"As universally touching as it is original." -The New York TimesBlack Caucus of the American Library Association 2015 Honor Book in FictionO, The Oprah Magazine "10 Titles to Pick Up Now"A glorious and moving multigenerational, multicultural saga that sweeps from the 1940s through the 1960s in Trinidad and the United States.In a seaside village in the north of Trinidad, young Marcia Garcia, a gifted and smart-mouthed sixteen-year-old seamstress, lives alone, raising two small boys and guarding a family secret. When she meets Farouk Karam, an ambitious young policeman (so taken with Marcia that he elicits help from a tea-brewing obeah woman to guarantee her ardor), the rewards and risks in Marcia's life amplify forever.'Til the Well Runs Dry sees Marcia and Farouk from their sassy and passionate courtship through personal and historical events that threaten Marcia's secret, entangle the couple and their children in a tumultuous scandal, and put the future in doubt for all of them.With this deeply human novel, Lauren Francis-Sharma gives us an unforgettable story about a woman's love for a man, a mother's love for her children, and a people's love for an island rich with calypso and Carnival, cricket and salty air, sweet fruits and spicy stews-a story of grit, imperfection, steadfast love and of Trinidad that has never been told before. BIO Lauren Francis-Sharma, a child of Trinidadian immigrants, was born in New York City and raised in Baltimore, Maryland. She holds a bachelor’s degree in English literature with a minor in African-American Studies from the University of Pennsylvania and a J.D. from the University of Michigan Law School. She lives in the Washington, D.C., area with her husband and two children. 'Til the Well Runs Dry is her first novel. REVIEWS “Lauren Francis-Sharma's talent shines.” -- USA Today“Marcia's story, told lovingly in this, Francis-Sharma's debut novel, is as universally touching as it is original.” -- The New York Times (Sunday Book Review Shortlist)“You'll hear the calypso music in this vivid debut about a spirited seamstress and devoted mother with a family secret.” -- People“Have you ever met a family whose every tear, every triumph, every heartbreak made your heart leap? I could not put this book down. An unforgettable journey.” -- Dolen Perkins-Valdez, author of the New York Times bestseller Wench“Lauren Francis-Sharma is a true story-teller.‘Til the Well Runs Dry burns through its telling like the best gossip, but has the controlled mystery of a fairytale. This narrative is surprising, winding and always gratifying.” -- Tiphanie Yanique, author of Land of Love and Drowning“'Til The Well Runs Dry is unforgettable. Like the best poetry, it has all the high notes: a beautiful girl, a spell that leads to love and death, and a terrible secret -- in language pierced with the cries and colors of the West Indies. But this is not just a story; it's the author's retelling of her own origins. Sweet, brutal, and unsparing, this is Lauren Francis-Sharma's first book, yet she commands the page.” -- Jacquelyn Mitchard, author of the #1 New York Times bestseller The Deep End of the Ocean [P] Picador USA / September 15, 2015 0.7" H x 8.3" L x 5.5" W (0.6 lbs) 416 pages

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A Junior Library Guild Gold Standard Selection! From award-winning, New York Times bestselling author Ibi Zoboi comes her groundbreaking contemporary fantasy debut—a novel in verse based on Caribbean folklore—about the power of inherited magic and the price we must pay to live the life we yearn for. “Our new home with its thick walls and locked doors wants me to stay trapped in my skin— but I am fury and flame.” Fifteen-year-old Marisol is the daughter of a soucouyant. Every new moon, she sheds her skin like the many women before her, shifting into a fireball witch who must fly into the night and slowly sip from the lives of others to sustain her own. But Brooklyn is no place for fireball witches with all its bright lights, shut windows, and bolt-locked doors.… While Marisol hoped they would leave their old traditions behind when they emigrated from the islands, she knows this will never happen while she remains ensnared by the one person who keeps her chained to her magical past—her mother. Seventeen-year-old Genevieve is the daughter of a college professor and a newly minted older half sister of twins. Her worsening skin condition and the babies’ constant wailing keep her up at night, when she stares at the dark sky with a deep longing to inhale it all. She hopes to quench the hunger that gnaws at her, one that seems to reach for some memory of her estranged mother. When a new nanny arrives to help with the twins, a family secret connecting her to Marisol is revealed, and Gen begins to find answers to questions she hasn’t even thought to ask. But the girls soon discover that the very skin keeping their flames locked beneath the surface may be more explosive to the relationships around them than any ancient magic. BIO Ibi Zoboi is the New York Times bestselling author of American Street, a National Book Award finalist; Nigeria Jones, a Coretta Scott King Award winner; Pride; My Life as an Ice Cream Sandwich; Okoye to the People: A Black Panther Novel for Marvel; and the Walter Award and LA Times Book Prize–winning Punching the Air, cowritten with Exonerated Five member Yusef Salaam. She is also a two-time Coretta Scott King Honor Award winner for her picture book The People Remember and her middle grade biography of Octavia Butler, Star Child. She is the editor of the anthology Black Enough. Born in Haiti and raised in New York City, she now lives in New Jersey with her family. You can find her online at ibizoboi.net. REVIEWS "Bold and exciting; employing alternating perspectives, the author plays with language and the book’s format to craft fully realized characters by exploring their envies and desires. Readers will fly through Zoboi’s latest masterpiece and crave more stories featuring Caribbean folklore. An ambitious contemporary fantasy that will grip readers from the first page." -- Booklist (starred review) “The girls’ intertwined tales, blurring and shifting over the course of the narrative, unfold in lyrical alternating first-person verse and are cleverly used to discuss beauty ideals and colorism. Readers will enjoy the ways the monstrous characters’ human facades shift. A vividly creative, heart-pounding poetic journey infused with Caribbean folklore.” -- Kirkus Reviews (starred review) "The stage is set for secrets and supernatural discoveries. The slow, methodical unraveling of how interwoven the two teenage girls’ stories is the treat of this sharp verse narrative that initially alternates between their POVs. The conclusion is executed with the laudable ambitions of reconciling the seemingly irreconcilable." -- Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books (starred review) “Ambitious and unapologetic in its rendering, deftly addressing themes of colorism, assimilation, and inheritance. This fast-paced fever dream of a tale crackles and sparks on the page—almost burning the fingertips as it weaves folklore into reality; these dynamic girls reckoning with an inescapable lineage will change the way you look at the night sky.' -- Amber McBride, National Book Award finalist and author of Me (Moth) [H] Versify / February 11, 2025 For ages 13 and up

A Junior Library Guild Gold Standard Selection!
From award-winning, New York Times bestselling author Ibi Zoboi comes her groundbreaking contemporary fantasy debut—a novel in verse based on Caribbean folklore—about the power of inherited magic and the price we must pay to live the life we yearn for.
“Our new home with its
thick walls and locked doors
wants me to stay trapped in my skin—
but I am fury and flame.”
Fifteen-year-old Marisol is the daughter of a soucouyant. Every new moon, she sheds her skin like the many women before her, shifting into a fireball witch who must fly into the night and slowly sip from the lives of others to sustain her own. But Brooklyn is no place for fireball witches with all its bright lights, shut windows, and bolt-locked doors.… While Marisol hoped they would leave their old traditions behind when they emigrated from the islands, she knows this will never happen while she remains ensnared by the one person who keeps her chained to her magical past—her mother.
Seventeen-year-old Genevieve is the daughter of a college professor and a newly minted older half sister of twins. Her worsening skin condition and the babies’ constant wailing keep her up at night, when she stares at the dark sky with a deep longing to inhale it all. She hopes to quench the hunger that gnaws at her, one that seems to reach for some memory of her estranged mother. When a new nanny arrives to help with the twins, a family secret connecting her to Marisol is revealed, and Gen begins to find answers to questions she hasn’t even thought to ask.
But the girls soon discover that the very skin keeping their flames locked beneath the surface may be more explosive to the relationships around them than any ancient magic.
BIO
<meta charset="utf-8">Ibi Zoboi is the New York Times bestselling author of American Street, a National Book Award finalist; Nigeria Jones, a Coretta Scott King Award winner; Pride; My Life as an Ice Cream Sandwich; Okoye to the People: A Black Panther Novel for Marvel; and the Walter Award and LA Times Book Prize&amp;#8211;winning Punching the Air, cowritten with Exonerated Five member Yusef Salaam. She is also a two-time Coretta Scott King Honor Award winner for her picture book The People Remember and her middle grade biography of Octavia Butler, Star Child. She is the editor of the anthology Black Enough. Born in Haiti and raised in New York City, she now lives in New Jersey with her family. You can find her online at ibizoboi.net.
REVIEWS
"Bold and exciting; employing alternating perspectives, the author plays with language and the book’s format to craft fully realized characters by exploring their envies and desires. Readers will fly through Zoboi’s latest masterpiece and crave more stories featuring Caribbean folklore. An ambitious contemporary fantasy that will grip readers from the first page." -- Booklist (starred review)
“The girls’ intertwined tales, blurring and shifting over the course of the narrative, unfold in lyrical alternating first-person verse and are cleverly used to discuss beauty ideals and colorism. Readers will enjoy the ways the monstrous characters’ human facades shift. A vividly creative, heart-pounding poetic journey infused with Caribbean folklore.” -- Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
"The stage is set for secrets and supernatural discoveries. The slow, methodical unraveling of how interwoven the two teenage girls’ stories is the treat of this sharp verse narrative that initially alternates between their POVs. The conclusion is executed with the laudable ambitions of reconciling the seemingly irreconcilable." -- Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books (starred review)
“Ambitious and unapologetic in its rendering, deftly addressing themes of colorism, assimilation, and inheritance. This fast-paced fever dream of a tale crackles and sparks on the page—almost burning the fingertips as it weaves folklore into reality; these dynamic girls reckoning with an inescapable lineage will change the way you look at the night sky.' -- Amber McBride, National Book Award finalist and author of Me (Moth)
[H] Versify  /  February 11, 2025
For ages 13 and up

