My very earliest memory is of my one-year-old self standing cautiously in the sand at Brooklyn's Coney Island. I am clad in my new favorite outfit: a purple bathing suit with a huge pink elephant emblazoned on the front. A sunbonnet shields my face from the sun and a pail and shovel lay close by. But I make my own amusement, alternating my attention between the damp sand I squish between my miniature toes and the big children who shriek with glee every time a wave crashes against their bodies.

I give my parents an occasional smile, the sight of them reassuring me that all is right with the world. But it is my role as both participant and observer that delights me most. And so it continues to be.

Years later, I was to choose anthropology-the study of peoples and cultures-as my undergraduate major at Yale University. And in my junior year, I packed the pail and shovel my parents had given me long ago to embark on a college semester abroad at the University of Ibadan in Nigeria. With my ancestors to guide me, I pursued a path of discovery and transformation. Graduating in 1993-and with that incomparable experience behind me-I fully committed myself to 'touching life with my whole hand'.

Subsequent domestic and international travel to Europe, Africa, the Caribbean, and throughout the U.S. has filled me with a reverent understanding of people, place, and perspective. I have coveted this learning and hope to always be a student of life. But even students need to make a living! So as I pursued a master's degree at Columbia University-again in anthropology-I worked in a variety of challenging jobs both on and off campus. And in late 1998, I started writing A Love Noire. (See The Making of A Love Noire for more on that story.) I handed in a thesis in May 1999 that combined my academic pursuit with my other passion: philanthropy. I see them as complementary interests: both have to do with understanding cultural norms, human motivation, and notions of legacy-building.

Newly graduated, I wrote, worked, and continued to chart a path that championed the cause of black philanthropy and giving back. Notably, I was published in the anthology Children of the Dream: Our Own Stories of Growing Up Black in America, founded the "Five Years for The House" Initiative, a fundraising drive for the Afro-American Cultural Center at Yale, and joined the board of the Black Ivy Alumni League. I also joined The Twenty-First Century Foundation a national, black, public foundation, as a staff member as well as a donor and donated a portion of the proceeds from A Love Noire to the foundation.

En route to writing my second novel, Hunger, I became pregnant with my daughter, Grace Ayodele Webb, but became afflicted with HELLP Syndrome, a rare, potentially life-threatening, pregnancy-induced illness akin to preeclampsia that causes Hemolysis, Elevated Liver enzyme levels and Low Platelet count. Since immediate delivery of the baby is the best chance for mother and child's survival, I gave birth to Grace at 24 weeks; she lived a miraculous four days.

I emerged from that experience with many life lessons and with an increased desire to explore issues of love, loss, and redemption through my writing in a way that is both healing and illuminating. Now a full-time writer, I continue this life's journey with my husband, Kevin Webb, and with renewed commitment to touching life with my whole hand. The blessings are bigger than the pain...

Life is sweet ...

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