erin crosby eckstine

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A young girl must face a life-altering decision after awakening her sister’s ghost, navigating truths about love, friendship, and power as the Civil War looms.

Sixteen years old and enslaved since she was born, Junie has spent her life on Bellereine Plantation in Alabama, cooking and cleaning alongside her family, and tending to the white master’s daughter, Violet. Her daydreams are filled with poetry and faraway worlds, while she spends her nights secretly roaming through the forest, consumed with grief over the sudden death of her older sister, Minnie.

When wealthy guests arrive from New Orleans, hinting at marriage for Violet and upending Junie’s life, she commits a desperate act—one that rouses Minnie’s spirit from the grave, tethered to this world unless Junie can free her. She enlists the aid of Caleb, the guests’ coachman, and their friendship soon becomes something more. Yet as long-held truths begin to crumble, she realizes Bellereine is harboring dark and horrifying secrets that can no longer be ignored.

With time ticking down, Junie begins to push against the harsh current that has controlled her entire life. As she grapples with an increasingly unfamiliar world in which she has little control, she is forced to ask herself: When we choose love and liberation, what must we leave behind?

Praise for JUNIE

  • “Eckstine combines the lyricism of Jesmyn Ward and Toni Morrison with the speculative historical fiction of Tananarive Due and Leslye Penelope in a stunning debut that will also appeal to fans of Percival Everett’s James.”

    Booklist, starred review

  • “A compelling portrait of the psychological, emotional, and social degradations of slavery . . . Eckstine is a talented writer to watch. Featuring a spirited protagonist, this compelling mix of the historical and the supernatural will resonate.”

    Kirkus Reviews

  • “The richly textured prose quickly pulled me into the protagonist’s treacherous yet magical world. I was drawn to the story of Junie, an enslaved teenager with a love of books and nature who must navigate difficult truths about her family and friendships in order to survive her times.”

    Charmaine Wilkerson, New York Times bestselling author of Black Cake

  • “Propulsive and haunting, young Junie takes on the many burdens handed to her while reaching for the hope she wasn’t meant to have. Erin Crosby Eckstine breathes urgency, wit, and resilience into her preternaturally gifted protagonist. Junie is a lush and immersive story about power, reckoning, love, and redemption. . . . A true beauty of a book.”

    Diane Marie Brown, author of Black Candle Women

  • “Junie is the beating heart of this powerful and moving coming-of-age novel, insisting on her right to language, love, and a life on her own terms. Rich in historical detail and packed with suspense, this is a story of survival I will not forget.”

    Erin Swan, author of Walk the Vanished Earth

  • “[A] finely crafted debut . . . The complex plot and righteous protagonist will keep readers turning the pages. Eckstine evokes the earthly and supernatural to equally powerful effect in this richly layered tale.”

    Publishers Weekly

  • "Brooklyn author and Alabama native Erin Crosby Eckstine is generating a wave of remarkable enthusiasm for her debut novel. Designed as a work of speculative historical fiction, the book follows enslaved teenager Junie as she makes a terrible discovery in the years just before the Civil War. Also in the narrative arc: the ghost of Junie’s sister Minnie, with secrets of her own from beyond the grave."

    Goodreads

Upcoming events

  • Erin Crosby Eckstine: Junie w/ Jacqueline Woodson

    Thursday, February 6, 2025 · 7 - 8pm EST

    Brooklyn, NY

    RSVP

erin crosby eckstine

Erin Crosby Eckstine is the author of Junie, forthcoming from Ballantine Books in January 2025. She writes speculative historical fiction, personal essays, and anything else she’s in the mood for.

Born in Montgomery, AL, Erin grew up between the South and Los Angeles before moving to New York City to attend Barnard College. Eckstine worked in a variety of digital media internships and jobs before pivoting to education and earning a master’s in secondary English education from Stanford University.

Eckstine went on to teach high school English in Brooklyn, NY for six years before becoming a full-time writer. When she’s not writing, she’s usually making pottery, reading, cooking, or playing The Sims. She lives in Brooklyn with her partner and cats.

Erin is represented by Danya Kukafka at Trellis Literary Management.

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