(S)kin /// Ibi Zoboi /// new

Hardcover

A highly opinionated wine guide from one of the country's most celebrated — and unorthodox — sommeliers and winemakers In this entertaining, informative, and thoroughly unconventional wine guide, award-winning sommelier, winemaker, and wine educator André Mack presents listeners with the 99 bottles that have most impacted his life. Instead of just pairing wines with foods, Mack pairs practical information with personal stories, offering up recommendations alongside reflections on being one of the only African-Americans to ever work at the top level of the American wine industry. The 99 bottles range from highly accessible commercial wines to the most rarefied Bordeaux on the wine list at The French Laundry, and each bottle offers listeners something to learn about wine. This window into Mack's life combines a maverick's perspective on the wine industry with an insider's advice on navigating wine lists, purchasing wine, and drinking more diverse and interesting selections at home. 99 Bottles is a one-of-a-kind exploration of wine culture today from a true trailblazer. BIO André Mack, one of the US’s top sommeliers, worked at both The French Laundry and Per Se. He is the founder of the Mouton Noir wine, annually producing 13 varietals in Oregon’s Willamette Valley, and he is also a graphic designer and visual artist. His first wine bar is slated to open in early 2019. Mack lives in Brooklyn, New York. [H] Abrams Image / October 29, 2019 0.8" H x 9.0" L x 6.5" W (1.5 lbs) 256 pages

99 Bottles: A Black Sheep's Guide to Life-Changing Wines /// André Hueston Mack, illustrations by Rob Deborde

In this poignant mixed voice, mixed form collection of interconnected prose, poems and stories, teen characters, their families, and their communities grapple with the COVID-19 pandemic. Amidst fear and loss, these New York City teens prevail with love, resilience and hope. From the award-winning author of Chlorine Sky and Vinyl Moon.“[A] gorgeous, tender testament to the generation of young people who shouldered the pandemic.”–Brendan Kiely, award-winning and New York Times bestselling authorGrief, pain, hope, and love collide in this short story collection.In New York City, teens, their families, and their communities feel the brunt of the COVID-19 pandemic. Amidst the fear and loss, these teens and the adults around them persevere with love and hope while living in difficult circumstances: Malachi writes an Armageddon short story inspired by his pandemic reality. Tariq helps their ailing grandmother survive during quarantine. Zamira struggles with depression and loneliness after losing her parents. Mohamed tries to help keep his community spirit alive. A social worker reflects on the ways the foster system fails their children. From award-winning author Mahogany L. Browne comes a poignant collection of interconnected prose, poems, and lists about the humanity and resilience of New Yorkers during the Covid-19 pandemic. BIO Mahogany L. Browne, a Kennedy Center’s Next 50 fellow, is a writer, playwright, organizer, and educator. Browne received fellowships from All Arts, Arts for Justice, Air Serenbe, Baldwin for the Arts, Cave Canem, Poets House, Mellon Research, Rauschenberg, and Wesleyan University. Browne’s books include A Bird in the Air Means We Can Still Breathe, Vinyl Moon, Chlorine Sky (optioned for Steppenwolf Theater), Black Girl Magic, and banned books Woke: A Young Poets Call to Justice and Woke Baby. Founder of the diverse litinitiative Woke Baby Book Fair, Browne is the 2024 Paterson Poetry Prize winner. She is the inaugural poet-in-residence at the Lincoln Center and lives in Brooklyn, NY. [H] Crown Books for Young Readers / March 11, 2025 0.69" H x 8.55" L x 5.53" W (0.61 lbs) 160 pages For ages 12 and up

In this poignant mixed voice, mixed form collection of interconnected prose, poems and stories, teen characters, their families, and their communities grapple with the COVID-19 pandemic. Amidst fear and loss, these New York City teens prevail with love, resilience and hope. From the award-winning author of Chlorine Sky and Vinyl Moon. “[A] gorgeous, tender testament to the generation of young people who shouldered the pandemic.” –Brendan Kiely, award-winning and New York Times bestselling author Grief, pain, hope, and love collide in this short story collection. In New York City, teens, their families, and their communities feel the brunt of the COVID-19 pandemic. Amidst the fear and loss, these teens and the adults around them persevere with love and hope while living in difficult circumstances: 
<ul>
<li>Malachi writes an Armageddon short story inspired by his pandemic reality.</li>
<li>Tariq helps their ailing grandmother survive during quarantine.</li>
<li>Zamira struggles with depression and loneliness after losing her parents.</li>
<li>Mohamed tries to help keep his community spirit alive.</li>
<li>A social worker reflects on the ways the foster system fails their children.</li>
</ul>
 From award-winning author Mahogany L. Browne comes a poignant collection of interconnected prose, poems, and lists about the humanity and resilience of New Yorkers during the Covid-19 pandemic.
BIO
<meta charset="utf-8">Mahogany L. Browne, a Kennedy Center’s Next 50 fellow, is a writer, playwright, organizer, and educator. Browne received fellowships from All Arts, Arts for Justice, Air Serenbe, Baldwin for the Arts, Cave Canem, Poets House, Mellon Research, Rauschenberg, and Wesleyan University. Browne’s books include A Bird in the Air Means We Can Still Breathe, Vinyl Moon, Chlorine Sky (optioned for Steppenwolf Theater), Black Girl Magic, and banned books Woke: A Young Poets Call to Justice and Woke Baby. Founder of the diverse litinitiative Woke Baby Book Fair, Browne is the 2024 Paterson Poetry Prize winner. She is the inaugural poet-in-residence at the Lincoln Center and lives in Brooklyn, NY.
[H]  Crown Books for Young Readers  /  March 11, 2025
<meta charset="utf-8">0.69" H x 8.55" L x 5.53" W (0.61 lbs) 160 pages
For ages 12 and up

A Bird in the Air Means We Can Still Breathe /// Mahogany L. Browne /// new

Winner of the Man Booker PrizeOne of Entertainment Weekly's Top 10 Books of the Decade One of the Top 10 Books of 2014 - Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times A "thrilling, ambitious . . . intense" (Los Angeles Times) novel that explores the attempted assassination of Bob Marley in the late 1970s, from the author of Black Leopard, Red Wolf In A Brief History of Seven Killings, Marlon James combines masterful storytelling with his unrivaled skill at characterization and his meticulous eye for detail to forge a novel of dazzling ambition and scope. On December 3, 1976, just before the Jamaican general election and two days before Bob Marley was to play the Smile Jamaica Concert to ease political tensions in Kingston, seven unnamed gunmen stormed the singer's house, machine guns blazing. The attack wounded Marley, his wife, and his manager, and injured several others. Little was officially released about the gunmen, but rumors abounded regarding the assassins' fates. A Brief History of Seven Killings is James's fictional exploration of that dangerous and unstable time in Jamaica's history and beyond. Deftly spanning decades and continents and peopled with a wide range of characters--assassins, drug dealers, journalists, and even ghosts--James brings to life the people who walked the streets of 1970s Kingston, who dominated the crack houses of 1980s New York, and who reemerged into a radically altered Jamaica of the 1990s. Brilliantly inventive, A Brief History of Seven Killings is an "exhilarating" (The New York Times) epic that's been called "a tour de force" (The Wall Street Journal). BIO Marlon James was born in Jamaica in 1970. His most recent novel, A Brief History of Seven Killings, won the 2015 Man Booker Prize. It was also a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award and won the OCM Bocas Prize for Caribbean Literature for fiction, the Anisfield-Wolf Book Award for fiction, and the Minnesota Book Award. It was also a New York Times Notable Book. James is also the author of The Book of Night Women, which won the 2010 Dayton Literary Peace Prize and the Minnesota Book Award, and was a finalist for the 2010 National Book Critics Circle Award in fiction and an NAACP Image Award. His first novel, John Crow's Devil, was a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for first fiction and the Commonwealth Writers' Prize and was a New York Times Editors' Choice. James lives in Minneapolis. REVIEWS "How to describe Marlon James's monumental new novel A Brief History of Seven Killings? It's like a Tarantino remake of The Harder They Come but with a soundtrack by Bob Marley and a script by Oliver Stone and William Faulkner, with maybe a little creative boost from some primo ganja. It's epic in every sense of that word: sweeping, mythic, over-the-top, colossal and dizzyingly complex. It's also raw, dense, violent, scalding, darkly comic, exhilarating and exhausting--a testament to Mr. James's vaulting ambition and prodigious talent." --Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times "James has written a dangerous book, one full of lore and whispers and history... [a] great book... James nibbles at theories of who did what and why, and scripts Marley's quest for revenge with the pace of a thriller. His achievement, however, goes far beyond opening up this terrible moment in the life of a great musician. He gives us the streets, the people, especially the desperate, the Jamaicans whom Marley exhorted to: 'Open your eyes and look within: / Are you satisfied with the life you're living?'" -- The Boston Globe "A sweeping novel that touches on family, friendship, celebrity, art, sexuality, ghetto politics, geopolitics, drug trade, gender, race and more, sending the reader from Jamaica to New York via Miami and Cuba and back." -- Newsweek [H] Riverhead Books / October 02, 2014 ﻿1.41" H x 9.55" L x 6.42" W (2.2 lbs) 688 pages [P] Riverhead Books / September 08, 2015 1.7" H x 8.2" L x 5.4" W (1.35 lbs) 704 pages

