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Nikki Baker
Jennifer Dowdell (born June, 1962), also known by her pen name Nikki Baker, is an American author and financial analyst. Baker’s work reflects on her experiences as a middle-class black lesbian. In addition to writing, she works as a financial analyst for Horizon’s Youth Services.

Personal life and Education
Baker was born in Greene County, Ohio. In 1984 she received a Bachelor of Science degree in Mechanical Engineering from Purdue University. In 1988 she graduated from the University of Chicago with a Masters in Business Administration, with a concentration in Economics and Finance. She identifies politically as “social liberal, fiscal conservative” and is a practicing Presbyterian. Her interests include guitar, cooking, golf, and science. Since November 2014 she has established JK Dowdell Consulting, LLC as a principal consultant. The business is based out of Oakland, California and is certified as a California Women and Minority-owned Business Enterprise (WMBE). She has worked with Horizon’s Youth Services as a volunteer to benefit the gay and lesbian community.

Writing and Influences
Baker is not formally trained in writing, and draws on her personal experience as “an affluent, educated, late baby-boom, black lesbian” for her stories. In an interview with Katherine Kizilos, she reflected on the absence of characters with her experience in popular culture: “I felt there were not enough black American princesses in fiction ... you know, middle-class, assimilated African-American women. I know a lot of women like that.” She has also claimed that mystery fiction was an accessible genre for a young, untrained author, as it “provides a ready-made structure” within which she could explore her own ideas. However, she has stated that she would eventually like the opportunity to write “more serious fiction”. Baker has cited the concept of “free agency” as a central influence on her work, particularly as it is illustrated by Jean Rhys, Raymond Carver, Dashiell Hammett, and Ralph Ellison. She defines her use of free agency in terms of alienation, community, and generational difference: [...] the sense of alienation from community that results in a `me against the world' mentality, rather than the `you and me against the world' identification displayed in the work of many older black writers who write from a sense of belonging predicated on racial and familial institutions. My characters are people whose belief in commonality, love, fidelity, loyalty, and fairness has been frustrated, but who do not have any traditional institutional havens to which they can turn.

Themes
Baker’s work frequently addresses the overlapping tensions of identity within black and LGBT+ communities. Her protagonist, Virginia Kelley, criticizes members of the black middle and upper-class who look down on “America’s criminal black underclass and the ‘welfare mothers’ who breed them”, mocking them as “nonsensical viewpoints that are not internally consistent” and which stem from the belief that (in contrast to middle-class white Americans who are unaccustomed to questioning their privileges) “if you are black and middle-class [in America] then you believe that you have fought and scratched for everything you have got and nothing can be taken for granted." Baker also addresses homophobia in black culture, particularly when the protagonist Kelley visits her disapproving parents in Long Goodbyes and when she hides her sexual orientation from her coworkers. Throughout the series, Kelley struggles with her identity both as a black woman and as a lesbian.[7]

Relationship with Naiad Press
All four of Baker’s novels were published through Naiad Press, one of the first publishers dedicated to lesbian literature. After submitting her first manuscript, Naiad offered to publish it on the condition that she write a series of five detective novels and included more sex scenes. Baker noted that Naiad press wished to use explicit sex to affirm lesbian identity in their books, although she herself is generally uncomfortable with the subject and has described the sex scenes in her writing as “ "generally pretty depressing".

Works

 * In the Game. Tallahassee: Naiad Press, 1991.
 * The Lavender House Murder. Tallahassee: Naiad Press, 1992. (Lambda finalist)
 * Long Goodbyes. Tallahassee: Naiad Press, 1993. (Lambda finalist)
 * The Ultimate Exit Strategy. Tallahassee: Naiad Press, 1996.