Black Writers Read

Send us Fan Mail This episode features our conversation with Crystal Senter-Brown , which was live-streamed on December 14, 2024.  Crystal Senter-Brown's life's purpose can be summed up in one sentence: Empowering Women and Children. And Crystal lives her purpose every single day, whether it is by publishing books that teach children the importance of being kind to others, leading writin...

Send us Fan Mail This episode features our conversation with Dr. DuEwa Frazier , which was live-streamed on December 7, 2024.  Dr. DuEwa Frazier is an award-winning author, poet, writer, editor, professor, creative entrepreneur, keynote speaker, arts and education leader, and digital creator. She is the editor of Introduction to Afrofuturism: A Mixtape in Black Literature & Arts (Routledge, 20...

Send us Fan Mail This episode features our conversation with Sabin Prentis Duncan , which was live-streamed on December 7, 2024.  Dr. Sabin Prentis Duncan is a husband, father, educator, and creator of Literary Soul Food. He holds an Executive Masters from Georgetown University’s McDonough School of Business, Doctorate and Specialist degrees from Eastern Michigan University, and Masters and Bachel...

Send us Fan Mail This episode features our conversation with Ebony Aya , which was live-streamed on November 23, 2024. During our chat, we talked about her latest book, Reconsidering Eve: Towards a Deepened Consciousness . Ebony Aya works at Macalester College as a Program Manager for the Jan Serie Center for Scholarship and Teaching. She is a recent doctoral graduate from the University of Minnes...

Send us Fan Mail This episode features our conversation with Brianna Wheeler , which was live-streamed on November 16, 2024. Brianna Wheeler covers cannabis, culture, food, film, parenting and local politics for print and web. She served as host, writer and producer of the Willamette Week news podcast, and is a frequent contributor to Portland City Cast. Her creative nonfiction work has appeared i...

Send us Fan Mail This episode features our conversation with Nathan Alexander Moore (Speculative Fiction. Poetry. Nonfiction. Critical Theory.), which was live-streamed on November 2, 2024.  Nathan Alexander Moore (she, they) is a Black nonbinary transfemme writer, cultural theorist, and educator. Currently she is the Assistant Professor of Black Trans and Queer Studies in the Department of Women...

Send us Fan Mail This episode features our conversation with Adrian Burks , which was live-streamed on October 20, 2024.  Adrian Burks is a director, writer, actor and producer. An ex-collegiate athlete originally from Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Adrian has been a filmmaker in Los Angeles for over a decade. He has appeared in movies such as the Academy Award winning WHIPLASH, and the comedic cult classi...

Send us Fan Mail This episode features our conversation with Dr. Khadijah Z. Ali-Coleman , which was live-streamed on October 19, 2024. We chatted about her recently released poetry collections, For the Girls Who Do Too Much and The Summoning of Black Joy . Dr. Khadijah Z. Ali-Coleman is founder of the 501(c)3 nonprofit, Black Writers for Peace and Social Justice , and the current Poet Laureate of...

Send us Fan Mail On this episode, we welcomed back Tracy Cross (who first joined us in Season Two) for our conversation on October 5, 2024 to talk about her recently released second book, A Gathering of Weapons .  About A Gathering of Weapons Nearly four years have passed since the events of Rootwork (the first book of The Conjure Series) and the youngest Conway sister, Pee Wee, is now thirteen ye...

Send us Fan Mail This episode features our conversation from September 28, 2024 with Lori L. Tharps , founder of the Reed, Write & Create platform. Lori is an award-winning author, journalist and educator. A self-described, storytelling evangelist, Tharps is a recognized voice in the areas of race, identity politics and African-American culture. She has written for The New York Times, The Wash...

Send us Fan Mail This special bonus episode of Black Writers Read is the first episode of Season Eight of Podcasting is the New Kink! which features me as a guest co-host! I was invited by Jasmine Gary to join her on her platform to chat about the novel, The Other Black Girl (Atria, 2021) by Zakiya Delila Harris , and the subsequent television series adaptation (now available to stream on Hulu). ​...

Send us Fan Mail This episode features my conversation with guest host, fellow Black woman podcaster Jasmine Gary, about the book, Caste: The Origin of our Discontents (2020) , by Pulitzer Prize-winning author and journalist, Isabel Wilkerson and its film adaptation, Origin , written and directed by Ava DuVernay ( Array ). Both the book and the film revisit some very dark moments in history, makin...