A Brief History of Seven Killings /// Marlon James

"A dozen interlinked, music-oriented stories set in Port Harcourt, Nigeria, where Garricks was raised... Each songlike story feels like a breakout hit encapsulating the brokenness and the beauty in life’s soundtrack."—Booklist, starred review “Beautifully woven . . . a magical delight.”—Hari Kunzru, author of White Tears A Broken People’s Playlist is set to the soundtrack of life, comprised of twelve music-inspired tales about love, the human condition, micro-moments, and the search for meaning and sometimes, redemption. It is also Chimeka Garricks’s love letter to his native city, Port Harcourt, introducing us to a cast of indelible characters in these loosely interlocked tales. There is the teenage wannabe-DJ eager to play his first gig even as his family disastrously falls apart—who reappears many years later as an unhappy middle-aged man drunk-calling his ex-wife; a man who throws a living funeral for his dying brother; three friends who ponder penis captivus and one’s peculiar erectile dysfunction; a troubled woman who tries to find her peace-place in the world, helped by a headful of songs and a pot of ginger tea. Infused with the author’s resonant and evocative storytelling, each page holds “the depth of a novel” (Hari Kunzru); a character, a moment that will—like a favorite song—long linger in the heart and mind. BIO Chimeka Garricks is a Nigerian-Irish writer, editor, screenwriter, and script doctor. His work includes a collection of short stories, A Broken People's Playlist, a novel, and a script in development. He lives in the United Kingdom. REVIEWS "A dozen interlinked, music-oriented stories set in Port Harcourt, Nigeria, where Garricks was raised... Each songlike story feels like a breakout hit encapsulating the brokenness and the beauty in life’s soundtrack." -- Booklist (starred review) "These stories will stay with you long after you’ve turned the final page." -- She Reads, Best Book Club Pick of Spring 2023 "A Broken People’s Playlist is an addictive collection of authentic prose. Story after story made me stop to reflect on the complexities of life, our various loves––be it family, friendship or romance––and the way we’re all connected. Elegant, graceful and full of understanding, Garrick’s writing unwraps stories that touch the soul and make you glad to be part of the human race." -- Bisi Adjapon, author of The Teller of Secrets and Daughter in Exile [H] Harpervia / March 21, 2023 1.02" H x 8.35" L x 5.67" W (0.7 lbs) 224 pages [P] Harpervia / January 21, 2025 0.7" H x 8.2" L x 5.2" W (0.4 lbs) 224 pages

"A dozen interlinked, music-oriented stories set in Port Harcourt, Nigeria, where Garricks was raised... Each songlike story feels like a breakout hit encapsulating the brokenness and the beauty in life’s soundtrack."—Booklist, starred review
“Beautifully woven . . . a magical delight.”—Hari Kunzru, author of White Tears
A Broken People’s Playlist is set to the soundtrack of life, comprised of twelve music-inspired tales about love, the human condition, micro-moments, and the search for meaning and sometimes, redemption. It is also Chimeka Garricks’s love letter to his native city, Port Harcourt, introducing us to a cast of indelible characters in these loosely interlocked tales.
There is the teenage wannabe-DJ eager to play his first gig even as his family disastrously falls apart—who reappears many years later as an unhappy middle-aged man drunk-calling his ex-wife; a man who throws a living funeral for his dying brother; three friends who ponder penis captivus and one’s peculiar erectile dysfunction; a troubled woman who tries to find her peace-place in the world, helped by a headful of songs and a pot of ginger tea.
Infused with the author’s resonant and evocative storytelling, each page holds “the depth of a novel” (Hari Kunzru); a character, a moment that will—like a favorite song—long linger in the heart and mind.
BIO
<meta charset="utf-8">Chimeka Garricks is a Nigerian-Irish writer, editor, screenwriter, and script doctor. His work includes a collection of short stories, A Broken People's Playlist, a novel, and a script in development. He lives in the United Kingdom.
REVIEWS
"A dozen interlinked, music-oriented stories set in Port Harcourt, Nigeria, where Garricks was raised... Each songlike story feels like a breakout hit encapsulating the brokenness and the beauty in life’s soundtrack." -- Booklist (starred review)
"These stories will stay with you long after you’ve turned the final page." -- She Reads, Best Book Club Pick of Spring 2023
"A Broken People’s Playlist is an addictive collection of authentic prose. Story after story made me stop to reflect on the complexities of life, our various loves––be it family, friendship or romance––and the way we’re all connected. Elegant, graceful and full of understanding, Garrick’s writing unwraps stories that touch the soul and make you glad to be part of the human race." -- Bisi Adjapon, author of The Teller of Secrets and Daughter in Exile
[H]  Harpervia  /  March 21, 2023
<meta charset="utf-8"><meta charset="utf-8">1.02" H x 8.35" L x 5.67" W (0.7 lbs) 224 pages 
[P]  Harpervia  /  January 21, 2025
<meta charset="utf-8">0.7" H x 8.2" L x 5.2" W (0.4 lbs) 224 pages

A Broken People's Playlist: Stories (from Songs) /// Chimeka Garricks

Winner of the 1988 Before Columbus Foundation National Book Award, this path-breaking collection of essays is a clarion call to build communities that nurture our spirit. Lorde announces the need for a radical politics of intersectionality while struggling to maintain her own faith as she wages a battle against liver cancer. From reflections on her struggle with the disease to thoughts on lesbian sexuality and African-American identity in a straight white man's world, Lorde's voice remains enduringly relevant in today's political landscape. Those who practice and encourage social justice activism frequently quote her exhortation, "Caring for myself is not self-indulgence, it is self-preservation, and that is an act of political warfare." In addition to the journal entries of "A Burst of Light: Living with Cancer," this edition includes an interview, "Sadomasochism: Not About Condemnation," and three essays, "I Am Your Sister: Black Women Organizing Across Sexualities," "Apartheid U.S.A.," and "Turning the Beat Around: Lesbian Parenting 1986," as well as a new Foreword by Sonia Sanchez. BIO A great American theorist of race, sexuality, gender, living, and dying, poet and activist Audre Lorde (1934–1992) created a body of work that was ahead of its time in its embrace of intersectionality. Her debut poetry collection, 1973's From a Land Where Other People Live, was nominated for the National Book Award and she was named New York State's Poet Laureate and received the Bill Whitehead Award for Lifetime Achievement. Other notable works include The Cancer Journals, her novel Zami, and the collection Sister Outsider. A member of the Black Arts Movement and a prominent advocate of the Afro-German identity during her years studying in Berlin, Lorde's writings have become increasingly influential since her death in 1992 of liver cancer. REVIEWS "You don't read Audre Lorde, you feel her." -- Essence"Lorde's timeless prose in this collection provides contemporary social justice warriors the language, strategies, and lessons around resistance, through the power of intersectionality, a Pan-African vision, and — ultimately — through the power of love and radical self-care." -- NBC News"When I don't know what to do, I turn to the Lorde." -- Alexis Pauline Gumbs, Bitch Media"Whenever my mind is heavy with questions and my heart thirsts for nourishment, I turn to the writing of Audre Lorde. Every time I revisit the words of Audre Lorde, I marvel over how relevant they continue to be." -- AfterEllen.com "The self-described black feminist lesbian mother poet used a mixture of prose, theory, poetry, and experience to interrogate oppressions and uplift marginalized communities. She was one of the first black feminists to target heteronormativity, and to encourage black feminists to expand their understanding of erotic pleasure. She amplified anti-oppression, even as breast cancer ravaged her ailing body." -- Evette Dionne, Bustle Magazine [H] Ixia Press / September 13, 2017 0.6" H x 8.7" L x 5.8" W (0.6 lbs) 144 pages [P] Lushena Press / June 29, 2023 0.29" H x 8.5" L x 5.5" W (0.3 lbs) 108 pages

