Cora's Kitchen by Kimberly Garrett Brown

 Cora has a job in the library but she wants to be a writer.  She doesn't have a clue how she would go about that but it's her dream.  While working, she meets Langston Hughes at the library and they become friends.  That gives her some hope as she now has a friend who understands her dream and has already started down that road.

Cora was raised by her aunt.  When she tells Cora that her cousin has been beaten by her husband and can't work for a while, she asks Cora to take the cousin's place so she won't lose her job.  The cousin works as a cook/housekeeper for a rich white family.  Cora doesn't want to do that but family loyalties tug at her and she agrees to take leave from her library job and fill in.

Mrs. Fitzgerald is fine but Cora is less sure about Mr. Fitzgerald who is seldom home and seems in a bad temper most of the time.  Mrs. Fitzgerald seems to want to be friends with Cora and asks Cora to call her Eleanor.  When summer rolls around, Eleanor asks Cora to go for the summer to the lake with her.  She tells Cora that she can spend the summer writing.  It's a dream come true and Cora accepts only to be faced with tragedy.

Kimberly Garrett Brown is an author and publisher.  This novel has been a finalist in several writing prize contests.  Cora is a woman whom the reader can emphasize with as she pursues her dream even with all the handicaps that stand in her way.  Few seem to believe in her but she manages to believe in herself with some encouragement from Mrs. Fitzgerald and Hughes who encourages her to enter a writing contest.  This book is recommended for readers interested in women's literature.