Vanessa Riley Illustrates the Remarkable History & Legacy of Dorothy “Doll” Kirwan in “Island Queen”
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In this episode 233, we visit with Vanessa Riley, author of “Island Queen,” a novel based on the true-life story of Dorothy Kirwan Thomas, a free woman of color who rose from slavery to become one of the most successful and powerful landowners in the colonial West Indies.
Born into slavery, Dorothy, called Doll, bought her freedom from her Irish planter father and became an entrepreneur, merchant, hotelier, and planter whose wealth spanned from the islands of the West Indies to the drawing rooms of London. She defied the rules and conventions of the time, both as a former enslaved person and a woman.
New York Times and USA Today bestselling author Stephanie Dray had this to say about the book, “Island Queen is the magnificently reconstructed life story of Dorothy “Doll” Kirwan Thomas, whose fascinating legacy of grit and success desperately deserves to be better known. With lush prose and raw emotion, Riley vividly captures the complexity of bringing to life a time of rebellion and possibility.”
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About the Author:
In addition to being a novelist, Vanessa Riley holds a doctorate in mechanical engineering and a master’s in industrial engineering and engineering management from Stanford University. She also earned BS and MS in mechanical engineering from Penn State University. She currently juggles mothering a teen, cooking for her military-man husband, and speaking at women’s and STEM events. She loves baking her Trinidadian grandma’s cake recipes and collecting Irish crochet lace. You can catch her writing from the comfort of her porch in Atlanta, Georgia, with a cup of Earl Grey tea.
Additional Endorsements
Most Anticipated Publications of 2021 by Essence Magazine
“Richly detailed, vividly depicted, and sweeping in scope, Island Queen is historical fiction at its absolute finest. A stunning must-read!”
— Chanel Cleeton, New York Times bestselling author of The Most Beautiful Girl in Cuba
“Reading Island Queen and I am riveted. RIVETED, I tell you! Whew!
That woman can WRITE! What a book!”
— Kristan Higgins, New York Times bestselling author of Always the Last to Know
“Island Queen is what you would get if you were to drop Olivia Pope and all the men who lusted after her into the 18th Century Caribbean. . . With prose that reads like poetry, Vanessa Riley expertly steers the reader through Dolly’s heartbreaking lows all the way into her triumphant emergence as the richest free woman of color in the islands. Passionate, headstrong, and loyal, Riley’s version of the real-life Dorothy Kirwan Thomas legend will make readers fall in love with this overlooked “hidden” queen.”
-Kaia Alderson, author of Sisters in Arms
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