Dolen Perkins-Valdez is the author of the New York Times bestselling novel Wench. In 2017, HarperCollins released Wench as one of eight “Olive Titles,” limited edition modern classics. Dolen received a DC Commission on the Arts Grant for her second novel Balm which was published by HarperCollins in 2015. In 2013, Dolen wrote the introduction to a special edition of Solomon Northup’s Twelve Years a Slave, published by Simon & Schuster, which became a New York Times bestseller. Dolen is a 2019 nominee for a United States Artists Fellowship.