Best-selling author Diane McKinney-Whetstone has won such prizes as the Zora Neale Hurston Society award for creative contribution to literature. Set in 1969, Leaving Cecil Street takes place in a proud neighborhood of West Philadelphia. The block has just thrown a summertime street party. Joe and Louise have been married for awhile, and Joe loves his wife. But sometimes he wonders what might have been if he had pursued some of those dreams he left behind. 'Diane McKinney-Whetstone is an immensely gifted writer who seamlessly weaves a rich tapestry of desire and discontent in this engrossing tale of working-class Philadelphians coping with change and each other.'-Essence