A Burst of Light: and Other Essays /// Audre Lorde, foreword by Sonia Sanchez, illustrations by Jen Keenan

A new cookbook for beginners and curious cooks by Emmy Award–winning talk show host and journalist Tamron Hall and her good friend, award-winning chef Lish Steiling.When Tamron Hall and Lish Steiling first met while working at the Today show, they never imagined that their friendship would lead to endless kitchen adventures filled with laughs, learning, and even tears of pure joy. In A Confident Cook, they share that same empowerment and excitement with those who are just beginning to cook.Learn how to select the tools you need (and skip the ones you don’t!), how to stock your pantry, and how to cook for one, two, or a whole group. This book is packed with scrumptious recipes, including Baked French Toast with Sparkling Berries, Crispy Fried Chicken, Harissa Roasted Carrots with Queso Fresco, and Chai-Spiced Pudding, as well as cocktails and mocktails like the delicious “Not Tonight, Satan.” Throughout, Lish and Tamron chat, teach, learn, and inspire you to keep it going in the kitchen! BIO Tamron Hall is an American broadcast journalist, television talk show host and author. In September 2019, Hall debuted her self-titled syndicated daytime talk show, which has earned her two Daytime Emmy Awards. REVIEWS “Lish and Tamron’s passion for cooking and sharing meals with family and friends comes crashing through the pages of this playful compendium of simple, delicious recipes and techniques. The book is chatty and personal, with very clear directions on how to really set up your kitchen and become a confident cook. With irresistible recipes like Big Citrus Dutch Baby with Ice Cream Sauce for brunch and Chicken Thighs with Dates and Olives for dinner, I am in. You need this book!” -- Suzanne Goin “Get ready for a culinary adventure like no other! A Confident Cook is not your average recipe collection. It’s a conversation between friends. Join Lish and Tamron as they deliver simple and tasty twists to your favorite dishes, from classics to favorites. Get ready to explore a whole new world of deliciousness!” -- Carla Hall“A Confident Cook is what happens when two genuine pros collaborate—in this case, a seasoned chef and an acclaimed host/interviewer. Together, Tamron and Lish get at the very heart and soul of cooking, why it matters, how it connects us, and how truly satisfying it can be when done with patience and love. Theirs is a friendship worth celebrating!” -- Gail Simmons“A Confident Cook is the perfect title for this book. It will give you the skills and tips you’ve always wanted and will make you feel great in the kitchen. It is amazing to see a professional like Lish teach her friend Tamron the ins and outs of cooking. Lish makes everything look so easy due to her vast background, and has an extremely wide range of what she can cook. You will use this book day in and day out as your reference bible for things we all want to master—the perfectly cooked eggs, the crispiest roast chicken, the ultimate potatoes, the simplest desserts that will make you look like a pro. Brava, Tamron and Lish.” -- Missy Robbins [H] Hyperion Avenue / September 03, 2024 0.9" H x 9.7" L x 7.7" W (2.7 lbs) 256 pages

A new cookbook for beginners and curious cooks by Emmy Award–winning talk show host and journalist Tamron Hall and her good friend, award-winning chef Lish Steiling. When Tamron Hall and Lish Steiling first met while working at the Today show, they never imagined that their friendship would lead to endless kitchen adventures filled with laughs, learning, and even tears of pure joy. In A Confident Cook, they share that same empowerment and excitement with those who are just beginning to cook. Learn how to select the tools you need (and skip the ones you don’t!), how to stock your pantry, and how to cook for one, two, or a whole group. This book is packed with scrumptious recipes, including Baked French Toast with Sparkling Berries, Crispy Fried Chicken, Harissa Roasted Carrots with Queso Fresco, and Chai-Spiced Pudding, as well as cocktails and mocktails like the delicious “Not Tonight, Satan.” Throughout, Lish and Tamron chat, teach, learn, and inspire you to keep it going in the kitchen!
BIO
<meta charset="utf-8">Tamron Hall is an American broadcast journalist, television talk show host and author. In September 2019, Hall debuted her self-titled syndicated daytime talk show, which has earned her two Daytime Emmy Awards.
REVIEWS
“Lish and Tamron’s passion for cooking and sharing meals with family and friends comes crashing through the pages of this playful compendium of simple, delicious recipes and techniques. The book is chatty and personal, with very clear directions on how to really set up your kitchen and become a confident cook. With irresistible recipes like Big Citrus Dutch Baby with Ice Cream Sauce for brunch and Chicken Thighs with Dates and Olives for dinner, I am in. You need this book!”  -- Suzanne Goin   “Get ready for a culinary adventure like no other! A Confident Cook is not your average recipe collection. It’s a conversation between friends. Join Lish and Tamron as they deliver simple and tasty twists to your favorite dishes, from classics to favorites. Get ready to explore a whole new world of deliciousness!” -- Carla Hall “A Confident Cook is what happens when two genuine pros collaborate—in this case, a seasoned chef and an acclaimed host/interviewer. Together, Tamron and Lish get at the very heart and soul of cooking, why it matters, how it connects us, and how truly satisfying it can be when done with patience and love. Theirs is a friendship worth celebrating!” -- Gail Simmons “A Confident Cook is the perfect title for this book. It will give you the skills and tips you’ve always wanted and will make you feel great in the kitchen. It is amazing to see a professional like Lish teach her friend Tamron the ins and outs of cooking. Lish makes everything look so easy due to her vast background, and has an extremely wide range of what she can cook. You will use this book day in and day out as your reference bible for things we all want to master—the perfectly cooked eggs, the crispiest roast chicken, the ultimate potatoes, the simplest desserts that will make you look like a pro. Brava, Tamron and Lish.”  -- Missy Robbins
[H]  Hyperion Avenue  /  September 03, 2024
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A Confident Cook: Recipes for Joyous, No-Pressure Fun in the Kitchen /// Tamron Hall, Lish Sterling

A Domestic Cook Book (1866) by Malinda Russell is the oldest known published cookbook written by an African American woman. Born in Tennessee, and descended from Virginia freemen, Russell decided to move to Liberia at the age of 19. When her money for the trip was stolen, she was stranded in Lynchburg, Virginia, and began working as a cook and companion, traveling with women as a nurse. After living in Lynchburg for only four years, Russell’s husband died and she moved with her son to Tennessee where she kept a boarding house and then went on to run a pastry shop. After a second dramatic robbery in 1864, Russell moved to Paw Paw, Michigan, because she had heard it was the “garden of the west” and published a cookbook “with the intention of benefiting the public” as well as supporting herself. A Domestic Cook Book contains 260 recipes and household tips that draw from Malinda Russell’s twenty years of experience cooking in Southern kitchens, her boarding house, and her pastry shop, and showcase her skills as a pastry chef. This new edition includes a foreword by scholar Rafia Zafar as well as an introduction by the late food historian Janice Bluestein Longone that contextualize Russell’s cookbook. Using the only known copy of the original book housed in the Janice Bluestein Longone Culinary Archive at the University of Michigan Library's Special Collections Research Center, this new edition preserves an important part of Michigan and American history and makes it widely available to readers for the first time. BIO Malinda Russell was born and raised in eastern Tennessee. In 1864, Russell moved to Michigan, where she settled in the Paw Paw area and published this volume in 1866. [P] University of Michigan Regional / February 18, 2025 120 pages

A Domestic Cook Book (1866) by Malinda Russell is the oldest known published cookbook written by an African American woman. Born in Tennessee, and descended from Virginia freemen, Russell decided to move to Liberia at the age of 19. When her money for the trip was stolen, she was stranded in Lynchburg, Virginia, and began working as a cook and companion, traveling with women as a nurse. After living in Lynchburg for only four years, Russell’s husband died and she moved with her son to Tennessee where she kept a boarding house and then went on to run a pastry shop. After a second dramatic robbery in 1864, Russell moved to Paw Paw, Michigan, because she had heard it was the “garden of the west” and published a cookbook “with the intention of benefiting the public” as well as supporting herself.
A Domestic Cook Book contains 260 recipes and household tips that draw from Malinda Russell’s twenty years of experience cooking in Southern kitchens, her boarding house, and her pastry shop, and showcase her skills as a pastry chef. This new edition includes a foreword by scholar Rafia Zafar as well as an introduction by the late food historian Janice Bluestein Longone that contextualize Russell’s cookbook. Using the only known copy of the original book housed in the Janice Bluestein Longone Culinary Archive at the University of Michigan Library's Special Collections Research Center, this new edition preserves an important part of Michigan and American history and makes it widely available to readers for the first time.
BIO
Malinda Russell was born and raised in eastern Tennessee. In 1864, Russell moved to Michigan, where she settled in the Paw Paw area and published this volume in 1866.
[P]  University of Michigan Regional  /  February 18, 2025
<meta charset="utf-8">120 pages

