Hopeton Hay Podcasts

Diverse Voices Book Review host Hopeton Hay interviewed legendary author Walter Mosley about his latest novel Been Wrong So Long It Feels Like Right , his third novel featuring New York private detective Joe King Oliver. In the novel, Oliver's 92-year-old grandmother asks him to find his father, her son, after she discovers she has a tumor that could be fatal. Oliver has been estranged from his fa...

Diverse Voices Book Review hosts Hopeton Hay and Amanda Moore discuss their favorite novels of 2024 that were featured in author interviews. For Hopeton, his favorite novels were 54 Miles  by Leonard Pitts, Jr ., Guide Me Home  by Attica Locke , and Kingdom of No Tomorrow  by Fabienne Josaphat . Amanda's favorite novels were Flores and Miss Paula  by Melissa Riverro , Skin & Bones by Renee Wat...

Diverse Voices Book Review host Hopeton Hay interviewed Alex Segura , author of the thriller Alter Ego . In the story, Annie Bustamante, a celebrated filmmaker and comic book artist, gets a chance to work on her favorite superhero, The Lethal Lynx. Despite her excitement, she's wary of the offer, and her suspicions grow when she receives anonymous warnings not to trust anyone. The novel also explo...

Diverse Voices Book Review host Hopeton Hay interviewed Joe William Trotter, Jr. , author of Building The Black City: The Transformation of American Life . Building The Black City explores the history of African Americans in cities across America from the colonial era to recent times. He emphasized the agency of African people in building their own infrastructure and institutions despite being dis...

  Diverse Voices Book Review host Hopeton Hay interviewed Eugene Rogan , a professor of modern Middle Eastern history at the University of Oxford and the director of the Middle East Center at St. Anthony's College, Oxford. Rogan discusses his book, The Damascus Events: The 1860 Massacre and the Making of the Modern Middle East ."    The conversation touches on the historical context of the Ottoman...

Diverse Voices Book Review contributor Amanda Moore interviewed Rafael A. Martinez, author of Illegalized: Undocumented Youth Movements in the United States. Martinez, an assistant professor at Arizona State University, writes a thought-provoking narrative about the obstacles that illegal immigrants face in the United States. By examining various case studies about sanctuary locations, detention c...

Black cultural icon and poet Nikki Giovanni died on December 9, 2024, at the age of 81. On November 15, 2020, Diverse Voices Book Review host Hopeton Hay interviewed her about her book of poetry and prose, Make Me Rain, which was just published the month before. In Make Me Rain, Giovanni calls attention to injustice and racism, celebrates Black culture and Black lives, and gives readers an unfilte...

Diverse Voices Book Review host Hopeton Hay interviewed Rachel Howzell Hall , author of the fantasy novel The Last One. Best known for writing crime fiction, Hall was approached by a publisher to write a fantasy novel series, which resulted in her new book. In the interview, Hall discussed how writing the fantasy novel required her to build an entire world from scratch, including creating new lang...

Diverse Voices Book Review host Hopeton Hay interviewed Fabienne Josaphat, author of Kingdom of No Tomorrow. Kingdom of No Tomorrow   is a historical novel that delves into a the Black Panther Party from 1968 to 1969 through the perspective of protagonist Nettie Boileau. She volunteers at the Black Panthers' Free Health Clinics in Oakland and develops a romantic relationship with Melvin Mosley, a...

Diverse Voices Book Review host Hopeton Hay interviewed Leonard Pitts Jr., author of the novel 54 MILES. Continuing with characters from his earlier work, THE LAST THING YOU SURRENDDER, set during World War II, "54 Miles" is a historical novel that unfolds during the crucial weeks of the Selma to Montgomery March in 1965 in alabama. The story revolves around characters grappling with past trauma....

Diverse Voices Book Review contributor Amanda Moore interviewed, Wanda Morris, the author of WHAT YOU LEAVE BEHIND. In her novel, a woman returns to her hometown to restart her career and her life, only to stumble upon a group of individuals whose ruthless ambitions threaten the lives of people in her community. Wanda Morris is the award-winning author of Anywhere You Run and All Her Little Secret...

Diverse Voices Book Review host Hopeton Hay interviewed Rudy Ruiz , author of the novel THE BORDER BETWEEN US .  Set in Brownsville, Texas, the novel follows Ramon Lopez's life from fifth grade to college, exploring themes of family dynamics, immigration, and coming of age. Ruiz draws heavily from his own experiences, fictionalizing real events and characters, such as his grandmother and a chili-s...

