Janette Y Taylor Editor

Venise T. Berry, PhD, is a professor in Journalism and African American Studies at the University of Iowa in Iowa City. She serves on the faculty each winter in the Solstice low-residency creative writing program at Lasell University in Newton, MA and offers writing workshops most summers in the Iowa Summer Writing Festival. Berry’s research explores African Americans, media, and popular culture. Her latest book published in 2020 by Peter Lang is Racialism and the Media: Black Jesus, Black Twitter and the First Black American President. It is an examination of mediated images and messages concerning African American culture. A 58-minute documentary has also been completed on the subject. Berry is the co-editor of an anthology with Peter Lang, Black Culture & Experience: Contemporary Issues (2015) and two non-fiction books on Black film, The Historical Dictionary of African American Cinema (Scarecrow Press, 2007 & 2nd Ed. 2015) and The 50 Most Influential Black Films (Citadel 2001). Finally, she has three national bestselling novels; So Good, An African American Love Story (Dutton Penguin, 1996), All of Me, A Voluptuous Tale (Dutton Penguin, 2000), and Colored Sugar Water (Dutton Penguin, 2002).

Janette Y. Taylor, PhD, RN, WHCNP-BC, FAAN is an associate professor emerita in African American Studies, Gender, Women's and Sexuality Studies and the College of Nursing at the University of Iowa. She is a certified women’s health care nurse practitioner with specialization in obstetrics, gynecological, and neonatal nursing. Dr. Taylor’s research has focused on race/ethnicity as variables in nursing research, African American women’s experiences of domestic violence, the health of women prisoners, reconnecting incarcerated women with their children, and using narrative art therapy with incarcerated abused women. She is a fellow in the American Academy of Nursing. Dr. Taylor served on the 2006 Institute of Medicine Ethical Considerations for Research Involving Prisoners committee. She has received numerous awards as well as research funding from NIH/NINR. Dr. Taylor completed her PhD at the University of Washington-Seattle and holds a certificate in Women’s Studies from the University of Washington-Seattle.