Ivy Bookshop
About Events Rentals Shop School Books
Cart Account
  • This event has passed.

Deesha Philyaw at The University of Baltimore with D. Watkins: THE SECRET LIVES OF CHURCH LADIES

Event Details

Wright Theater, University of Baltimore
21 W. Mt. Royal Ave, Baltimore, MD 21223
Wednesday, October 15th, 2025
7:00 pm - 8:00 pm

Deesha Philyaw visits the University of Baltimore to discuss her much-beloved short story collection, The Secret Lives of Church Ladies! The Secret Lives of Church Ladies began making waves when it was published in 2021, and has never stopped.

RSVP here!

It features four generations of characters grappling with who they want to be in the world, caught as they are between the church’s double standards and their own needs and passions. It explores the raw and tender places where Black women and girls dare to follow their desires and pursue a momentary reprieve from being good. With their secret longings, new love, and forbidden affairs, these church ladies are as seductive as they want to be, as vulnerable as they need to be, as unfaithful and unrepentant as they care to be, and as free as they deserve to be.

Philyaw will be in conversation with Professor D. Watkins.

You can read more about the book or order it here.

We are over the moon that Deesha is visiting Baltimore, and hope you will join us for this one-of-a-kind evening.

Deesha Philyaw’s debut short story collection, The Secret Lives of Church Ladies, won the 2021 PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction, the 2020/2021 Story Prize, and the 2020 LA Times Book Prize: The Art Seidenbaum Award for First Fiction and was a finalist for the 2020 National Book Award for Fiction. Deesha is a Kimbilio Fiction Fellow, a Baldwin for the Arts Fellow, a United States Artists Fellow, and co-host of two podcasts, Ursa Short Fiction (with Dawnie Walton) and Reckon True Stories (with Kiese Laymon). She is currently at work developing TV shows based on her short fiction.

Deesha’s debut novel, The True Confessions of First Lady Freeman, is forthcoming from Mariner Books, an imprint of HarperCollins, in 2026.

D. Watkins is the New York Times bestselling and award-winning author of The Beast Side, The Cook Up, Where Tomorrows Aren’t Promised, and We Speak for Ourselves—which was Enoch Pratt Free Library’s 2020 One Book Baltimore selection. His newest book, Black Boy Smile, was released in May. Watkins is Editor-at-Large for Salon. He is a writer on the HBO mini-series We Own This City and hosts the show’s companion podcast. Additionally, he was featured in the HBO documentary, The Slow Hustle. His work has been published in the New York Times, Esquire, New York Times Magazine, The Guardian, Rolling Stone, and other publications. Watkins is a college lecturer at the University of Baltimore, where he earned an MFA in Creative Writing. He also holds a Master of Education degree from Johns Hopkins University. Some of Watkins’ awards include the Johns Hopkins Distinguished Alumnus Award, the BMe Genius Grant for Dynamic Black Leaders, the City Lit Dambach Award for Service to the Literary Arts, the Maryland Library Association’s William Wilson Maryland Author Award, and Ford’s Men of Courage Award for Black Male Storytellers. He was also a finalist for a 2016 Hurston Wright Legacy Award, and The Cook Up was a 2017 Books for a Better Life finalist. He lives in Baltimore, MD with his wife and daughter.

We've got news for you...!

Subscribe to The Ivy to stay in the loop, and get informed about exciting upcoming events!