Mickelbury, Penny, 1948-

Penny Mickelbury, a journalist-turned-novelist who thinks of herself as a playwright, was born in 1948 in Atlanta, Georgia. In 1970 she became the first African-American reporter at the Georgia Banner-Herald in Athens. A former reporter for the Washington Post, Ms. Mickelbury was a political reporter for the ABC-TV affiliate in Washington, D.C., and was co-founder and managing director of New York City's Alchemy: Theater of Change. Mickelbury’s novels include Keeping Secrets and Night Songs, featuring Washington DC detective Gianna Maglione, and four “Carole Ann Gibson” novels: One Must Wait, Where to Choose, The Step Between, and Paradise Interrupted .