Diverse Voices Book Review host Hopeton Hay interviewed Ruben Reyes, Jr. , author of the short stories collection THERE IS A RIO GRANDE IN HEAVEN . THERE IS A RIO GRANDE IN HEAVEN, Reyes's first book, blends speculative fiction with themes of Salvadoran immigration.  Reyes describes his book as speculative fiction about Salvadoran immigrants, ranging from domestic family dramas with weird elements...

Diverse Voices Book Review host Hopeton Hay interviewed Ken Krimstein , the author of the graphic narrative  EINSTEIN IN KAFKALAND: How Albert Fell Down the Rabbit Hole and Came Up with the Universe . During the year that Prague was home to both Albert Einstein and Franz Kafka from 1911-1912, the trajectory of the two men's lives wove together in uncanny ways-as did their shared desire to tackle t...

Diverse Voices Book Review host Hopeton Hay interviewed Megan Kimble , author of CITY LIMITS : Infrastructure, Inequality, and the Future of America’s Highways. CITY LIMITS examines the impact of urban highways on American cities. In the interview, Kimble discussed how highways were sold as progress in the 1950s and 60s, driven by car companies and oil industries. She argues that highways often di...

Diverse Voices Book Review host Hopeton Hay interviewed Gabino Iglesias , author of the novel HOUSE OF BONE AND RAIN . In the interview, Iglesias explained how the novel was inspired in part by his personal experiences as a teen in Puerto Rico. The story follows a group of friends seeking revenge after a friend's mother is killed. Iglesias highlights the complexities of masculinity and the impact...

Diverse Voices Book Review host Hopeton Hay interviewed Attica Locke , the New York Times Best Selling author, about her latest novel, GUIDE ME HOME , the final installment in her Edgar Award-winning "Highway 59" trilogy. Set in east Texas, the novel explores themes of race, integrity, and family dynamics through the character Darre Matthews, a black Texas Ranger. In the interview, Attica reflects...

Diverse Voices Book Review contributor Amanda Moore interviewed, May Cobb , the author of THE HOLLYWOOD ASSISTANT. In her novel, a young writer works as a personal assistant to a wealthy Hollywood couple, but through an ironic twist of fate, she finds herself caught in the middle of a story that she cannot escape. May Cobb is award-winning author of The Hunting Wives, My Summer Darlings, A Likeabl...

Diverse Voices Book Review host Hopeton Hay interviewed Nicola Yoon , author of ONE OF OUR KIND .  Yoon describes her novel as "somewhere between a thriller and a horror. It's about a woman named Jasmine who, along with her husband and young son, moved to a suburb of Los Angeles that builds itself as a black utopia. And when Jasmine gets there, she expects to find safety and community, and at firs...

Diverse Voices Book Review host interview Frank Andre Guridy, author of THE STADIUM: An American History of Politics, Protest, and Play . In this book, historian Frank Guridy recounts the contested history of play, protest, and politics in American stadiums from the Democratic National Convention at Madison Square Garden in 1924 to the Colin Kaepernick protest at Qualcomm Stadium in 2016. Moving b...

Diverse Voices Book Review host Hopeton Hay interviewed John Vercher , author of the novel DEVIL IS FINE . The novel is described by its publisher: "Still reeling from a sudden tragedy, our biracial narrator receives a letter from an attorney: he has just inherited a plot of land from his estranged white grandfather. He travels to a beach town several hours south of his home with the intention of...

Diverse Voices Book Review contributor Amanda Moore interviewed, Renee Watson, the author of skin & bones . Through a series of profound vignettes, her new novel tells the story of a woman who tries to live and thrive in a world that never truly sees the beauty that she has learned to love within herself.  Renée Watson is also the author of the young adult novel, PIERCING ME TOGETHER, which re...

Diverse Voices Book Review host Hopeton Hay interviewed Larry Tye , author of THE JAZZMEN: How Duke Ellington, Louis Armstrong, and Count Basie Transformed America.   From the publisher: This is the story of three revolutionary American musicians, the maestro jazzmen who orchestrated the chords that throb at the soul of twentieth-century America..  What is far less known about these groundbreakers...

In 2014, Diverse Voices Book Review host Hopeton Hay interviewed Danielle Allen about her newly published book, OUR DECLARATION: A Reading of the Declaration of Independence in Defense of Equality . Featured on the front page of the New York Times, her book publisher writes in its description of the book: "Our Declaration is already regarded as a seminal work that reinterprets the promise of Ameri...

Diverse Voices Book Review host interviewed Walter Mosley about his latest Easy Rawlins novel, FAREWELL, AMETHYSTINE . Set in 1970 finds Ezekiel “Easy” Rawlins, LA’s premier Black detective, at 50 years of age despite all expectations.  He has a loving family, a beautiful home, and a thriving investigation agency.  All is right with the world… and then Amethystine Stoller, his own personal Helen o...