Eric Jerome Dickey
Eric Jerome Dickey was born in Memphis, Tennessee and attended the University of Memphis (the former Memphis State), where he earned his degree in Computer System Technology. In 1983, he moved to Los Angeles to pursue a career in engineering.
After landing a job in the aerospace industry as a software developer, Eric Jerome Dickey's artistic talents surfaced, inspiring him to become an actor and a stand-up comedian. Yet Eric quickly found out that writing was something he could do and do well. From creative writing classes to avidly consuming the works of his favorite authors, Eric Jerome Dickey began to shape a writing career of his own. Having written several scripts for his personal comedy act, he started writing poetry and short stories. "The film work gave me insight into character development, the acting classes helped me understand motivation...All of it goes hand in hand," Eric explains. He joined the IBWA (International Black Writers and Artists), participated in their development workshops, and became a recipient of the IBWA SEED Scholarship to attend UCLA's Creative Writing classes. In 1994 his first published short story, "Thirteen," appeared in the IBWA's River Crossing: Voices of the Diaspora-An Anthology of the International Black Experience. A second short story, "Days Gone By," was published in the magazine A Place to Enter.
With those successes behind him, Eric Jerome Dickey decided to fine-tune some of his earlier work and developed a screenplay called "Cappuccino." "Cappuccino" was directed and produced by Craig Ross, Jr. and appeared in coffee houses around the Los Angeles area. In February 1998, "Cappuccino" made its local debut during the Pan African Film Festival at the Magic Johnson Theater in Los Angeles.
Short stories, though, didn't seem to fulfill Eric Jerome Dickey's creative yearnings. Eric says, "I'd set out to do a ten-page story and it would go on for three hundred pages." So Eric kept writing and reading and sending out query letters for his novels for almost three years until he finally got an agent. "Then a door opened," Eric says. "And I put my foot in before they could close it." And that door has remained opened, as Eric Jerome Dickey's novels have placed him on the map as one of the best writers of contemporary urban fiction.
Eric Jerome Dickey's book signing tours for Sister, Sister; Friends and Lovers; Milk in My Coffee; Cheaters; and Liar's Game took him from coast to coast and helped propel each of these novels to #1 on the "Blackboard Bestsellers List." Cheaters was named "Blackboard Book of the Year" in 2000. In June 2000, Eric Jerome Dickey celebrated the French publication of Milk in My Coffee (Cafe Noisette) by embarking on a book tour to Paris. Soon after, Milk in My Coffee became a bestseller in France. Eric Jerome Dickey's novels, Chasing Destiny, Liar's Game, Between Lovers, Thieves' Paradise, The Other Woman, Drive Me Crazy, Genevieve, Naughty or Nice, Sleeping with Strangers, Waking with Enemies, and Pleasure have all earned him the success of a spot on The New York Times bestseller list. Liar's Game, Thieves' Paradise, The Other Woman, and Genevieve have also given Dickey the added distinction of being nominated for an NAACP Image Award in the category of Outstanding Literary Work in 2001, 2002, 2004, and 2005. In 2006, he was honored with the awards for Best Contemporary Fiction and Author of the Year (Male) at the 2006 African American Literary Award Show. In 2008, Eric was nominated for Storyteller of the Year at the 1st annual ESSENCE Literary Awards. In January 2001, Eric Jerome Dickey was a contributor to New American Library's anthology Got To Be Real: Four Original Love Stories, also a Blackboard Bestseller. He also had a story entitled “Fish Sanwich” appear in the anthology Mothers and Sons. In June 2002, Dickey contributed to Black Silk: A Collection of African American Erotica (Warner Books) as well as to Riots Beneath the Baobab (published by Inte
“nothings promised, not the rest of tonight, not all of tomorrow!”
“hate is a virus, revenge its only cure!”
“we can do anything when we decide to win no matter what!”
“sleepin with strangers will have you waking with enemies!”
“no expectations, no disappointments!”
“early is on time, on time is late, and late is unacceptable!”
“i can become a new woman every day until i like the woman i become, then i can become her for a while, if not forever!”
“we shed the skins of who we used to be!”
“even the righteous man is just a sinner livin in between sins!”
“when you're honest with yourself, often times you betray someone else!”
“desire is a beast that must be fed!”
“we're all wounded in some way, im just tryin to heal!”
“we take on the impossible and fell miserably!”
“we make promises that start with always and end with forever!”
“love is an investment!”
“hate is cancer of the soul!”
“fear is weakness uncontrolled!”
“best way to deal with fear is to face the nightmare!”
“we all go through changes in search of self!”
“loneliness has its own needs!”
“beauty is the currency of betrayal!”
“you're just a side dish not the main course!”
“marriage is when a man stops disappointing many women and focuses on disappointing one!”
“guilt force justification!”
“love is a mental illness, an obsessive-compulsive disorder romanticized!”
“the things we crave, our silent desires, out little addictions!”
“jokes are used to hide the truth!”
“We tried it again and it didn't work out. Sour milk is always sour milk. When something goes bad it stays bad.You don't put sour milk in the refrigerator one day,and take it out the next and expect it to taste sweet.”
“But sometimes living in denial was the only way to keep a man from going on a killing spree.”
“Desperation's heated breath singed my neck, its jagged teeth prepared to devour my flesh. Poverty growled too, waiting its turn, famished yet patient, a beast that dined on the bones of men.”