Dickey passed away from cancer last month at 59. He quickly gained a nationwide fanbase following the novel’s success and became one of the few men to break into the female-dominated African-American fiction genre. He published his first short story less than a decade after arriving in LA and his first full-length novel, Sister, Sister, hit the market two years later.
One of Dickey’s friends convinced him to take a writing class, where he started creating poetry and short stories. He immersed himself in new experiences and dabbled in acting and comedy before falling in love with writing. After moving to this new city, he was exposed to the arts in a way he never had been before and was inspired to follow a new path.
Dickey, who was born and raised in Memphis, Tennessee, originally moved to Los Angeles at 22 to pursue an engineering career. Eric Jerome Dickey didn’t always dream of becoming a writer.
