Finalist, 2018 William Faulkner – William Wisdom Creative Writing Competition

Finalist, 2016 Louise Meriwether First Book Prize

"...powerful....Brown speaks to timeless struggles of women who had ambitions that reached beyond traditional expectations. Moreover, Brown crafts Cora as an incredibly perceptive narrator and foregrounds race-related issues through an absorbing plotline with some unexpected turns....An affecting novel of female friendship and a desire for independence."

—Kirkus Reviews

"It has been said, the universal is found in the specific, and in CORA’S KITCHEN all women will find their challenges and longings expressed in unflinching honesty. Kimberly Brown’s characters are faithful to a time, yet timeless, transcending the years to both painfully and beautifully illustrate the struggles women face to find and fulfill their vocations. Spellbinding.”

—Erika Robuck, national bestselling author of The Invisible Woman

“All told, Cora’s Kitchen is a masterful look at the many ways in which racism, classism and misogyny overlap and oppress.”

—The Indypendent

“Kimberly Garrett Brown has written an outstanding novel which rings true as a depiction of a budding writer and conveys an important message about overlapping, concurrent forms of oppression.”

—The Compulsive Reader

"A Black woman rebels against racism and class, finding her voice....[Cora is] a transcendent heroine.”

—Foreword Reviews

"Brown’s story digs much deeper than the plight of women. It gets down to the plight of self-preservation in a society bent on suppression, not solely based on gender, but also on class, money, and specifically color....Relationships are tested in a heart-pounding climax."

—Paula Shaffer Robertson, StoryCircle Book Reviews

"… Cora’s Kitchen delves deeply into what it means to be a Black woman with ambition, to make choices and keep secrets, and to have an unexpected alliance with a white woman that ultimately may save both of them. In this intimate and expansive novel, Kim Garrett Brown renders Cora with immense empathy, acknowledging and confronting Cora’s own prejudices and allegiances and the social pressures that continue to reverberate far beyond this story. Cora’s Kitchen is a poignant, compelling story in which misfortune and fortune cannot be teased apart and literature and life have everything to do with each other.”

—Anna Leahy, author of What Happened Was: and Tumor

“Told by a woman of color who dares hold literary ambitions during the Harlem Renaissance, her story touches on the burdens women of all classes and races frequently carry–– the stress of having to make a living while dealing with the complexities of marriage and family life, and at the same time, wanting more for themselves….I suspect many readers, especially women readers like me, will devour this beautiful and moving story in one sitting. Indeed, Cora’s Kitchen is destined to become a feminist classic.”

—Rosemary Daniell, award-winning author of Secrets of the Zona Rosa: How Writing (and Sisterhood) Can Change Women’s Lives, and nine other books of poetry and prose