Black & Published

This week on Black & Published , Nikesha speaks with Vanessa Riley , author of the historical fiction romance novel, Queen of Exiles . An engineer and self-proclaimed math nerd, Vanessa applies her  inventive and analytical mindset to her creative writing. Her historical novels showcase the hidden histories of Black women and women of color, emphasizing strong sisterhoods and dazzling multicul...

This week on Black & Published , Nikesha speaks with Juliana Lamy , author of the short story collection, You Were Watching From the Sand . A Haitian writer, Juliana says her collection is preoccupied with what it means to be Haitian and the honesty of that lived experience.  In our conversation, Juliana, who is a graduate of Harvard and the Iowa Writers Workshop, explains how she creates rhyt...

This week on  Black & Published , Nikesha speaks with  Shannon Sanders , author of the short story collection,   Company . A lawyer by trade, Shannon came to crafting her award-winning collection after attending several writing workshops and having to produce on a deadline.  In our conversation, Shannon explains why she thinks about what's enjoyable for her reader as she's creating n...

This week on Black & Published , Nikesha speaks with Rudy Francisco , author of the poetry collection, Excuse Me As I Kiss the Sky . Rudy is a renowned spoken word artist who has published two previous collections: Helium (2017) and I'll Fly Away (2020). As a spoken word artist, Rudy said taking his work from the stage to the page allowed him to grow and write about more than one topic. ...

This week on  Black & Published , Nikesha speaks with  Roberto Carlos Garcia , author of the poetry anthology,  What Can I Tell You .  Roberto is the author of three previous poetry collections Elegies , black / Maybe: An Afro Lyric , and Melancolía .  In our conversation, Roberto discusses unlearning the ways in which colonialism have infected the mind. How anti-Blackness begins at home in so...

This week on  Black & Published , Nikesha speaks with  Tracey Rose Peyton , author of the novel,  Night Wherever We Go .   The novel follows the lives of six enslaved women on a struggling plantation in Texas. When their owners The Lucy's, nicknamed after Lucifer himself, come up with a plan to increase their prosperity through reproduction, the women refuse despite the consequences of su...

This week on  Black & Published Nikesha speaks with  Kim Johnson , author of the YA novel,  Invisible Son . The book is set in Oregon during the height of the COVID pandemic in 2020. A setting Kim chose to bear witness to all that was happening while also balancing the trauma of that year with its triumphs as well.  In our conversation, Kim readily admits that she came to writing late in life....

This week on Black and Published , Nikesha speaks with  Jennifer Baker , author of the YA novel,  Forgive Me Not . The story centers the life, loves and struggles of a teenaged Black girl to explore the pitfalls and failures of mass incarceration and carceral systems.    In our conversation, Jennifer opens up about how she stayed motivated to continue writing while working for some twenty years in...

This week on Black and Published , Nikesha speaks with Lamya H , author of the memoir, Hijab Butch Blues . The book is an in depth extension of the personal essays Lamya has penned for years. Their writing has appeared in Vice, Salon, Vox, Black Girl Dangerous, Autostraddle, and the Los Angeles Review of Books. They are a  former Lambda Literary Fellow  and currently live in New York with their pa...

This week on Black and Published , Nikesha speaks with K E Garland , author of the memoir, In Search of a Salve: Memoir of a Sex Addict .  K E Garland is an award-winning creative nonfiction writer and blogger who uses personal essays and memoir to de-marginalize women's experiences with an intent to highlight and humanize contemporary issues including adoption and addiction.  In our conversa...

This week on Black and Published , Nikesha speaks with Kim Coleman Foote , author of the biomthyography novel, Coleman Hill . The novel draws from Kim's own family legend, historical record, and fervent imagination to create an unforgettable new history.  In our conversation, Kim discusses how she came to tell the story of her family while she was working on another novel. Plus, how she got o...

This week on Black and Published , Nikesha speaks with Liv Little , author of the novel, Rosewater . A writer of Jamaican and Guyanese descent living in South London, Liv tells stories about the people and places that matter to her; specifically the Black, queer, femme community.  In our conversation, Liv discusses why she was dedicated to illustrating the ways Black, queer and femme communities s...

