“With grace and soft humor, Griffiths charts a path through devastation: poetic, heartbreaking, and life-affirming, this grief-streaked self-portrait makes a major impression.” –Publishers Weekly (starred review)
Read MoreCOVER REVEAL: THE FLOWER BEARERS in PEOPLE Magazine /
The Flower Bearers Is Rachel Eliza Griffiths' 'Most Vulnerable Work' Yet — See the Cover!
'It wasn't a book I ever wanted to write or to live, but grief and love have given me gifts I never imagined,' Griffiths says
By
THE FLOWER BEARERS is RACHEL ELIZA GRIFFITHS’ “Most Vulnerable Work Yet”–SEE THE COVER!
Published on September 11, 2025 11:00AM EDT By Rachel Raposas
Read MoreChristian Science Monitor: Our 10 favorite July reads! /
Rachel Eliza Griffiths’ luminescent novel centers on the Kindreds, one of two Black families living in Salt Point, Maine, in 1957. Haunted by past injustices, and facing increasing threats to their safety, 13-year-old Cinthy, her sister Ezra, and their resolute parents rely on the sustaining love of family – present and past. It’s a devastating story of remarkable resilience.
https://www.csmonitor.com/Books/2023/0720/Childhood-mystery-and-friendship-Our-10-favorite-July-reads
Read MoreCNN and PBS: Rachel Eliza Griffiths discusses her novel Promise /
Rachel Eliza Griffiths discusses her novel Promise:
Rachel Eliza Griffiths discusses Promise: https://www.cnn.com/videos/tv/2023/07/14/rachel-eliza-griffiths-promise-book-amanpour-salman-rushdie.cnn
Read MoreRuthie's Table 4: Rachel Eliza Griffiths /
Rachel Eliza Griffiths is smart, she's funny and she's kind. She's a beautiful poet and a photographer, whose black-and-white images evoke for me, Dorothea Lange. Her latest book, Promise, tells the story of two Black sisters growing up in New England during the Civil Rights movement, the story of food at the table and food in the kitchen. For food is important to Eliza. Today in The River Cafe, we will talk together about friendship, memory, writing and love.Please rate & review the podcast on Apple podcasts, Spotify, IHeart Radio app or wherever you get your podcasts.
For more information, recipes, and ingredients, go to:
Web: https://rivercafe.co.uk/Instagram: www.instagram.com/ruthiestable4Facebook: https://en-gb.facebook.com/therivercafelondon/
The Guardian: A Profile of Rachel Eliza Griffiths by Kate Kelleway /
“There’s a strength you don’t realise you don’t have access to.”
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2023/jun/17/writer-rachel-eliza-griffiths-promise-novel-salman-rushdie-attack
Read MoreCelebrate Promise at The Center for Fiction with Nafissa Thompson-Spires! July 13 | 7pm! /
The Center for Fiction welcomes Rachel Eliza Griffiths in celebration of her debut novel, Promise. Set in 1957 at the beginning of the Civil Rights Movement, Griffiths’s luminous work speaks to the often-overlooked experiences of Black people in integrated communities of New England, richly illustrating one family’s powerful story of resistance. As rising tensions reach their idyllic, isolated Maine village and violence, prejudice, and fear continue to escalate among their previously friendly white neighbors, the Kindred family commits great acts of heroism and grace on their path to survival. Cornell University professor Nafissa Thompson-Spires, the author of Heads of the Colored People (winner of the PEN Open Book Award), joins Griffiths for a powerful discussion about “a secret history of an America we think we know, but never really knew” (Marlon James).
Registration Link: https://centerforfiction.org/event/the-center-for-fiction-presents-rachel-eliza-griffiths-on-promise-with-nafissa-thompson-spires/
Promise at Publishers Weekly /
Promise
Rachel Eliza Griffiths. Random House, $28 (336p) ISBN 978-0-59324-192-9
The stirring debut novel from poet Griffiths (Seeing the Body) depicts the insidious reach of racism in the Jim Crow era. Cinthy and Ezra Kindred are growing up in 1950s coastal Maine. Their father is a teacher at their school, and the Kindreds’ friendship with the Junketts, the only other Black family in their small town, is happy and sustaining. But in the fallout from the passage of the 1957 Civil Rights Act, the families’ relationships with their white neighbors start to sour. Ezra’s longtime best friend Ruby insults the girls’ mother by repeating a racist slur said by her own mother, and the sheriff’s deputy intimidates the Junketts by repeatedly cruising past their house. These developments dredge up painful stories of the Kindred family’s past in Delaware, where Cinthy and Ezra’s great-grandfather’s church was burned down by white supremacists decades earlier. Griffiths’ poetic sensibilities shine in the lyrical language she uses to describe horrific events (“a slicked comet of blood”). The depiction of the families’ isolation and vulnerability feels all too real, as does Griffiths’ portrayal of how dignity and resilience are passed down through generations. This stands as an affirmation of a family’s fierce pride and hard-won joy. Agent: Jin Auh, Wylie Agency. (July)
Read More