BRIDGETT M. DAVIS

award-winning author and Filmmaker + Journalist + Advocate

photo credit: Nina Subin Photography

located Near: Brooklyn, New york

invite bridgett m. davis to your event

Speaking topics

Black women and Their stories
Grief and healing
Love and Loss
Well-being and systemic racism
African American communities
Detroit
Filmmaking
Journalism
Storytelling and memoir

EVENT TYPES

KEYNOTES
LECTURES
FIRESIDE CHATS
PANELS
WORKSHOPS
BOOK TALKS & READINGS
VIRTUAL EVENTS
MODERATION
INTERNATIONAL EVENTS
FESTIVALS
INTERVIEWS

Bridgett M. Davis’s bio

Bridgett M. Davis (pronounced Brih-jet) is the author of the memoir Love, Rita: An American Story of Sisterhood, Joy, Loss, and Legacy, published by Harper Books in spring 2025. This moving memoir examines the vivacious life of Bridgett’s older sister Rita. It is full of joy and heartbreak, family history and American history, and uses Rita’s life as a lens to examine the persistent effects of racism in the lives of Black women.

Her first memoir, The World According To Fannie Davis: My Mother’s Life In The Detroit Numbers, was a New York Times Editors’ Choice, a 2020 Michigan Notable Book, named a Best Book of 2019 by Kirkus Reviews, BuzzFeed, NBC News and Parade Magazine, and featured as a clue on the quiz show Jeopardy!. The upcoming film adaptation will be produced by Plan B Entertainment and released by Searchlight Pictures.

She is author of two novels Into the Go-Slow, named a Best Book of 2014 by The San Francisco Chronicle, and Shifting Through Neutral, shortlisted for the Zora Neale Hurston/Richard Wright Legacy Award.

Davis is also the writer and director of the 1998 award-winning feature film Naked Acts, newly restored by Milestone Films and released in 2024 to critical acclaim, and screening in theaters across the US as well as international venues.

Davis is Professor Emerita in the Department of Journalism and the Writing Professions at Baruch College and the CUNY Graduate Center, where she taught creative, narrative and film writing. Her essays have appeared most recently in The New York Times, the LA Times and The Washington Post, among other publications. A graduate of Spelman College and Columbia Journalism School, she lives in Brooklyn with her family.