Deesha’s book: “The Secret Lives of Church Ladies heralds the arrival of Deesha Philyaw. Her debut collection revels in the beautiful mess of life, depicting generations of Black women navigating love, sex, death, family, and faith through the sanctuary and structures of the church. In a veritable showcase of narratives, each of Philyaw’s stories explores these complex drives and the ways they resonate deeply within the community of her characters and the universal well of human experience.”
Seems the judges got it right. The book won the 2021 PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction, the 2020-2021 Story Prize, and 2020 LA Times Book Prize: The Art Seidenbaum Award for First Fiction.
That’s quite a haul for a slim collection of nine stories that had almost no marketing behind it and found its way to readers (and judges!) largely by word of mouth.
We were lucky to have Deesha teach a PJ seminar for us a few years ago, and writers LOVED her then. “Positive, playful, creative, heartfelt energy reverberating throughout,” said one writer about the class. Another praised Deesha’s teaching: “So organized, so gracious, so whiz-bang brilliant in such an accessible way. Two enthusiastic thumbs up. I would love to participate in another workshop led by Deesha.”
Deesha is teaching one of two in-person Fiction cohorts at StoryBoard 2025 and we could not be more excited for her to share her wit, experience, and knowledge.
Her StoryBoard workshop is titled “Writing about Sex and Bodies.” Here’s more about the angle for the workshop: “Why do writers have such a hard time writing about sex?” an interviewer once asked Toni Morrison. In this workshop, we’ll consider Morrison’s answers to the question and take on the challenge of writing about sex, be it tender, taboo, titillating––or all three. Garth Greenwell notes that sex is a “uniquely useful tool for a writer, a powerful means not just of revealing character or exploring relationships, but of asking the largest questions about human beings. . . sex is a kind of crucible of humanness.” “Sex, like any experience,” Melissa Febos writes, “is a lens through which we learn to see ourselves”––and, if we so choose, our characters. What stories have your characters been told about sex, their bodies, and others’ bodies? In response to generative exercises and short readings, we’ll write fiction about sex and bodies in ways that are both daring and reflective.
Deesha’s follow-up to her debut collection, a novel titled The True Confessions of First Lady Freeman, is forthcoming from Mariner Books, an imprint of HarperCollins, in 2026.
Apply here to study with Deesha at StoryBoard 2025.
