Her Pen is Mighty

By Amanda S.F. Hartle

A single book can change your whole life.

For award-winning novelist, college professor and Carnegie Mellon University alumna Jewell Parker Rhodes (DC 1975, 1976, 1979), it was Gayl Jones’ “Corregidora” in Hunt Library.

“It was a revelation. Even though I wrote stories and poetry, I never thought I could be a writer,” Jewell recalls. “None of the characters I read about were black, and none of the authors were black.

CMU’s library opened a horizon that I didn’t even know was possible for me.”