This week on Black and Published , Nikesha speaks with jarrett hill   and Tre'vell Anderson , the authors of, Historically Black Phrases: From "I Ain't One of  Your Little Friends" to "Who All Gon Be There? " Tre'vell and jarrett both have backgrounds in journalism and they are the hosts of the award-winning podcast FANTI . Their book chronicles the living langua...

This week on Black and Published , Nikesha speaks with Minda Honey , author of the memoir,  The Heartbreak Years . A retrospective for  the twenty-somethings who are ready to stop leaping into the lives of the men they like and instead choose themselves and a life they love. The book is born out of Minda's series of essays for Longreads on dating politics. Her writing has also been featured i...

This week on Black and Published , Nikesha speaks with Anissa Gray , author of the novel, Life and Other Love Songs . The novel uses music as a metaphor to examine the aftermath of one man's decision on his entire family after they lose the loves of their lives.  In our conversation, Anissa discusses how she processed her own personal tragedies on the page. Plus, the reason she says writing ...

This week on Black and Published , Nikesha speaks with Donovan X. Ramsey , author of the book, When Crack Was King: A People's History of a Misunderstood Era . The book, which was long listed for a National Book Award, is a work of narrative nonfiction exploring how Black America survived the crack epidemic. The book is born out of Donovan's work as a journalist and a Demos Emerging Voic...

This week on Black and Published , Nikesha speaks with Terah Shelton Harris , author of the novel, One Summer in Savannah . Published by Sourcebooks in 2023, the novel was a Target Book Club Pick. Terah, who also works as a librarian and freelance writer, is now focused on writing more upmarket fiction with bittersweet endings.  In our conversation, Terah discusses the real life tragedy that inspi...

This week on Black and Published , Nikesha speaks with Dolen Perkins-Valdez , the New York Times bestselling author of  Take My Hand . The novel was awarded a 2023 NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Literary Work, Silver Gavel Award from the American Bar Association, and Fiction Award from Black Caucus of the American Library Association. Dolen, who is an Associate Professor in the MFA Program at A...

This week on Black and Published , Nikesha speaks with Denene Millner the New York Times Bestselling author of the novel, One Blood . In addition to her long literary career including stints as a celebrity ghostwriter for titles including Act Like a Lady, Think Like a Man from Steve Harve and Around the Way Girl from Taraji P. Henson just to name a few. Denene got her start as a beat reporter for...

This season on Black & Published we're meeting the moment. According to Pen America’s 2023 report, Banned in the USA , 138 school districts in 32 states banned books. The majority of those books featured queer themes and characters, protagonists of color, or addressed racism and activism. So this season we're talking about it all: book bans, mass incarceration, reproductive freedom,...

This week on Black and Published , Nikesha speaks with Erica Simone Turnipseed author of the new children's picture book, Bigger Than Me.  In the book, children discover the impact they can have when they band together and how solidarity lifts everyone up during the 2020 COVID pandemic and racial reckoning.  In our conversation, Erica discusses why she decided to have her young characters use...

What’s Good Black & Published Family…  Yes, I’m still but I wanted to pop into your ears  to tell you how you can win a copy of Cleyvis Natera’s Neruda on the Park which was recently released in paperback.  All you have to do is follow Black & Published (@BLKandPublished) and Cleyvis Natera (@CleyvisNatera) on both Twitter and Instagram.  And then of course like this post.  The drawing wil...

This week on Black and Published , Nikesha speaks with Lori L. Tharps , an author and ghostwriter living abroad in Spain. Her work sits at the intersection of race and real life. She is the author of  three critically-acclaimed nonfiction books including, Hair Story: Untangling the Roots of Black Hair in America (St. Martin's) Kinky Gazpacho: Life, Love & Spain (Atria), and Same Family, D...

This week on Black and Published , Nikesha speaks with Victoria Christopher Murray , author of Pride, A Seven Deadly Sins Novel . A native of Queens, New York,   Victoria spent years in Corporate America and as an entrepreneur before embarking on her literary career in the late 90s. Dubbed a Christian Fiction writer because no one else was writing about religious topics, Victoria blazed the litera...

This week on Black and Published , Nikesha speaks with Nicole Cuffy , author of Dances . Nicole is a D.C.-based writer with a BA from Columbia University and an MFA from The New School. She is a lecturer at the University of Maryland and American University. Her work can be found in Mason’s Road , The Master’s Review Volume VI (curated by Roxane Gay), Chautauqua , and Blue Mesa Review , and her ch...