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Kalisha Buckhanon was born in the small Midwest town of Kankakee, Illinois. She is the eldest of four raised Christian with working class parents, grandparents and several great-grandparents. She was Class President of Kankakee High for four years. At 16 she made her network television debut on the New York City-based Jane Whitney Show, to discuss solving racism in schools with other guests including former Klu Klux Klan Grand Wizard David Duke. Kalisha has a B.A. in English Language and Literature from University of Chicago. She graduated top 2% and was elected to Phi Beta Kappa. At 24, she left Chicago for New York City to study creative writing at The New School.
Her M.F.A. thesis Upstate launched her as a novelist at age 27. The writer Sapphire advised the thesis and it sold in a publishing auction. Upstate (2005) tells the story of Antonio and Natasha, two lovers torn apart when Antonio is convicted of a crime within his family. It won for Kalisha an American Library Association ALEX Award, special award from author Terry McMillan, and the Audie Award in Literary Fiction with actors Chadwick Boseman and Heather Simms. The novel debut earned her praise from authors Dorothy Allison and Achy Obejas, as well as People, Entertainment Weekly, Essence, Marie Claire, Elle, Toronto Sun, Chicago Tribune, London Independent and Time Out London.
Kalisha returned to University of Chicago for an M.A. in English. She did graduate student exchange work on black film in Northwestern's Department of Radio/Television/Film with cinema scholar Dr. Jacqueline Stewart. At 30, she published her second novel Conception (2008). Conception tells the story of Shivana Golding, a pregnant Chicago teenager who seeks ways to abort her baby who also narrates part of the story. Conception won a Friends of American Writers Award. For it, Washington Post Book World called Kalisha a "gifted young novelist."
In 2011, she began writing on her blog Negression. From 2011-2015, her writings on women and race appeared in SheKnows, BlogHer, The Root, Clutch and xoJane. In 2014, she appeared as an on-air commentator on Susan Lucci's Investigation Discovery Channel series Deadly Affairs. She appeared on TV-One and BET shows in 2015 and 2016. Her third novel Solemn (2016) tells the story of Solemn Redvine, a troubled psychic girl in a Southern trailer park she attempts to escape for life in the North. Kirkus Reviews called it "A hypnotic tale."
