Caribbean American journalist Charmaine Wilkerson began her professional life in TV news. She recalls meeting people on the worst day of their life, when their personal pain was bared to the public eye. Her debut novel, Black Cake, and her new book, Good Dirt, both begin with grief, tracing the loss of loved ones to family revelations that come after. Today's episode revisits a 2022 conversation with Wilkerson and NPR's Kelsey Snell about the role of identity and cultural inheritance in Black Cake. Wilkerson then speaks with NPR's Juana Summers about how those themes develop in Good Dirt.

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