A Domestic Cook Book Containing a Careful Selection of Useful Receipts for the Kitchen /// Malinda Russell

A Junior Library Guild Gold Standard Selection Expert quilter Kim Taylor shares a unique and powerful story of the celebration of the first Juneteenth, from the perspective of a young girl.On June 19, 1865, in Galveston, General Gordon Granger of the Union Army delivered the message that African Americans in Texas were free. Since then, Juneteenth, as the day has come to be known, has steadily gained recognition throughout the United States. ln 2020,a powerful wave of protests and demonstrations calling for racial justice and equality brought new awareness to the significance of the holiday.A Flag for Juneteenth depicts a close-knit community of enslaved African Americans on a plantation in Texas, the day before the announcement is to be made that all enslaved people are free. Young Huldah, who is preparing to celebrate her tenth birthday, can’t possibly anticipate how much her life will change that Juneteenth morning. The story follows Huldah and her community as they process the news of their freedom and celebrate together by creating a community freedom flag. Debut author and artist Kim Taylor sets this story apart by applying her skills as an expert quilter. Each of the illustrations has been lovingly hand sewn and quilted, giving the book a homespun, tactile quality that is altogether unique. BIO Kim Taylor is a speech language pathologist and Department Supervisor at a large school for deaf children on Long Island. She is also an expert quilter whose works have been exhibited at several venues throughout the Midatlantic region. Taylor’s quilts reflect African American life, and she tells stories through her materials (visit Kim’s website to see her quilts). After researching the origins of the Juneteenth celebration, she created a Juneteenth story quilt which she has exhibited and presented in dozens of local schools. Realizing that few teachers and students had ever heard of the holiday, she was moved to write the book A Flag for Juneteenth. REVIEWS “The picture book . . . not only reveals Taylor’s considerable talents as an inspiring raconteur but as a self-taught quilter whose creations uniquely and symbolically illustrate the historically based narrative.” -- Newsday★ ”Kim Taylor’s portrayal of a girl witnessing the first Juneteenth, accompanied by exquisite quilted artwork, is filled with a spirit of jubilation and freedom. . . . her textile art perfectly complements her evocative prose. . . .” -- BookPage, Starred Review “The illustrations quilted by Taylor display strong artistic use of color, texture, movement, stitching, and symbols. Each page has vibrant colors that grab readers at first glance. . . . Taylor effectively breathes life into the characters, even those muddled in the background, by showing their humanity in each page.” -- School Library Journal“Both lyrical and descriptive, Huldah’s voice conveys the joy that is found in freedom. . . . A great introduction to the federal holiday.” -- The Horn Book“Taylor aptly depicts this story through colorful woven fabrics and folk art-style, quilted scenes.” -- Booklist“[A] moving debut. . . . It’s a discussion-starting, personal-feeling portrait of a communal celebration.” -- Publishers Weekly“The art in this work from quilter Taylor is stunning. The craftsmanship and attention to detail are breathtaking. . . . Visually dazzling. . . .” -- Kirkus Reviews [H] Neal Porter Books / January 03, 2023 0.39" H x 10.24" L x 9.92" W (0.92 lbs) 40 pages

A Flag for Juneteenth /// Kim Taylor

One of the Gardin women must navigate a season rich with unexpected challenges in the follow-up to The Gardins of Edin, a heartwarming story about love, forgiveness, new beginnings, and what it takes to get there.Martha Gardin is a mess, and no one knows this better than the women in her family. Good-hearted but often misguided by distrust and insecurity, Martha is known for stirring up drama. That’s why Ruth, Naomi, and Mary are pleasantly surprised when Martha mellows out after she begins dating one of the most eligible bachelors in town. Handsome, well-connected Oji Greenwald is everything Martha hoped to find in a man, and it’s only a matter of time before he pops the question. Rarely caught off guard, Martha is accustomed to getting her way. But when it appears she’s finally about to have the life she’s always wanted, a crisis in Oji’s family brings out Martha’s tendency to try to save the day her way, and the divide deepens between her and Oji’s already indifferent mother, Eve. Confronted with these unforeseen challenges to her plans, Martha finds herself on a journey that forces her to fully acknowledge her previous mistakes and reconcile her past. But will it be enough to deliver her the future—and the love—her heart desires? BIO Rosey Lee is the author of The Gardins of Edin. She lives in Atlanta, Georgia, and grew up on the Westbank of New Orleans, Louisiana. REVIEWS “If you’re craving a heartfelt, character-driven story about love, legacy, healing, and what it means to truly show up for your people (and yourself), don’t sleep on this series.” -- Emely Rumble, LCSW, bibliotherapist and author of Bibliotherapy in The Bronx [P] Prh Christian Publishing / May 13, 2025 0.9" H x 8.2" L x 5.4" W (0.6 lbs) 304 pages

A Gardin Wedding: A Gardin of Edin Novel /// Rosey Lee

﻿A Good Day to Bake is full of 70 sweet and savory baking recipes for any day of the week, led by flavor. Going through the ritual of bringing out the measuring scales, pouring out flour, whipping up the eggs, stirring the batter and impatiently slicing up warm cake is a beautiful thing that deserves to be enjoyed all year round no matter the day, season or occasion. This is a cookbook that embraces simplicity, mindfulness and the therapeutic comforts of baking. The Great British Bake Off's 2016 contestant Benjamina writes so warmly about cakes and her recipes speak to a natural, seasonal and down-to-earth way of baking. Chapters include Herbs & Tea, Stone Fruit & Berries, Vegetables, Best of Beige, Spice Cupboard, and Chocolate. Because every day is a good day to bake. BIO Benjamina Ebuehi writes recipes, styles and creates content for media, such as BBC Good Food, Waitrose Weekend and Guardian Feast as well as brands such as Sainsbury's, McVities, Lindt, Lyles Golden Syrup, Anthropologie, Baileys and Schwartz spices. Benjamina is an ambassador for the incredible social enterprise Luminary Bakery, and co-founded, with her sister Bonita, The Sister Table (www.thesistertable.com), hosting pop-up brunches and supper clubs for women across London. Her food blog Carrot and Crumb (www.carrotandcrumb.com) was a finalist in the 2019 Saveur Blog Awards. A Good Day to Bake is her second cookbook. [H] Quadrille Publishing / March 01, 2022 0.9" H x 9.9" L x 7.5" W (1.85 lbs) 192 pages

﻿<meta charset="UTF-8">A Good Day to Bake is full of 70 sweet and savory baking recipes for any day of the week, led by flavor. 
Going through the ritual of bringing out the measuring scales, pouring out flour, whipping up the eggs, stirring the batter and impatiently slicing up warm cake is a beautiful thing that deserves to be enjoyed all year round no matter the day, season or occasion. 
This is a cookbook that embraces simplicity, mindfulness and the therapeutic comforts of baking. The Great British Bake Off's 2016 contestant Benjamina writes so warmly about cakes and her recipes speak to a natural, seasonal and down-to-earth way of baking. Chapters include Herbs &amp; Tea, Stone Fruit &amp; Berries, Vegetables, Best of Beige, Spice Cupboard, and Chocolate. 
Because every day is a good day to bake.
BIO
Benjamina Ebuehi writes recipes, styles and creates content for media, such as BBC Good Food, Waitrose Weekend and Guardian Feast as well as brands such as Sainsbury's, McVities, Lindt, Lyles Golden Syrup, Anthropologie, Baileys and Schwartz spices.
Benjamina is an ambassador for the incredible social enterprise Luminary Bakery, and co-founded, with her sister Bonita, The Sister Table (www.thesistertable.com), hosting pop-up brunches and supper clubs for women across London. Her food blog Carrot and Crumb (www.carrotandcrumb.com) was a finalist in the 2019 Saveur Blog Awards.
A Good Day to Bake is her second cookbook.
[H] Quadrille Publishing  /  March 01, 2022
0.9" H x 9.9" L x 7.5" W (1.85 lbs) 192 pages

A Good Day to Bake: Simple Baking Recipes for Every Mood /// Benjamina Ebuehi

“A compelling story of how the transformative events of history weigh on individual lives and relationships.” - Barack ObamaThe Nobel Prize–nominated Kenyan writer’s best-known novel, featuring an introduction by Nobel Prize winner Abdulrazak GurnahSet in the wake of the Mau Mau rebellion and on the cusp of Kenya's independence from Britain, A Grain of Wheat follows a group of villagers whose lives have been transformed by the 1952–1960 Emergency. At the center of it all is the reticent Mugo, the village's chosen hero and a man haunted by a terrible secret. As we learn of the villagers' tangled histories in a narrative interwoven with myth and peppered with allusions to real-life leaders, including Jomo Kenyatta, a masterly story unfolds in which compromises are forced, friendships are betrayed, and loves are tested. BIO Ngugi wa Thiong'o is an award-winning novelist, playwright, and essayist from Kenya whose novels have been translated into more than thirty languages. He lives in Irvine, California, where he is Distinguished Professor of English and Comparative Literature at the University of California, Irvine. REVIEWS “One of the greatest writers of our time.” -- Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, The Guardian“His novels . . . have been deservedly canonized by the iconic [Penguin Classics] series.” --The Wall Street Journal [P] Penguin Group / June 05, 2012 0.8" H x 7.6" L x 5.1" W (0.45 lbs) 272 pages

