Cheryl A. Head

Cheryl A. Head is an American author, television producer, organizer, and former broadcast executive. She is the author of the award-winning Charlie Mack Motown mysteries, whose female PI protagonist is queer and Black. She is also author of Time's Undoing published in 2023. Head is a two-time Anthony Award nominee, a two-time Lambda Literary Award finalist, An Los Angeles Times Book Prize Finalist, An Agatha Award Finalist, a three-time Next Generation Indie Book Award finalist, and winner of the Golden Crown Literary Society's Ann Bannon Popular Choice Award, and an IPPY Silver medal. Her books are included in the Detroit Public Library's African American Booklist and in the Special Collections of the Library of Michigan. In 2019, Head was named to the Hall of Fame of the New Orleans Saints and Sinners Literary Festival, and she was awarded the Alice B Reader Award in 2022.

Personal life
Head was born in Detroit, Michigan. She attended Wayne State University, intending to focus on pre-law, but was “bitten by the media bug” and shifted to Media and Communications. Head worked at television stations: WDIV and Detroit Public Television (WTVS), and public radio station WDET. She received a master's degree in telecommunications management at Ohio University. She moved to Washington, DC, in the 1990s to work in public broadcasting. After working as a TV and radio field reporter, anchor, production executive, media grantmaker at several organizations in Detroit and Washington, DC, Head retired early to focus on a writing career. Head is a member of the Bouchercon (World Mystery Conference) and is the 2024-2025 Board Chair.

Head's work includes: The six-part Charlie Mack Motown Series, a World War II historical novel, and an historical-fiction novel based upon the tragic loss of Head's grandfather who died in 1929, in Jim Crow Alabama, at the hands of the police. That book, Time’s Undoing, was a 2023 Indie Next pick, an Amazon Best Book of March, and Amazon Editors Pick for Best Mystery, Thriller, and Suspense.

Charlie Mack Motown Mystery series

 * Bury Me When I'm Dead, Bywater Books, 2016
 * Wake Me When It's Over, Bywater Books, 2018
 * Catch Me When I'm Falling, Bywater Books, 2019
 * Judge Me When I'm Wrong, Bywater Books, 2019
 * Find Me When I'm Lost, Bywater Books, 2020
 * Warn Me When It's Time, Bywater Books, 2021

Historical novels

 * Long Way Home: A World War II Novel, CS/Amz Press, 2014
 * Time’s Undoing: A Novel, Dutton Books, 2023

Awards and recognition

 * 2015 Next Generation Indie Book Awards, Historical Fiction Finalist, for Long Way Home
 * 2015 Next Generation Indie Book Awards, African American Literature Finalist, for Long Way Home
 * 2017 Lambda Literary Finalist, Mystery/Thriller, Bury Me When I’m Dead, Bywater Books
 * 2019 Detroit Public Library African American Book List, Wake Me When It's Over, Bywater Books
 * 2019 Inducted for body of work into the Hall of Fame of the New Orleans Saints & Sinners Literary Festival
 * 2020 Inclusion of Works in the Special Collections of the Library of Michigan
 * 2020 Next Generation Indie Book Awards, Mystery Finalist, Catch Me When I'm Falling, Bywater Books
 * 2020 Golden Crown Literary Society, Ann Bannon Popular Choice Award Winner, Judge Me When I'm Wrong, Bywater Books
 * 2021 Lambda Literary Finalist, Mystery/Thriller, Find Me When I'm Lost, Bywater Books
 * 2022 Anthony Awards Finalist, Best Paperback/eBook/Audiobook, Warn Me When It’s Time, Bywater Books
 * 2022 IPPY Awards Winner, Silver, Great Lakes-Best Regional Fiction, for Warn Me When It’s Time
 * 2022 Alice B Award and medal for career achievement
 * 2024 Finalist, Los Angeles Times Book Prize in Mystery for Time's Undoing
 * 2024 Finalist, Agatha Award in Historical Mystery for Time's Undoing
 * 2024 Nominee, Anthony Award
 * 2024 Nominee, Macavity Award
 * 2024 Finalist, Nero Wolfe Award

Select interviews/podcasts
Scrawl Space – Interview with Cheryl A. Head: Author of riveting mysteries, champion of diversity (in fiction and beyond)

Literary Hill – Q & A With “Warn Me When It’s Time” Author Cheryl A. Head

Books Are Magic – Time's Undoing with Cheryl A. Head

Authors on the Air – Time's Undoing

Thoughts from a Page – Time's Undoing

BCPL – Interview conducted at the Creatures, Crimes, & Creativity Con with Cheryl Head

Write-minded Podcast – Cheryl A. Head: How We Can Reclaim Our Stories Through Fiction

Wicked Authors – A Wicked Welcome to Cheryl Head

Crime Writers of Color – Cheryl Head and Time's Undoing with Robert Justice

Select reviews

 * Time’s Undoing
 * Time’s Undoing
 * Time’s Undoing
 * Warn Me When It's Time
 * Find Me When I'm Lost
 * Judge Me When I'm Wrong
 * Catch Me When I’m Falling
 * Catch Me When I'm Falling
 * Wake Me When It's Over
 * Bury Me When I’m Dead
 * Long Way Home: A World War II Novel