Venise Berry is the author of three national bestselling novels: So Good, An African American Love Story  (Dutton, 1996), All of Me, A Voluptuous Tale (Dutton, 2000), and Colored Sugar Water (Dutton, 2002). Her book of essays Driven: Reflections on Love, Career, and the Pursuit of Happiness was published in 2015 (BerryBooks). She has recently finished her fourth novel, Pockets of Sanity, and is seeking an agent.  

She has co-authored two nonfiction resource books, The Historical Dictionary of African American Cinema (Scarecrow Press, 2007) and The 50 Most Influential Black Films (Citadel 2001). She has also co-edited several anthologies including The Black Superwoman and Mental Health: Power and Pain (Peter Lang, 2025), Black Culture and Experience: Contemporary Issues (Peter Lang, 2015), and Mediated Messages and African-American Culture: Contemporary Issues (Sage, 1996). 

Berry is a professor of Journalism and African American Studies at the University of Iowa in Iowa City.  She received a BA (1977) in Journalism and an MA (1979) in Communication Studies from the University of Iowa. Her PhD was awarded in 1989 in Radio, TV, and Film at the University of Texas at Austin. Her professional media career began in radio news but has expanded into teaching, media research, and criticism, as well as fiction and nonfiction writing. 

For more information, visit Venise’s web site at: www.veniseberry.com