A Grain of Wheat /// Ngugi Wa Thiong'o, introduction by Abdulrazak Gurnah, edited by Chinua Achebe

The New York Times Book Review Editors’ Choice • Longlisted for the Orwell Prize for Political Fiction​ • A sweeping and beautifully rendered exploration of home and yearning, following the fracturing of a family upon the demise of its patriarch“Each character here is richly and deeply drawn…This is a novel that encourages us to stand in life’s burning doorways, and to think long before we walk away or walk through.”—New York TimesIn the early hours of June 14, 2017, the world watches as flames leap up the sides of a residential high-rise in West London, consuming Grenfell Tower and many of the lives within it. Across town, an earlier spark has caught fire. A cigarette left burning in an ashtray. A table strewn with post-it reminders and old newspapers. And one Cornelius Winston Pitt—estranged husband, complicated dad, and Pitt family patriarch—takes his final breaths alone.These twin tragedies open Diana Evans’s A House for Alice, an aching portrait of a family of women shaken by loss and searching for closure. At the novel’s center is Alice herself, the Pitt matriarch who, after fifty years in England, now longs to live out her final years in her homeland of Nigeria. Her three daughters are torn on the issue of whether she stays or goes, and while youngest sibling Melissa also grapples with the embers of her own failed relationship, the Pitt family’s foundational pillars—of trust, love, and cultural identity—begin to crack.Intimately drawn and set against a fraught political backdrop, yet equally full of hope, humor, and humanity, A House for Alice traces the scars of grief and betrayal across generations and uncovers the secrets we keep from those closest to us. BIO Diana Evans is the author of the novels 26a, The Wonder and Ordinary People. She has received nominations for the Whitbread First Novel, the Guardian First Book and the Commonwealth Best First Book awards and was the inaugural winner of the Orange Award for New Writers. Ordinary People won the 2019 South Bank Sky Arts Award for Literature and was shortlisted for the Women’s Prize for Fiction, the Rathbones Folio Prize and the Orwell Prize for Political Fiction, and also received a nomination for the Andrew Carnegie Medals for Excellence in Fiction. Her journalism appears in among others Time magazine, the Guardian, Vogue, and the Financial Times. She lives in London. REVIEWS A Most Anticipated Book: The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Boston Globe, Good Morning America •“Each character here is richly and deeply drawn, with histories and personalities so fully realized that it’s a pleasure to get to know them…This is a novel that encourages us to stand in life’s burning doorways, and to think long before we walk away or walk through.” -- New York Times“A beautiful, deep exploration of home and fractured families” -- Good Morning America“Twin domestic tragedies entwine in this richly loving and fraught novel. The 2017 Grenfell Towers fire in London looms as Diana Evans juxtaposes this disaster with the death of a patriarch whose loss complicates the actions of his wife, Alice, who longs to return at last to her homeland, Nigeria.” -- Boston Globe“The shifting sands of relationships, time, and place frame a vibrant new novel from an award-winning British writer.Broad in range, vivid in detail, alight often with eloquent language, Evans’ fourth novel, set among a Black community in London, takes time to reveal itself. Sprawling but always engaging, the novel’s cast is filled with rounded individuals, their problems and options as Black, middle-class Londoners showcased at work and play and contemplation, with humor and empathy.” -- Kirkus Review (starred review) “All is conjured with Evans’s keen eye for human behavior… Her prose is distinguished by its lively, lyrical energy, by its seemingly effortless expansiveness, and by masterful turns of phrase” -- Guardian “A warm but devastating narrative, dealing with the fallout of the Grenfell tragedy… Like any Evans novel, it is unputdownable” -- Harper’s Bazaar “Evans…has an exquisite turn of phrase…The people on the page, and the problems they face, are real and raw" -- Times UK [H] Pantheon Books / September 12, 2023 1.6" H x 9.3" L x 6.1" W (1.35 lbs) 352 pages

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The New York Times Book Review Editors’ Choice • Longlisted for the Orwell Prize for Political Fiction​ • A sweeping and beautifully rendered exploration of home and yearning, following the fracturing of a family upon the demise of its patriarch “Each character here is richly and deeply drawn…This is a novel that encourages us to stand in life’s burning doorways, and to think long before we walk away or walk through.” —New York Times In the early hours of June 14, 2017, the world watches as flames leap up the sides of a residential high-rise in West London, consuming Grenfell Tower and many of the lives within it. Across town, an earlier spark has caught fire. A cigarette left burning in an ashtray. A table strewn with post-it reminders and old newspapers. And one Cornelius Winston Pitt—estranged husband, complicated dad, and Pitt family patriarch—takes his final breaths alone. These twin tragedies open Diana Evans’s A House for Alice, an aching portrait of a family of women shaken by loss and searching for closure. At the novel’s center is Alice herself, the Pitt matriarch who, after fifty years in England, now longs to live out her final years in her homeland of Nigeria. Her three daughters are torn on the issue of whether she stays or goes, and while youngest sibling Melissa also grapples with the embers of her own failed relationship, the Pitt family’s foundational pillars—of trust, love, and cultural identity—begin to crack. Intimately drawn and set against a fraught political backdrop, yet equally full of hope, humor, and humanity, A House for Alice traces the scars of grief and betrayal across generations and uncovers the secrets we keep from those closest to us.
BIO
<meta charset="utf-8">Diana Evans is the author of the novels 26a, The Wonder and Ordinary People. She has received nominations for the Whitbread First Novel, the Guardian First Book and the Commonwealth Best First Book awards and was the inaugural winner of the Orange Award for New Writers. Ordinary People won the 2019 South Bank Sky Arts Award for Literature and was shortlisted for the Women’s Prize for Fiction, the Rathbones Folio Prize and the Orwell Prize for Political Fiction, and also received a nomination for the Andrew Carnegie Medals for Excellence in Fiction. Her journalism appears in among others Time magazine, the Guardian, Vogue, and the Financial Times. She lives in London.
REVIEWS
<meta charset="utf-8">A Most Anticipated Book: The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Boston Globe, Good Morning America • “Each character here is richly and deeply drawn, with histories and personalities so fully realized that it’s a pleasure to get to know them…This is a novel that encourages us to stand in life’s burning doorways, and to think long before we walk away or walk through.” -- New York Times “A beautiful, deep exploration of home and fractured families” -- Good Morning America “Twin domestic tragedies entwine in this richly loving and fraught novel. The 2017 Grenfell Towers fire in London looms as Diana Evans juxtaposes this disaster with the death of a patriarch whose loss complicates the actions of his wife, Alice, who longs to return at last to her homeland, Nigeria.” -- Boston Globe “The shifting sands of relationships, time, and place frame a vibrant new novel from an award-winning British writer. Broad in range, vivid in detail, alight often with eloquent language, Evans’ fourth novel, set among a Black community in London, takes time to reveal itself. Sprawling but always engaging, the novel’s cast is filled with rounded individuals, their problems and options as Black, middle-class Londoners showcased at work and play and contemplation, with humor and empathy.” -- Kirkus Review (starred review)   “All is conjured with Evans’s keen eye for human behavior… Her prose is distinguished by its lively, lyrical energy, by its seemingly effortless expansiveness, and by masterful turns of phrase” -- Guardian   “A warm but devastating narrative, dealing with the fallout of the Grenfell tragedy… Like any Evans novel, it is unputdownable” -- Harper’s Bazaar   “Evans…has an exquisite turn of phrase…The people on the page, and the problems they face, are real and raw" -- Times UK
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A House for Alice /// Diana Evans

Our history echoes with events which, over time, have become hidden, yet are important to all of us. Juneteenth is a celebration which recognizes the end of the enslavement of Black people in America. This book opens a door to understanding our history and celebrating our future—together.Meet A Kids Co., a new kind of media company with a collection of beautifully designed books that kickstart challenging, empowering, and important conversations for kids and their grownups. Learn more about us at akidsco.com. BIO Garrison Hayes (he/him) is a filmmaker, creator, and entrepreneur who amplifies stories which change the world. He believes the truth of the past helps us better understand the present and gives us the foundation to build a better tomorrow. [H] DK Publishing / May 21, 2024 0.5" H x 10.5" L x 8.3" W (0.9 lbs) 64 pages For ages 6 to 9

