Black & Published

This week on Black and Published , Nikesha speaks with Rhonda McKnight , author of The Thing About Home . Rhonda is also the author of twenty-five traditional and indie-published award-winning bestsellers, including An Inconvenient Friend, What Kind of Fool, and Unbreak My Heart. She is a two-time winner of the Emma award in the categories of Inspirational Romance of the Year (2015) and Debut Auth...

This week on Black and Published , Nikesha speaks with Nikki May , author of Wahala . Born in Bristol and raised in Lagos, Nikki May is Anglo-Nigerian. At twenty, she dropped out of medical school, moved to London, and began a career in advertising, going on to run a successful agency. Her debut novel Wahala was inspired by a long boozy lunch with friends. In our conversation, we discuss how her o...

This week on Black and Published , Nikesha speaks with Caseen Gaines , author of When Broadway Was Black: The Triumphant Story of the All-Black Musical that Changed the World. Caseen Gaines is an author, director, educator, and pop culture historian. He is the author of We Don't Need Roads: The Making of the Back to the Future Trilogy , A Christmas Story: Behind the Scenes of a Holiday Classi...

This week on Black and Published , Nikesha speaks with Yessoh G.D. author of the African fantastical suspense thriller, Ta Lé Book One: Knowledge . Yessoh grew up in the Republic of Côte d'Ivoire, a country on the southern coast of West Africa. He believes that books have the power to change people for the betterment of the whole. When he is not day-dreaming about stories and the world, he is...

This week on Black and Published , Nikesha speaks with Derrick Harriell author of the poetry collection, Come Kingdom . Derrick Harriell is the Ottilie Schillig Associate Professor of English and African American Studies at the University of Mississippi. His previous collections of poems include Stripper in Wonderland, Cotton, and Ropes, winner of the 2014 Mississippi Institute of Arts and Letters...

This week on Black and Published , Nikesha speaks with Dior J. Stephens author of the poetry collection, CRUEL/CRUEL . Dior J is the author of the chapbooks SCREAMS & lavender, 001, and CANNON!. They proudly serve as the Managing Poetry Editor of Foglifter Journal and Press and are a fellow of Cave Canem and Lambda Literary's Emerging LGBTQ Voices Fellowship.  In our conversation, Dior di...

This week on Black and Published , Nikesha speaks with Victor LaValle author of the novel Lone Women . As the writer behind six other works of fiction, Victor's novels have been included in best-of-the-year lists by The New York Times Book Review, Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, Chicago Tribune, The Nation, and Publishers Weekly, among others. He has been the recipient of a Guggenheim...

This week on Black and Published , Nikesha speaks with Laura Warrell , author of the novel, Sweet, Soft, Plenty Rhythm , which was named a ‘best’ or ‘must-read’ book by Vanity Fair, People, Los Angeles Times, Washington Post, Boston Globe, and more. The novel was chosen as a Good Morning America Buzz Pick and Laura was named  a “Writer to Watch” by Publishers Weekly. She grew up in Kent and Columb...

This week on Black and Published , Nikesha speaks with Yvette Lisa Ndlovu , author of the short story collection, Drinking from Graveyard Wells (University Press of Kentucky, Spring 2023) which was selected for the 2021 UPK New Poetry & Prose Series. Yvette is a Zimbabwean sarungano (storyteller).  Her novel manuscript in progress was selected by George RR Martin for the Worldbuilder Scholarsh...

This week on Black and Published , Nikesha speaks with Sophronia Scott , author of the novel, Wild, Beautiful and Free . Sophfronia holds a BA in English from Harvard and an MFA in writing from Vermont College of Fine Arts. She began her career as an award-winning magazine journalist for Time, and People. When her first novel, All I Need to Get By, was published by St. Martin’s Press in 2004 Sophf...

This week on Black and Published , Nikesha speaks with Diane Marie Brown , author of the novel, Black Candle Women . A  professor at Orange Coast College and a public health professional for the Long Beach Health Department, Diane has a BA and MPH from UCLA and a degree in fiction from USC’s Master of Professional Writing Program. She grew up in Stockton and now lives in Long Beach, California, wi...

This week on Black and Published , Nikesha speaks with Destiny O. Birdsong , author of the triptych novel Nobody's Magic .  She's also a poet and essayist, and her workhas either appeared or is forthcoming in the Paris Review Daily, Poets & Writers, African American Review, The Best American Poetry 2021, and elsewhere. Nobody’s Magic , was published by Grand Central in February 2022...

