“They encouraged me to keep pushing the work so that it could be the best possible,” McKinney-Whetstone told Jeannine DeLombard of Book Quarterly. This intense group, which met twice a week in eight-week cycles, proved to be a valuable experience. Joining the Rittenhouse Writer’s Group, founded by University of Pennsylvania instructor James Rahn, gave her added incentive. to 7 a.m., seeing her children off to school, then getting to work at the Forest Service office was a challenging but fruitful routine. Finally, as she was approaching a “significant birthday,” McKinney-Whetstone laughingly told Meghan Leary, “I felt that if I didn’t start to write fiction now, I never would.” So she made time in her busy schedule for writing by getting up at dawn. They started a family, which included twins, daughter Taiwo and son Kehinde. In 1978 Diane married her high school sweetheart Greg Whetstone. Shortly after Diane graduated from college, her mother died of esophageal cancer after a two-year battle.

Also the bouncing around of ideas.” She graduated in 1975. “It was reading that was the most instructive. “I didn’t write any fiction at Penn,” she told Penn Arts & Sciences. Diane attended the University of Pennsylvania, where she majored in English. They also excelled at writing, with three of them-Diane included-eventually opting for careers in communications. The McKinney sisters would have reading contests to see which of them could finish a book before the others. “My father especially was a great storyteller,” McKinney-Whetstone remembered in Penn Arts & Sciences. The second of five daughters born to Pennsylvania State Senator Paul McKinney and his wife Bessie, Diane grew up in a home that valued the word, both written and oral. After her debut novel, Tumbling, received good reviews and she was well into writing her next novel, McKinney-Whetstone eventually gave up her day job to focus on writing what she found most rewarding-novels featuring vividly drawn characters set in her hometown of Philadelphia. Although she had been a public affairs officer for the USDA Forest Service for a number of years, it took the approaching milestone of her fortieth birthday to steer her toward a more rewarding writing career.

Education: University of Pennsylvania, 1975, B.A, (English) married Gregory Whetstone, 1978 children: twins, Taiwo (daughter) and Kehinde (son).ĭiane McKinney-Whetstone is the author of a trio of well-received novels that portray African American families: Tumbling, Tempest Rising, and Blues Dancing. Born in 1954, in Philadelphia, PA: daughter of Paul (a state senator) and Bessie McKinney.

Tempest rising diane mckinney whetstone