A Kids Book About Juneteenth /// Garrison Hayes

“Steady-handed and gut-punching. I’m in awe.”—NoViolet Bulawayo An Oprah Daily Most Anticipated Book of 2024 In ten vivid, evocative stories set in contemporary Nigeria, Uche Okonkwo’s extraordinary debut asks: why are the people and places we hold closest so often the ones that drive us to madness? A teenage girl from a poor family is dazzled by her rich, vivacious friend, but as the friend’s behavior grows unstable and dangerous, she must decide whether to cover for her or risk telling the truth to get her the help she needs. A young woman and her mother bask in the envy of their neighbors when the woman receives an offer of marriage from the family of a doctor living in Belgium—though when the offer fails to materialize, that envy threatens to turn vicious, pitting them both against their community. And a lonely daughter finds herself wandering a village in eastern Nigeria in an ill-fated quest, struggling to come to terms with her mother’s mental illness. Across ten stories, Uche Okonkwo’s A Kind of Madness unravels the tensions between mothers and daughters, husbands and wives, best friends, siblings, and more, marking the arrival of an extraordinary new talent in fiction. BIO Uche Okonkwo’s stories have been published in A Public Space, One Story, the Kenyon Review, Ploughshares, The Best American Nonrequired Reading 2019, and Lagos Noir, among others. A former Bernard O’Keefe Scholar at Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference and resident at Art Omi, she is a recipient of the George Bennett Fellowship at Phillips Exeter Academy, a Steinbeck Fellowship, and an Elizabeth George Foundation grant. Okonkwo grew up in Lagos, Nigeria, and is currently pursuing a creative writing PhD at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln REVIEWS "This debut short-story collection features 10 stories set in present-day Nigeria, all concerned with madness—both the literal madness of mental illness as well as the unruliness of outsize emotions like envy, shame, and desire." -- Oprah Daily, A Most Anticipated Book of 2024"Okonkwo has a Chekhovian eye for the tangle of internal motivations and assumptions that steer her characters. . . .Readers will be eager for more of Okonkwo’s artful writing." -- Publishers Weekly, starred review"Surprising, illuminating, and deeply human." -- Booklist"Vivid. . . . In addition to striking a perfect balance between humor and heartbreak, A Kind of Madness shows incredible wiseness on the complexity and at times maddening nature of loving our family, our friends, and our home.” -- Chicago Review of Books, A Best Book of April"Amazingly written characters in unforgettable settings. Okonkwo’s writing is transformative". -- Debutiful, A Best Book of April [P] Tin House Books / April 16, 2024 0.64" H x 8.52" L x 5.57" W (0.53 lbs) 224 pages

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“Steady-handed and gut-punching. I’m in awe.”—NoViolet Bulawayo
An Oprah Daily Most Anticipated Book of 2024
In ten vivid, evocative stories set in contemporary Nigeria, Uche Okonkwo’s extraordinary debut asks: why are the people and places we hold closest so often the ones that drive us to madness?
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A teenage girl from a poor family is dazzled by her rich, vivacious friend, but as the friend’s behavior grows unstable and dangerous, she must decide whether to cover for her or risk telling the truth to get her the help she needs. A young woman and her mother bask in the envy of their neighbors when the woman receives an offer of marriage from the family of a doctor living in Belgium—though when the offer fails to materialize, that envy threatens to turn vicious, pitting them both against their community. And a lonely daughter finds herself wandering a village in eastern Nigeria in an ill-fated quest, struggling to come to terms with her mother’s mental illness.
Across ten stories, Uche Okonkwo’s A Kind of Madness unravels the tensions between mothers and daughters, husbands and wives, best friends, siblings, and more, marking the arrival of an extraordinary new talent in fiction.
BIO
Uche Okonkwo’s stories have been published in A Public Space, One Story, the Kenyon Review, Ploughshares, The Best American Nonrequired Reading 2019, and Lagos Noir, among others. A former Bernard O’Keefe Scholar at Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference and resident at Art Omi, she is a recipient of the George Bennett Fellowship at Phillips Exeter Academy, a Steinbeck Fellowship, and an Elizabeth George Foundation grant. Okonkwo grew up in Lagos, Nigeria, and is currently pursuing a creative writing PhD at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln
REVIEWS
"This debut short-story collection features 10 stories set in present-day Nigeria, all concerned with madness—both the literal madness of mental illness as well as the unruliness of outsize emotions like envy, shame, and desire." -- Oprah Daily, A Most Anticipated Book of 2024 "Okonkwo has a Chekhovian eye for the tangle of internal motivations and assumptions that steer her characters. . . .Readers will be eager for more of Okonkwo’s artful writing." -- Publishers Weekly, starred review "Surprising, illuminating, and deeply human." -- Booklist "Vivid. . . . In addition to striking a perfect balance between humor and heartbreak, A Kind of Madness shows incredible wiseness on the complexity and at times maddening nature of loving our family, our friends, and our home.” -- Chicago Review of Books, A Best Book of April "Amazingly written characters in unforgettable settings. Okonkwo’s writing is transformative". -- Debutiful, A Best Book of April
[P]  Tin House Books  /  April 16, 2024
0.64" H x 8.52" L x 5.57" W (0.53 lbs) 224 pages

A Kind of Madness: Stories /// Uche Okonkwo

-- SIGNED COPIES - From the award-winning author of High on the Hog—inspiration for the “energetic, emotional, and deeply nuanced” (The New York Times) Netflix series of the same name—comes a new and updated edition of A Kwanzaa Keepsake, another important exploration of African American culture, food, and family, featuring recipes and stories to help this generation create unique holiday traditions.Now with a new introduction by award-winning writer and iconic culinary historian Jessica B. Harris, a foreword by chef and television personality Carla Hall, revised recipes and stories, and a fresh new package, A Kwanzaa Keepsake offers proverbs, ceremonies, family projects, inspirational biographies, blessings, and of course, wonderful recipes. Structured around the seven days of Kwanzaa and the virtues each day represents, Harris shares a themed feast for each night, designed to reflect the principle of the day. Some of the menus include:- Umoja (Unity), featuring dishes of multinational origin such as Seasoned Olives, Mechoui-Style Leg of Lamb with cumin, mint, and chili, and a classic Caribbean rum punch, and reminds readers of the union of all peoples of African descent. - Kujichagulia (Self-Determination), composed of dishes from the African continent including Sweet Potato Fritters, Grilled Pepper Salad, and Piment Aimee, a hot sauce from one of the author’s friends. - Kuumba (Creativity) is a healing supper and communal meal that opens the gates of remembrance through food. The repast is centered around a heritage recipe and includes others for Pickled Black-Eyed Peas, a fish dish from the the Ivory Coast, Spicy Cranberry Chutney, and a killer pecan pie with molasses whipped cream.Interspersed throughout the book are spaces to record family memories, sayings, and recipes. Rich in culinary history, and a source of inspiration for treasuring and recording family traditions both old and new, A Kwanzaa Keepsake is a book to cherish, and one that families will turn to again and again. BIO Dr. Jessica B. Harris holds a PhD from NYU and taught English at Queens College for more than thirty years. She lectures internationally. She is the author of High on the Hog, which inspired the hit 2021 Netflix show of the same name. She is also the author of a memoir, My Soul Looks Back, as well as twelve cookbooks. Her articles have appeared in Vogue, Food & Wine, Essence, and The New Yorker, among other publications. She has made numerous television and radio appearances and has been profiled in The New York Times. Considered one of the preeminent scholars of the food of the African Diaspora, Harris has been inducted into the James Beard Who’s Who in Food and Beverage in America, she received the James Beard Lifetime Achievement Award in 2020, and an Augie Award from the Culinary Institute of America in 2022. She also received an honorary doctorate from Johnson & Wales University and recently helped the Smithsonian Museum of African American History and Culture to conceptualize its cafeteria. [H] Scribner Book Company / November 05, 2024 0.64" H x 9.13" L x 7.38" W (0.53 lbs) 256 pages

A Kwanzaa Keepsake and Cookbook: Celebrating the Holiday with Family, Community, and Tradition /// Dr. Jessica B. Harris

