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Lincoln Signs Contract For First Book
Christine Lincoln '00, winner of the 2000 Sophie Kerr Prize, is poised to join the ranks of great African American writers. She has received a $135,000 advance from Pantheon, a division of Random House Publishers, for her first collection of short stories.
 After she was featured in an article in The New York Times and made an appearance on "Oprah," several publishing houses bid on Lincoln's collection, titled Sap Rising. She chose Pantheon because of editor Erroll McDonald's commitment to preserve her style and language.
"I felt like his vision of the book was closest to my vision," Lincoln said. "He said, 'You're an African American woman, this is your voice.'"
Lincoln's literary agent is just as impressed with her short stories.
"I think they're superb," said Sara Chalfant of the Wylie Agency in New York. "They're in the glorious tradition of Zora Neale Hurston, Toni Morrison and the early Alice Walker. They are luminous."
The collection will include short fiction Lincoln wrote while at Washington College and after her graduation in May 2000. The book is slated for a fall 2001 release.
Amidst a whirlwind of publicity in late January and February, including a barrage of phone calls from the press and a day spent taping a promotional video for her book at the O'Neill Literary House, Lincoln delayed until late winter her move to South Africa. She is studying for a Ph.D. in African Literature at the University of Witwatersrand in Johannesburg.
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