"The interweaving of memory, story, and social commentary is deftly achieved, and the handwritten letters carry a poignancy that makes me wish I had met Moma Ceal."

-Stacey Abrams, author, Our Time is Now, lawyer, politician

"This Leaves Me Okay puts the reader into a rural corner of the deep South. There, like a time traveler, we accompany his grandmother Lucille through the Reconstruction, Jim Crow, and Civil Rights eras. We learn about what it means to be Black in White America from one determined Black woman...."

-Eric Holder, co-author, Our Unfinished March, former U.S. Attorney General

"A rare offering of Black portraiture that is at once a finely quilted, poignant testimonial exposing the obscured dynamics of the American South through the intimately personal gaze of a grateful grandson. Touching, warm, tender, and thoughtful as a handwritten letter or a homemade quilt, This Leaves Me Okay will never leave you."

-Saul Williams, poet, winner Sundance Festival Grand Jury Prize; Cannes Camera D'Or

"I've interviewed many folks about parenting, including Barack Obama, but oh, how I love the mothers and fathers in This Leaves Me Okay. I marvel at how these families, dealing with marginalization and few opportunities, found ways of coping and advancing by working together - all for the sake of their children. Pryor's 'jolie-laide' story inspires."

-Tatsha Robertson, editor-in-chief, The Root

"Using as his guide the wisdoms of a grandmother whose unceasing letters shaped his heart and inflamed his ambitions, Walter Pryor has written a moving and elegant reconstruction of the struggles and triumphs of a Black family's journey from the imposed poverty of segregation to the fragile prosperity of today's divided America."

-Douglas A. Blackmon, winner of the Pulitzer Prize