Her essay A Redbone’s Reality—about being a light-skinned black woman in the United States—won the Los Angeles Review’s Creative Non-Fiction Literary award. Her story of bacon as a metaphor for unconditional love Twelve Strips of Bacon was published in the Burningword Literary Journal and, in Tulip Tree Anthology’s Stories That Need to Be Told, Red Light/Black Zone highlights how surprising it can be when the racial component of our appearance brings unexpected reactions. Featured twice in International Living Magazine, she provides practical advice for visiting Paris.

Scheduled for release in August 2026, Renée’s debut novel Unwanted Significance tells the tale of how the love between a successful psychology professor and a beautiful jazz artist is unraveled by the secrets of their two dysfunctional families. It’s a story that says—while love may not conquer all, it almost always transforms.

Honored to be chosen, she read an excerpt from Unwanted Significance at Litquake, San Francisco’s popular literary festival. Watch the video here.

A second novel is in progress. In both her essays and fiction, Renée’s writings often address the universal failures to communicate which destroy and derail relationships—regardless of race, gender, education or class.