Black & Published

This week, Nikesha speaks with Donna Hill, the newly named executive director of The Center for Black Literature at Medgar Evers College, right in the heart of Brooklyn.  Today, as in Thursday March 27, 2025, kicks off the center’s signature event, the National Black Writer’s Conference. This year is their two-day biennial symposium highlighting middle grade and young adult fiction. Tickets a...

This week on Black & Published , Nikesha speaks with Aaliyah Bilal, author of the short-story collection Temple Folk . The collection is made up of ten short stories about Black Americans who identify as Muslim and who were at one time members of the Nation of Islam.  In our conversation, Aaliyah explains why "normalcy" is the main message she wants readers to take away from her collectio...

This week on Black & Published , Nikesha speaks with Jamila Minnicks, author of the novel, Moonrise Over New Jessup . It's a book written about a small, Black, Alabama enclave in the 1950s facing pressure to integrate despite resistance from the town’s male leaders and the women who make their work possible.  A native of Alabama, Jamila says she sees her writing as an extension of he...

This week on Black & Published , Nikesha speaks with Laysha Ward author of the leadership book, Lead Like You Mean It: Lessons on Integrity and Purpose from the C-Suite.  Laysha spent more than 30 years in corporate America, most of that time at Target. Our conversation took place before Target announced their roll back of DEI initiatives but we still discuss how her background as a Black...

This week on Black & Published , Nikesha speaks with Bernice L. McFadden, the author of several award winning historical fiction novels. She’s out today with her memoir, First Born Girls, a book that weaves the story of her road to publication with her debut novel Sugar, with the story of the women in her family and what they endured.  In honoring her family through the pages of First Bor...

This week on Black & Published , Nikesha speaks with National Book Award Finalist and Corretta Scott King Award Winner, Amber McBride , about her latest novel, Onyx and Beyond . The novel tells the story of 12-year-old Onyx who’s growing up in the DMV area in the tulmutuous times of the late 60s and early 70s. There’s assassinations and moon landings happening in the world, while at home Onyx’...

This week on Black & Published , Nikesha speaks with author and MacArthur genius Jason Reynolds about his YA romance novel, Twenty-four Seconds from Now: A Love Story . The novel explores the budding relationship between Neon and Aria. High school seniors who’ve been together for two years and are both ready to take their relationship to the next level of love and intimacy. In our conversation...

This week on Black & Published , Nikesha speaks with return guest, Victoria Christopher Murray about her latest novel, Harlem Rhapsody . The novel tells the story of Jesse Redmon Faucet. A complex and ambitious woman who moved to New York to be nearer to her lover W.E.B. DuBois, and also to run his magazine, The Crisis . Between the scandal she had to keep quiet and an opportunity she didn’t w...

This week on Black & Published , Nikesha speaks with New York Times and USA Today Bestselling author, Shanora Williams , about her new romance novel, Beautiful Broken Love. The novel is the second chance love story of Davina Klein-Roberts and Deke Bishop. Reeling from tragedy and trying to rebuild her life, Davina is not prepared for Deke, the NBA star, with his own dark secrets, who takes a s...

This week on Black & Published, Nikesha speaks with Tara Roberts , author of the memoir, Written in the Waters: A Memoir of History, Home, and Belonging . It’s an epic story of Tara fulfilling her childhood desire of becoming a writer commingled with her active decision to embrace a past she’d always run from. A storyteller, adventurer, and traveler, Tara is now an explorer in residence at Nat...

This week on Black & Published , Nikesha speaks with Iris Mwanza , author of the novel The Lion’s Den . It’s a thriller featuring a young lawyer fighting for justice in the case of a queer teen, that has her going up against  every oppressive system in Zambia from the President and police to her priest and the doctrine of the Catholic Church.  Iris is  Zambian-American. She...

This week on Black & Published , Nikesha speaks with Palestinian-American poets, Fady Joudah and Lena Khalaf Tuffaha.  Fady is a physician, in addition to being a poet. His latest collection [ . . . ] chronicles the beginning of the genocide in Palestine in late 2023 and was a finalist for the 2024 National Book Award in poetry. Lena is a poet, essayist and translator. She's also the co-founde...

This season on Black & Published . . . It’s time to get real about what writing can do. Whether we write about love or compassion, broken systems or the parallels between the past and the present; writing is active! It is both a portal and an archive. And while publishing is a business, the work on the page is still pure.  This season the journeys continue with: Jodi M. Savage, Amber...

In this bonus episode of Black & Published, Nikesha is sharing her story about becoming a writer and finding her way in the publishing industry. From exploring and utilizing both traditional and independent avenues, Nikesha discusses when she knew she was a writer, the 7-year-long journey of publishing her debut novel, Four Women, founding her company, NEW Reads Publications, and how she has k...

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 featu...

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...

On this episode of Black & Published, Nikesha speaks with  Honorée Fannone Jeffers , author of the epic novel, The Love Songs of W.E.B. DuBois . Honorée is also the author of five critically acclaimed books of poetry, including the award-winning collection,  The Age of Phillis , based on the life and times of Phillis Wheatley Peters.

This week on  Black & Published , Nikesha speaks with author,  Deesha Philyaw , her short story collection,  The Secret Lives of Church Ladies , which was a finalist for the 2020 National Book Award.

This bonus episode of Black & Published features an episode of the Reed, Write and Create podcast hosted by award-winning author and creative writing coach, Lori L. Tharps. On the podcast, Lori offers bite-sized sessions of creative writing coaching based on the lives and times of our BIPOC literary ancestors, and she interviews successful BIPOC authors who share their stories and strategies f...

This week on  Black & Published , Nikesha speaks with  Arionne Nettles , author of the book,  We Are The Culture: Black Chicago's Influence on Everything . A university lecturer at Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism as well as a  culture reporter, Arionne's book is as much a love letter to her city as it is putting the world on notice… that Chicago is the epic...

This week on  Black & Published , Nikesha speaks with  Julian Randall author of the essay collection  The Dead Don't Need Reminding: In Search of Fugitives, Mississippi and Black TV Nerd Shit . Julian, who is also the author of the Cave Canem poetry prize winning collection, Refuse , got their start as a slam poet. In making the transition from the stage to the page they say talking to th...

This week on  Black & Published , Nikesha speaks with Maura Cheecks , author of  Acts of Forgiveness . The book is an outgrowth of her 2019 article, for the Atlantic, “American Wealth is Broken” which explores the necessity of reparations for Black families.  Maura was awarded the 2019 Masthead Reporting Residency for The Atlantic ’s first residency program where she worked on that article. In...

This week on  Black & Published , Nikesha speaks with Melissa Mogollon, author of the novel,  OYE . A graduate of the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, Melissa is originally from Colombia and was raised in Florida. She now teaches at a boarding school in Rhode Island, where she lives with her partner and dog. In our conversation, Melissa explains the feedback she received for her experimental form and w...

This week on  Black & Published , Nikesha speaks with New York Times Bestselling author Tomi Adeyemi , author of  The Children of Anguish and Anarchy , the final installment in the  Legacy of Orisha  series.  As a Nigerian American who came of age in a mostly white community, Tomi says her writing grew out of reckoning with her own internalized self-hatred. In our conversation, she explains ho...

This week on  Black & Published , Nikesha speaks with  Riss M. Neilson , author of the romance novel,   A Love Like The Sun . A graduate of the Rhode Island College, Riss won the English department’s Jean Garrigue Award, which was judged by novelist, Nick White. Her debut young adult novel, Deep in Providence , was a 2022 finalist for the New England Book Awards.  In our conversation, Riss exp...