Meet

Lucy Wilson-Tagoe

Hello and welcome to my corner of the digital world.

I've been writing professionally for almost ten year as my alter-ego, Dylan Allen. I love the body of work I created thus far,

But that name has never felt completely true to me as a storyteller and as published author. As my craft and confidence grew, I felt trapped by the expectations I'd set for the readers as Dylan.

And the name didn't fit the stories I was found myself drawn to.

In 2023, I knew I wanted to start a new pen name, one that was more authentic and true but starting over after so long felt like trying to eat a proverbial elephant - impossible.

Turns out, nothing is impossible and that elephants get eaten the same way everything else does - one bite at a time.

Last year, I took the plunge and started planning in earnest.

The first thing I did was to sit down and pick my name.

I wanted a name that had meaning to me personally but also signaled to the world who I am at my core.

When I picked Dylan Allen ten years ago, I was still in the grips of ,what I jokingly called, an identity crisis.

I was born in Ghana and lived there long enough to still feel the displacement caused by my parents' decision to immigrate to the United States.

In America, I wasn't just Lucy - daughter of a particular family, I was also, Black.

Over the next few decades, I would hear repeatedly that I was either too much or not enough of one of the many identities I straddled.

Depending on where in the world I am, people assume I am Jamaican, Afro Latina, Black American.

But never Ghanaian.

I've stopped trying to make myself fit a mold and have made peace with my chosen identity as global citizen with roots in Africa, Europe, and the Americas.

Lucy Wilson- Tagoe is a tribute to the cultures, ethnicities, and nationalities I am privileged to call my own.

LUCY is the name my parents chose for me and is integral to my sense of self.

It was also my paternal great grandmother's name and has always made me feel grounded.

WILSONis my maternal grandmother's last name and represents my Fante heritage.

She was from Cape Coast - where the first European colonizers arrived in West Africa. It is still home to the prisons (called castles) where captured Africans were held before they entered the horrors of the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade.

The Portuguese arrived first, but the Dutch, the Scotts, and The British were close behind.

To this day you will meet Ghanaians with names like Wilson, Van Der Puye, Swanniker, Orleans, Quist, etc.

TAGOE was my grandfather's last name and represents my Ga heritage. The Ga people are from the area known now as the oldest part ofAccra , Ghana's capital city.

Lucy Wilson-Tagoe is me.

I am grateful that my mother gave me permission to use her family name for this next act of mine.

I'm going to do her proud.

Starting over isn't easy.

But I'm seasoned and hungry for everything that is to come.

I am very excited and grateful that The Blue Box Press was willing to invest in this story and to give me the opportunity to tell to it authentically.

I hope you enjoy to Catch a Sinner and getting to know the real people, places, stories, that inspired it.

xoxo,

Lucy