This week on Black and Published , Nikesha speaks with Danyel Smith , author of the Shine Bright: A Very Personal History of Black Women in Pop . Danyel is anaward-winning journalist, and producer. She’s the creator and host of the Black Girl Songbook podcast, a music and talk show that centers black women in music. Danyel has served as editor of Billboard, editor at large at Time Inc., and editor...

This week on Black and Published , Nikesha speaks with Tia Williams , author of the New York Times bestselling novel Seven Days in June . Tia had a fifteen-year career as a beauty editor for magazines including Elle, Glamour, and Essence. She also wrote the bestselling novel, The Accidental Diva, and penned two YA novels: It Chicks, and Sixteen Candles. Her award-winning novel, The Perfect Find, w...

This week on Black and Published , Nikesha speaks with Janay Harden , author of the novel Forty-Two Minutes . As a licensed clinical social worker, Janay works as a mental health therapist.  She is the CEO of Restoring Your Destiny Counseling and Consulting and has over ten years of experience working in the mental health field with children, families, and schools. She's translated her backgr...

This week on Black and Published , Nikesha speaks with Ladee Hubbard , author of the short story collection, The Last Suspicious Holdout . Ladee is also the author of the novels The Talented Ribkins which received the 2018 Ernest J. Gaines Award for Literary Excellence and the Hurston-Wright Legacy Award for Debut Fiction and The Rib King . Her writing has appeared in Oxford American, Guernica , V...

This week on Black and Published , Nikesha speaks with Mant¿s , author of the poetry collection, The Rootwork Stretched . Mant¿s writes from the intersections of Black, femme, queer, and artist. They are Pittsburgh born, and Hill District raised. They have performed their poetry at universities, open mics, launch parties, book tours, and featured showcases throughout Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, and...

This week on Black and Published , Nikesha speaks with C.M. Lockhart , author of the novel, We Are the Origin . C.M. (also known as Chelsea) is a Black writer of fantasy. She loves creating worlds, exploring relationships, and writing stories about Black girls who aren't all that nice. She is the founder of Written in Melanin LLC — which encompasses a weekly podcast and YouTube channel as wel...

In this debut episode of Black & Published , Nikesha is speaking with author, Mbinguni, about her debut novel, Looking for Hope . Mbinguni is a natural storyteller with roots in West Africa and the Gullah-Geechee region of Georgia's barrier islands. Her novel, Looking for Hope , follows the life of young Hannah "Mouse" Maynard in this coming of age tale where Mouse transforms fr...

On this episode of Black & Published , Nikesha speaks with Tracey Michae'l Lewis-Giggetts , author of the essay collection, Black Joy . Tracey, holds both an MBA and an MFA. She's come up through the indie author ranks, has served as a celebrity ghostwriter, and is the author of 15 other titles.  During the Conversation, Tracey opens up about the happenstance opportunity that propell...

This week on Black and Published , Nikesha speaks with Cleyvis Natera , author of the novel, Neruda on the Park .  Born in the Dominican Republic and raised in New York City, Cleyvis has received honors from PEN America, Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference, Hermitage Artist Retreat, Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, and Voices of Our Nation Arts Foundation (VONA). Her fiction, essays and criticism...

This week on Black and Published , Nikesha speaks with Remica Bingham-Risher , author of the memoir, Soul Culture: Black Poets, Books and Questions that Grew Me Up .  A native of Phoenix, Arizona, Remica is a Cave Canem fellow and Affrilachian Poet. Her work has been published in The New York Times, The Writer’s Chronicle, Callaloo and Essence. She has written three poetry collections and is the D...

This week on Black and Published , Nikesha speaks with Shola Gbemi , author of the novel, They Were Chosen . A  New York native of Nigerian descent, his novel focuses on the twin movements of social justice and sexual assault while following fictional characters on an HBCU campus. During our conversation, Shola explains why writing his novel was a seven year process. What he learned from the counc...

This week on Black and Published , Nikesha speaks with Toni Ann Johnson , author of the short story collection, Light Skinned Gone to Waste . The collection won the 2021 Flannery O'Connor Award for short fiction. Toni Ann's novella, Homegoing , won Accents Publishing's inaugural novella contest and was published in 2021. Toni Ann was also nominated for an NAACP Image Award for her n...

This week on Black and Published , Nikesha speaks with George McCalman , author of the book, Illustrated Black History: Honoring the Iconic and the Unseen . The work  collects 145 of George's original portraits of Black pioneers alongside stirring profiles of why these individuals matter. A classically trained artist, his studio, McCalman.co creates long-lasting brands for clients across arts...