Junauda Petrus's debut novel, The Stars and the Blackness Between Them, was a winner of a Coretta Scott King Honor Award.
13 Facts About Junauda Petrus
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Junauda Petrus's mother was born in Trinidad and her father in US Virgin Islands and later moved to Minnesota.
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Junauda Petrus was one of four daughters born to her mother and father; her father has a total of eleven children from five mothers.
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Junauda Petrus came out as gay to her family at age 30 and met her wife, a native of Cameroon, four years later.
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In 2016, Junauda Petrus was commissioned by the City of Minneapolis to write three poems for a public art project on Nicollet Mall in Downtown Minneapolis; one poem was censored and she was asked to submit another poem.
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Junauda Petrus's 2019 novel, The Stars and the Blackness Between Them, is a coming of age story of two 16-year-old queer black girls in Minneapolis.
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In February 2021, Junauda Petrus announced that she was working on a film adaptation of the novel.
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Junauda Petrus' works incorporate themes such as black diasporic futurism, female friendships, queerness, black community, identity, and healing.
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Junauda Petrus is inspired by her mother, Al Green, nature, and women.
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Junauda Petrus is an affiliated writer of The Playwrights' Center in Minneapolis.
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Junauda Petrus describes herself as a "pleasure activist"; she claims her art has "healing power" and relates to themes involving desire and pleasure.
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Junauda Petrus was recognized as a City Pages Twin Cities artist of the year in 2016.
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In 2020, Junauda Petrus received a Coretta Scott King Honor Award for The Stars and the Blackness Between Them.