Dear Oprah is the first Novel by Michael Ellis. First honored by the Hurston Wright Foundation in 2004 and celebrated for its beauty of rhyming language. Set in a small rural town, It tells the story of an overweight, illiterate, suicidal, unattractive and motherless, Correne Johnson, who loves raking leaves, her neighbors garden and the Oprah Winfrey show, which is in its second season. Correne endures a near daily sexual assault by Josh Higgins whom she believes is her uncle. She scribbles a mark on her bedroom wall during each rape and writes Oprah Winfrey letters in her own heartbreaking language, telling nearly every horrid detail as often as she can find a stamp, hoping that Oprah will rescue her. Each of her days ends in heartbreak when her mother, presumably on the road singing Gospel, never arrives to save her. Her fate then falls entirely in the hands of Oprah Winfrey. After a hundred letters and hundreds of rapes and no reply from Oprah, she escalates her strategy , using the wisdom she collects from the talk show host to break the will of her attacker. Will Oprah appear in time? "Dear Oprah is an original concept, written in an original rhyming style, expertly telling a very difficult story of horrific sexual abuse in the heartland of America. Dear Oprah, the new American classic by Michael Ellis." - Subterranean Blue PoetryMichael Ellis prides himself on being raised in the city of Los Angeles from the age of ten. Like his mentor, Langston Hughes, he was raised by his grandmother. Poetry would earn him many rewards, but notably a trip to the University of Puget Sound where he continued writing. Dear Oprah is his first novel and was first recognized by the Hurston/ Wright Foundation where he was invited to a brief residency at Howard University. Ellis has several books to his credits including They Wouldn?t Let Me Be White and Goodbye Langston. He has a five-year teaching tenure in Prisons and public schools, a film credit for a documentary featured on Amazon Prime and he has been featured in many anthologies. |