Send us Fan Mail This episode features our conversation with Yael Valencia Aldana , the recipient of the 2024 Pushcart Prize for Poetry. We chatted about her forthcoming poetry collection, BLACK MESTIZA , which is scheduled for release in January of 2025 . Yael Valencia Aldana is an award-winning poet and writer. She is the author of the poetry collection Black Mestiza (University of Kentucky Pres...

Send us Fan Mail Welcome to Season Five of Black Writers Read ! For this season, we're expanding the definition of “writer” to look at narrative construction. We start the season with a Pushcart Prize winning author and we’ll end Season Five with a documentary filmmaker. We're beyond excited to add the genre Afrofuturism to the platform as well as two countries. I’ll also be bringing bac...

Send us Fan Mail This bonus episode features my recent conversation with Clarence "Divine Eye" Maclin from the latest release from A24 Films, SING SING . About SING SING Divine G (played by Colman Domingo), imprisoned at Sing Sing for a crime he didn’t commit, finds purpose by acting in a theatre group alongside other incarcerated men, including wary newcomer (Clarence Maclin), in this s...

Send us Fan Mail Today, August 2, 2024, is African American essayist, novelist, poet, cultural critic, orator and activist James Baldwin’s (1924-1987) centennial birthday. In this retrospective, we take a look back at conversations with poets whose work performs the task of "bearing witness" ,  like that of Baldwin's writing. Baldwin's canon of work explored fundamental questio...

Send us Fan Mail In this bonus episode, I’ll be sharing my thoughts on the book, Queenie (2019) by Candice Carty-Williams and its streaming television series adaptation. The novel Queenie, published in 2019. is about the life and loves of its lead character, Queenie Jenkins. A 25-year-old British-Jamaican woman living in the UK, we follow her journey through a year from hell.  Queenie Jenkins is a...

Send us Fan Mail I've been so excited to share insight on a project I've been working on for the past few months. Serving as editor on this project, I wanted to give the Black Writers Read community a preview of the anthology, Heavy is the Crown , which is scheduled for release in August of 2024. It is now available for pre-order . Produced under the auspices of A Queen’s Narrative , Hea...

Send us Fan Mail This bonus episode features excerpts from five interviews from Season Four - those that we had with authors who write memoir. Over the summer, we will be revisiting conversations that cover the nuisances of genre, form, and style - offering mini masterclasses filled with advice and insight from some of our guests. This retrospective offers insight on source material, exploring the...

Send us Fan Mail In celebration of Juneteenth, we revisit our conversations with fiction authors featured during Season Four to reflect on approaches to creating worlds for our characters and what informs this work.  Included in this bonus episode are: David Jackson Ambrose (S4 E17) writes on the intersections of race, sexuality and generational trauma.  During our conversation, which took place d...

Send us Fan Mail This episode features our conversation with Lisa Braxton about her recently released memoir, Dancing Between the Raindrops: A Daughter’s Reflections on Love and Loss , which was live-streamed on June 1, 2024. Lisa Braxton is the author of the award-winning Dancing Between the Raindrops: A Daughter’s Reflections on Love and Loss  (Sea Crow Press, April 2024). The memoir in essays i...

Send us Fan Mail This episode features our conversation with Wakisha Stewart , which was live-streamed on May 18, 2024 in recognition of Women’s Health Week (May 12th-18th) and National Share a Story Month .  Wakisha (Kisha) Stewart is a wife, mother of three, nurse, heart attack survivor, and a national advocate for heart health dedicated to improving the quality of cardiovascular health care for...

Send us Fan Mail This episode features our conversation with David Jackson Ambrose , which was live-streamed on May 11, 2024 in recognition of National Mental Health Awareness Month . David Jackson Ambrose writes on the intersections of race, sexuality and generational trauma. Through fiction, his work explores various genres, topics, and themes including African American life, Black history, LGBT...

Send us Fan Mail This episode features our conversation with Lynne Thompson , which was live-streamed on April 14, 2024 closing out National Poetry Month. Lynne Thompson served as the 4th Poet Laureate of the City of Los Angeles. She's the author of four collections of poetry: Beg No Pardon (Perugia Press, 2007), Start With A Small Guitar (What Books Press, 2013), Fretwork (Marsh Hawk Press,...

Send us Fan Mail This episode features our conversation with M. Nzadi Keita , which was live-streamed on April 14, 2024 during National Poetry Month . M. Nzadi Keita's new poetry collection, Migration Letters (Beacon Press, April 2, 2024), reflects on Black working-class identity and culture in Philadelphia.  Her second book, Brief Evidence of Heaven (Whirlwind Press, 2014), shed light on Ann...