The Early Years
Zuwena (Swahili for "good") Packer was born on January 12, 1973 in Chicago, Illinois. There, her father owned a bar and lounge and her mother worked for the Social Security Administration. Zuwena began going by ZZ early on in her childhood, a nickname her Uncle gave her. Seeking a better life, ZZ's family moved to Atlanta when she was 5. However, seven years later her parents divorced, and ZZ's mother moved back to her hometown of Louisville, Kentucky, with ZZ and ZZ's younger sister, Jamila.
ZZ began impressing people early on, taking Advanced Placement classes in high school, planning on a career in engineering, and even winning a scholarship to Yale. However, by her junior year in college, Packer decided to pursue literature instead of engineering, and went on to receive her B.A. from Yale in 1994. Since then she has also completed the graduate Writing Seminars program at Johns Hopkins University, and then the Iowa Writers' Workshop.
Read more: http://www.smithsonianmag.com/specialsections/innovators/packer.html#ixzz1qxFf38JF
http://www.smithsonianmag.com/specialsections/innovators/packer.html#ixzz1qxDe6Wfc
Current Home:
Pacifica, California
ZZ began impressing people early on, taking Advanced Placement classes in high school, planning on a career in engineering, and even winning a scholarship to Yale. However, by her junior year in college, Packer decided to pursue literature instead of engineering, and went on to receive her B.A. from Yale in 1994. Since then she has also completed the graduate Writing Seminars program at Johns Hopkins University, and then the Iowa Writers' Workshop.
Read more: http://www.smithsonianmag.com/specialsections/innovators/packer.html#ixzz1qxFf38JF
http://www.smithsonianmag.com/specialsections/innovators/packer.html#ixzz1qxDe6Wfc
Current Home:
Pacifica, California
Education

B.A., Yale University, 1994; M.A.
Johns Hopkins University, 1995; M.F.A.
University of Iowa, 1999
"She offers a unique, empathetic but really frank and ultimately very shrewd take on race," he says. "She's going to be one of our important
writers" - former University of Iowa teacher, and fiction writer and poet, Stuart Dybek
"We've all been categorized and had our sensibilities restricted to one little category—our sex, race or whatever. She's not that way at all." Her
characters "always have a larger sense of themselves than their categories...they're human, with all the flaws as well as virtues. As an older
black writer, it makes me feel good when people like her come along."
- former University of Iowa teacher, and Pulitzer Prize-winning author James Alan McPherson
Read more: http://www.smithsonianmag.com/specialsections/innovators/packer.html#ixzz1qxI9RT00
source: aalbc.com
Johns Hopkins University, 1995; M.F.A.
University of Iowa, 1999
"She offers a unique, empathetic but really frank and ultimately very shrewd take on race," he says. "She's going to be one of our important
writers" - former University of Iowa teacher, and fiction writer and poet, Stuart Dybek
"We've all been categorized and had our sensibilities restricted to one little category—our sex, race or whatever. She's not that way at all." Her
characters "always have a larger sense of themselves than their categories...they're human, with all the flaws as well as virtues. As an older
black writer, it makes me feel good when people like her come along."
- former University of Iowa teacher, and Pulitzer Prize-winning author James Alan McPherson
Read more: http://www.smithsonianmag.com/specialsections/innovators/packer.html#ixzz1qxI9RT00
source: aalbc.com
Published Works
Drinking Coffee Elsewhere (2003)
New Stories from the South: The Year’s Best 2008, Selected by Z.Z. Packer and Kathy Pories
The Thousands/ Buffalo Soldiers (work in progress)
New Stories from the South: The Year’s Best 2008, Selected by Z.Z. Packer and Kathy Pories
The Thousands/ Buffalo Soldiers (work in progress)
Awards & Honors

Rona Jaffe Writers Foundation Grant, 1997
Ms. Giles Whiting Award, 1999
Bellingham Review Award for the short story 'Brownies', 1999
Guggenheim Fellowship for fiction, 2005
Packer has been listed among “America’s Young Innovators in the Arts and Sciences” by “Smithsonian” magazine and the “Best of Young American Novelists” by “Granta” magazine and included in the “20 Under 40” fiction writers issue of the “New Yorker.” She was also personally selected by John Updike for the “Today” Show Book Club. Her stories have appeared in the “New Yorker,” “Harper’s” and “Best American Short Stories,” while her nonfiction has been featured in the “New York Times Magazine,” “Essence” and “O, The Oprah Magazine.”
Stegner Fellow in Fiction at Stanford University
Read More: http://www.ithaca.edu/hs/depts/writing/news/pen-faulkner_finalist_zz_packer_to_give_reading_on_campus-20706/
source: B&N.com
click for photo source:_
Ms. Giles Whiting Award, 1999
Bellingham Review Award for the short story 'Brownies', 1999
Guggenheim Fellowship for fiction, 2005
Packer has been listed among “America’s Young Innovators in the Arts and Sciences” by “Smithsonian” magazine and the “Best of Young American Novelists” by “Granta” magazine and included in the “20 Under 40” fiction writers issue of the “New Yorker.” She was also personally selected by John Updike for the “Today” Show Book Club. Her stories have appeared in the “New Yorker,” “Harper’s” and “Best American Short Stories,” while her nonfiction has been featured in the “New York Times Magazine,” “Essence” and “O, The Oprah Magazine.”
Stegner Fellow in Fiction at Stanford University
Read More: http://www.ithaca.edu/hs/depts/writing/news/pen-faulkner_finalist_zz_packer_to_give_reading_on_campus-20706/
source: B&N.com
click for photo source:_