Cheryl McCourtie received her MFA (Writing, Nonfiction) from Columbia University in 2019. She is at work on a memoir, Dancing the Quadrille, about being raised in Liberia, Malawi, and Swaziland by Jamaican parents. Her essay “Musings of a Mix-Up,” about her multicultural background, appears with an introduction by cultural critic Margo Jefferson in the Spring/Summer 2019 issue of SLICE literary magazine. Cheryl’s essays on gender, race, and otherness can be found on her blog, www.baldheadempress.com. A former Essence copyeditor, she has freelanced for Black Elegance, The Crisis and Response magazines. Prior to returning to her first love, writing, Cheryl was a nonprofit executive for more than two decades, most notably serving as Executive Director of The Montel Williams MS Foundation.
