Photo © Ellen Banner
author spotlight
J. California Cooper is the author of several novels, including, most recently, Some People, Some Other Place, and six collections of stories. She was honored as Black Playwright of the Year, and has received the American Book Award, the James Baldwin Writing Award, and the Literary Lion Award from the American Library Association. She lives in California.
author bookshelf
Family
Written by J. California Cooper
Format: Trade Paperback, 240 pages
Publisher: Anchor
On Sale: December 1, 1991
Price: $14.95
In this wise, beguiling, beautiful novel set in the era of the Civil War, an award-winning playwright and author paints a haunting portrait of a woman named Always, born a slave, and four generations of her African-American family.
“Family is an account by a plantation slave—both during and after her life—of the... Read more >
Written by J. California Cooper
Format: Trade Paperback, 240 pages
Publisher: Anchor
On Sale: December 1, 1991
Price: $14.95
In this wise, beguiling, beautiful novel set in the era of the Civil War, an award-winning playwright and author paints a haunting portrait of a woman named Always, born a slave, and four generations of her African-American family.
“Family is an account by a plantation slave—both during and after her life—of the... Read more >
Family
Written by J. California Cooper
Format: eBook, 240 pages
Publisher: Anchor
On Sale: January 12, 2011
Price: $11.99
Read more >
Written by J. California Cooper
Format: eBook, 240 pages
Publisher: Anchor
On Sale: January 12, 2011
Price: $11.99
Read more >
The Future Has a Past
Stories
Written by J. California Cooper
Format: Trade Paperback, 288 pages
Publisher: Anchor
On Sale: October 16, 2001
Price: $13.95
Read more >
Stories
Written by J. California Cooper
Format: Trade Paperback, 288 pages
Publisher: Anchor
On Sale: October 16, 2001
Price: $13.95
Read more >
The Future Has a Past
Stories
Written by J. California Cooper
Format: eBook, 288 pages
Publisher: Anchor
On Sale: December 18, 2007
Price: $9.99
Read more >
Stories
Written by J. California Cooper
Format: eBook, 288 pages
Publisher: Anchor
On Sale: December 18, 2007
Price: $9.99
Read more >
In Search of Satisfaction
Written by J. California Cooper
Format: eBook, 368 pages
Publisher: Anchor
On Sale: December 29, 2010
Price: $11.99
Read more >
Written by J. California Cooper
Format: eBook, 368 pages
Publisher: Anchor
On Sale: December 29, 2010
Price: $11.99
Read more >
In Search of Satisfaction
Written by J. California Cooper
Format: Trade Paperback, 368 pages
Publisher: Anchor
On Sale: September 1, 1995
Price: $14.95
In her second novel, J. California Cooper fashions a town where goodness lives next door to greed. Told in a voice reminiscent of oral history, this powerful story follows three families whose paths intertwine with the devil's in their quests for wealth, power and love. Read more >
Written by J. California Cooper
Format: Trade Paperback, 368 pages
Publisher: Anchor
On Sale: September 1, 1995
Price: $14.95
In her second novel, J. California Cooper fashions a town where goodness lives next door to greed. Told in a voice reminiscent of oral history, this powerful story follows three families whose paths intertwine with the devil's in their quests for wealth, power and love. Read more >
Life Is Short But Wide
Written by J. California Cooper
Format: Trade Paperback, 336 pages
Publisher: Anchor
On Sale: April 6, 2010
Price: $15.95
Like the small towns J. California Cooper has so vividly portrayed in her previous novels, Wideland, Oklahoma, is home to ordinary Americans with big hearts. Among them are newlyweds Irene and Val, who graciously allow their neighbors, Bertha and Joseph, to build a house on their land. Together the couples have... Read more >
Written by J. California Cooper
Format: Trade Paperback, 336 pages
Publisher: Anchor
On Sale: April 6, 2010
Price: $15.95
Like the small towns J. California Cooper has so vividly portrayed in her previous novels, Wideland, Oklahoma, is home to ordinary Americans with big hearts. Among them are newlyweds Irene and Val, who graciously allow their neighbors, Bertha and Joseph, to build a house on their land. Together the couples have... Read more >
Life Is Short But Wide
Written by J. California Cooper
Format: Hardcover, 336 pages
Publisher: Doubleday
On Sale: March 24, 2009
Price: $24.95
Beloved writer J. California Cooper has won a legion of loyal fans and much critical acclaim for her powerful storytelling gifts. In language both spare and direct yet wondrously lyrical, Life is Short But Wide is an irresistible story of family that proves no matter who you are or what you... Read more >
Written by J. California Cooper
Format: Hardcover, 336 pages
Publisher: Doubleday
On Sale: March 24, 2009
Price: $24.95
Beloved writer J. California Cooper has won a legion of loyal fans and much critical acclaim for her powerful storytelling gifts. In language both spare and direct yet wondrously lyrical, Life is Short But Wide is an irresistible story of family that proves no matter who you are or what you... Read more >
Life is Short But Wide
Written by J. California Cooper
Format: eBook, 256 pages
Publisher: Anchor
On Sale: March 24, 2009
Price: $11.99
Read more >
Written by J. California Cooper
Format: eBook, 256 pages
Publisher: Anchor
On Sale: March 24, 2009
Price: $11.99
Read more >
The Matter Is Life
Written by J. California Cooper
Format: Trade Paperback, 240 pages
Publisher: Anchor
On Sale: September 13, 1992
Price: $15.00
Also Available from Anchor: Read more >
Written by J. California Cooper
Format: Trade Paperback, 240 pages
Publisher: Anchor
On Sale: September 13, 1992
Price: $15.00
Also Available from Anchor: Read more >
The Matter Is Life
Written by J. California Cooper
Format: eBook, 240 pages
Publisher: Anchor
On Sale: February 2, 2011
Price: $11.99
Read more >
Written by J. California Cooper
Format: eBook, 240 pages
Publisher: Anchor
On Sale: February 2, 2011
Price: $11.99
Read more >
A Piece of Mine
Stories
Written by J. California Cooper
Format: Trade Paperback, 144 pages
Publisher: Anchor
On Sale: December 1, 1991
Price: $13.95
Back in print after more than five years, this is the extraordinary first short story collection by the author of Family.
"In its strong folk flavor, Cooper's work reminds us of Langston Hughes and Zora Neale Hurston...It is a delight to read."
--Alice Walker
"The label 'short' story is a woefully inadequate description... Read more >
Stories
Written by J. California Cooper
Format: Trade Paperback, 144 pages
Publisher: Anchor
On Sale: December 1, 1991
Price: $13.95
Back in print after more than five years, this is the extraordinary first short story collection by the author of Family.
"In its strong folk flavor, Cooper's work reminds us of Langston Hughes and Zora Neale Hurston...It is a delight to read."
--Alice Walker
"The label 'short' story is a woefully inadequate description... Read more >
A Piece of Mine
Stories
Written by J. California Cooper
Format: eBook, 144 pages
Publisher: Anchor
On Sale: January 12, 2011
Price: $9.99
Read more >
Stories
Written by J. California Cooper
Format: eBook, 144 pages
Publisher: Anchor
On Sale: January 12, 2011
Price: $9.99
Read more >
Some Love, Some Pain, Sometime
Stories
Written by J. California Cooper
Format: eBook, 288 pages
Publisher: Anchor
On Sale: December 29, 2010
Price: $9.99
Read more >
Stories
Written by J. California Cooper
Format: eBook, 288 pages
Publisher: Anchor
On Sale: December 29, 2010
Price: $9.99
Read more >
Some Love, Some Pain, Sometime
Stories
Written by J. California Cooper
Format: Trade Paperback, 288 pages
Publisher: Anchor
On Sale: September 1, 1996
Price: $14.00
This fifth collection of stories from J. California Cooper revolves around themes of romance, heartbreak, struggle, and faith. Read more >
Stories
Written by J. California Cooper
Format: Trade Paperback, 288 pages
Publisher: Anchor
On Sale: September 1, 1996
Price: $14.00
This fifth collection of stories from J. California Cooper revolves around themes of romance, heartbreak, struggle, and faith. Read more >
Some People, Some Other Place
Written by J. California Cooper
Format: eBook, 384 pages
Publisher: Anchor
On Sale: December 18, 2007
Price: $11.99
Read more >
Written by J. California Cooper
Format: eBook, 384 pages
Publisher: Anchor
On Sale: December 18, 2007
Price: $11.99
Read more >
Some People, Some Other Place
Written by J. California Cooper
Format: Trade Paperback, 384 pages
Publisher: Anchor
On Sale: April 4, 2006
Price: $16.00
For generations Eula Too’s family has been making a journey North, year after year, step by painful step; and she’s determined to be the one to make it all the way to Chicago. In and out of school, taking care of her fourteen brothers and sisters, she can see no way... Read more >
Written by J. California Cooper
Format: Trade Paperback, 384 pages
Publisher: Anchor
On Sale: April 4, 2006
Price: $16.00
For generations Eula Too’s family has been making a journey North, year after year, step by painful step; and she’s determined to be the one to make it all the way to Chicago. In and out of school, taking care of her fourteen brothers and sisters, she can see no way... Read more >
The Wake of the Wind
A Novel
Written by J. California Cooper
Format: Trade Paperback, 384 pages
Publisher: Anchor
On Sale: December 28, 1999
Price: $15.95
Now in paperback.
Cooper's third novel is her most penetrating look yet at the challenges that generations of African Americans have had to overcome in order to carve out a home for themselves and their families. Set in Texas in the waning years of the Civil War, the novel tells the story... Read more >
A Novel
Written by J. California Cooper
Format: Trade Paperback, 384 pages
Publisher: Anchor
On Sale: December 28, 1999
Price: $15.95
Now in paperback.
Cooper's third novel is her most penetrating look yet at the challenges that generations of African Americans have had to overcome in order to carve out a home for themselves and their families. Set in Texas in the waning years of the Civil War, the novel tells the story... Read more >
Wild Stars Seeking Midnight Suns
Written by J. California Cooper
Format: eBook, 224 pages
Publisher: Anchor
On Sale: December 18, 2007
Price: $9.99
Read more >
Written by J. California Cooper
Format: eBook, 224 pages
Publisher: Anchor
On Sale: December 18, 2007
Price: $9.99
Read more >
Wild Stars Seeking Midnight Suns
Written by J. California Cooper
Format: Trade Paperback, 224 pages
Publisher: Anchor
On Sale: April 10, 2007
Price: $13.95
J. California Cooper’s irresistible collection of new stories explores the universal themes of romance, family, and the hopes that propel people’s dreams.
In “As Time Goes By” a young woman singlemindedly pursues material wealth, only to suffer from an empty heart. “Catch a Falling Heart” tells of a slyly arranged marriage... Read more >
Written by J. California Cooper
Format: Trade Paperback, 224 pages
Publisher: Anchor
On Sale: April 10, 2007
Price: $13.95
J. California Cooper’s irresistible collection of new stories explores the universal themes of romance, family, and the hopes that propel people’s dreams.
In “As Time Goes By” a young woman singlemindedly pursues material wealth, only to suffer from an empty heart. “Catch a Falling Heart” tells of a slyly arranged marriage... Read more >