In this lyrical picture book, world-renowned poet, New York Times bestselling author, and Coretta Scott King Honor winner Nikki Giovanni and fine artist Erin Robinson craft an ode to the magic of a library as a place not only for knowledge but also for imagination, exploration, and escape. In what other place can a child "sail their dreams" and "surf the rainbow" without ever leaving the room? This ode to libraries is a celebration for everyone who loves stories, from seasoned readers to those just learning to love words, and it will have kids and parents alike imagining where their library can take them. This inspiring read-aloud includes stunning illustrations and a note from Nikki Giovanni about the importance of libraries in her own childhood. BIO Nikki Giovanni, poet, activist, mother, and professor, is a seven-time NAACP Image Award winner and the first recipient of the Rosa Parks Woman of Courage Award, and holds the Langston Hughes Medal for Outstanding Poetry, among many other honors. The author of twenty-eight books and a Grammy nominee for The Nikki Giovanni Poetry Collection, she is the University Distinguished Professor of English at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, Virginia. Erin Robinson is a Fashion Designer by trade but also a trained fine artist from Parsons School of Design and the Corcoran School of Art. Her daydreamy, magical imagination is inspired by travel, color, texture, the feminine shape and the many shades and coifs of Brooklyn. She currently splits her time between New York City and Washington, D.C. Find her at brooklyndolly.com and on Instagram @brooklyndolly. REVIEWS “Powerful.... Playful and inspiring. Every lover of books, young or old, will see themselves in this story.” -- Booklist (starred review) “Vibrant, carefully composed digital illustrations, with bright colors that invite readers in.... A lushly illustrated homage to librarians.” -- Kirkus Reviews “In this picture-book celebration of libraries and reading, poet Giovanni writes about the Carnegie Library, which she regularly visited as a child. Robinson’s digital art resembles vibrant collages.” -- Horn Book Magazine “Poetic text and evocative, textured illustrations work in concert to show how books and libraries enable people to imagine other lives—including other versions of their own selves.... A must-have.” -- School Library Journal [H] Versify / September 27, 2022 0.3" H x 11.1" L x 9.0" W (0.95 lbs) 32 pages

A Library /// Nikki Giovanni, illustrations by Erin K. Robinson

Tyree Daye’s a little bump in the earth is an act of invention and remembrance. Through sprawling poems, the town of Youngsville, North Carolina, where Daye’s family has lived for the last 200 years, is reclaimed as the “Ritual House.” Here, “every cousin aunt uncle ghost” is welcome. Daye invokes real and imagined people, the ancestral dead, land, snakes, and chickens, to create a black town on a hill. Including dreams, letters, revised rental agreements, and “a little museum in the herein-&-after,” where collaged images appear beside documents from Daye’s ancestors—census records, marriage licenses, and WWII Draft Registration cards—the collection asks if the past can be a portal to the future, the present a catalyst for the past. a little bump in the earth explores what it means to love someone, someplace, even as it changes, dies right in front of your eyes. Poem by poem, Daye is honoring the people of Youngsville and “bringing back the dead.” BIO Tyree Daye is a poet from Youngsville, North Carolina. He is the author of two poetry collections, including River Hymns, the 2017 APR/Honickman First Book Prize winner. Daye is a 2017 Ruth Lilly Finalist and Cave Canem fellow. Daye’s work has been published in Prairie Schooner, The New York Times, and Nashville Review. Daye won the 2019 Palm Beach Poetry Festival Langston Hughes Fellowship, 2019 Diana and Simon Raab Writer-In-Residence at UC Santa Barbara and is a 2019 Kate Tufts Finalist. Daye most recently was awarded a 2019 Whiting Award and a 2019 Ragin Rubin Award winner. [P] Copper Canyon Press / April 02, 2024 0.5" H x 8.9" L x 6.9" W (0.45 lbs) 104 pages

a little bump in the earth /// Tyree Daye

Impressive small-batch bakes, which are a breeze to make.A Little of What You Fancy showcases creative baking recipes that are tailored for smaller portions. From marbled cookies to swiss roll cake to crème brûlée Basque cheesecake, there are a variety of cakes, bakes and dessert recipes that only require minimal effort. Made using basic equipment and accessible ingredients, Dee Omole’s elegant style combines diverse flavours in intriguing ways. These treats are all easy enough for a mid-week treat for one, but special enough to serve as a dinner party treat. With easy-to-follow instructions, A Little of What You Fancy is full of achievable and indulgent bakes to satisfy your cravings – and with little to no waste (or leftovers!). There are also decorating tips and tricks to help you elevate your baked creations to new heights, making them the perfect handmade edible gift for loved ones. If you’re after homemade bakes without days and days of leftovers, A Little of What You Fancy is the book for you. BIO Dee Omole is a pastry chef and founder of confectionery studio Dee's Basement based in London, known for bringing a modern, creative flair to classic desserts. She's worked with a plethora of brands such as Tastemade and Pinterest showcasing her artistic approach to creating edible art. [H] Quadrille Publishing / August 19, 2025

Impressive small-batch bakes, which are a breeze to make. A Little of What You Fancy showcases creative baking recipes that are tailored for smaller portions. From marbled cookies to swiss roll cake to crème brûlée Basque cheesecake, there are a variety of cakes, bakes and dessert recipes that only require minimal effort.   Made using basic equipment and accessible ingredients, Dee Omole’s elegant style combines diverse flavours in intriguing ways. These treats are all easy enough for a mid-week treat for one, but special enough to serve as a dinner party treat.   With easy-to-follow instructions, A Little of What You Fancy is full of achievable and indulgent bakes to satisfy your cravings – and with little to no waste (or leftovers!). There are also decorating tips and tricks to help you elevate your baked creations to new heights, making them the perfect handmade edible gift for loved ones.   If you’re after homemade bakes without days and days of leftovers, A Little of What You Fancy is the book for you.
BIO
<meta charset="utf-8">Dee Omole is a pastry chef and founder of confectionery studio Dee's Basement based in London, known for bringing a modern, creative flair to classic desserts. She's worked with a plethora of brands such as Tastemade and Pinterest showcasing her artistic approach to creating edible art.
[H]  Quadrille Publishing  /  August 19, 2025

A Little of What You Fancy: Irresistible Small-Batch Bakes /// Dee Omole /// new

-- This title will ship on or after its release date: March 17, 2026 -- Ekaro! Let's spend a day in Nigeria! Visit the market, greet the teacher in three languages, and taste sweet fried plantains.“This series offers solid glimpses of faraway places, more poetry than a tour guide . . . evocative and inviting” – School Library JournalEkaro! Let's spend a day in Nigeria! Visit the market, greet the teacher in three languages, and taste sweet fried plantains. Even learn words in Yoruba, Igbo, and Hausa with pronunciation guides throughout the story BIO Bunmi Emenanjo is an attorney, speaker, and entrepreneur. Born in the United States and raised in Nigeria, her childhood and culture inspire her writing. While Bunmi has had a vast legal career that includes public service from the FDA to the White House under the Biden administration, and now the private sector, writing is her passion. When she is not practicing law, Bunmi is reading, traveling, and writing stories that fill the heart and move the spirit. Her debut picture book, I’ll See You in Ijebu, published by Barefoot Books in March 2024, has earned a starred review from Kirkus Reviews, and was selected for the Read With Jenna Jr. Summer booklist and as one of the 100 Outstanding Picture books in the world by dPictus. Bunmi lives in Maryland with her husband, her three children, and a devoted Black Russian terrier named Shadow. [B] Barefoot Books / March 17, 2026 0.67" H x 6.5" L x 6.7" W (0.98 lbs) 20 pages For ages 2 to 5

-- This title will ship on or after its release date: March 17, 2026 --
<meta charset="utf-8">Ekaro! Let's spend a day in Nigeria! Visit the market, greet the teacher in three languages, and taste sweet fried plantains. “This series offers solid glimpses of faraway places, more poetry than a tour guide . . . evocative and inviting” – School Library Journal Ekaro! Let's spend a day in Nigeria! Visit the market, greet the teacher in three languages, and taste sweet fried plantains. Even learn words in Yoruba, Igbo, and Hausa with pronunciation guides throughout the story 
BIO
Bunmi Emenanjo is an attorney, speaker, and entrepreneur. Born in the United States and raised in Nigeria, her childhood and culture inspire her writing. While Bunmi has had a vast legal career that includes public service from the FDA to the White House under the Biden administration, and now the private sector, writing is her passion. When she is not practicing law, Bunmi is reading, traveling, and writing stories that fill the heart and move the spirit. Her debut picture book, I’ll See You in Ijebu, published by Barefoot Books in March 2024, has earned a starred review from Kirkus Reviews, and was selected for the Read With Jenna Jr. Summer booklist and as one of the 100 Outstanding Picture books in the world by dPictus.
<meta charset="utf-8">Bunmi lives in Maryland with her husband, her three children, and a devoted Black Russian terrier named Shadow.
[B]  Barefoot Books  /  March 17, 2026<meta charset="utf-8">
<meta charset="utf-8">0.67" H x 6.5" L x 6.7" W (0.98 lbs) 20 pages
For ages 2 to 5

Our World: Nigeria /// Bunmi Emenanjo, illustrations by Diana Ejaita /// pre

An Audacious Book Club PickThe author of the award-winning national bestseller I Done Clicked My Heels Three Times returns with a poetry collection that transforms the Black female speaker from object, artistic muse, and victim to subject, critic, and master of her storyResting Bitch Face is a book for women, for Black women, for lovers of art and film criticism, and for writers interested in work that finds a middle ground between poetry and prose. Taylor Byas uses some of our most common ways of “watching” throughout history (painting, films, sculpture, and photographs) to explore how these mediums shape Black female subjectivity.From the examination of artwork by Picasso, Gauguin, Sally Mann, and Nan Goldin, Byas displays her mastery of the poetic form by engaging in intimate and inventive writing. Fluctuating between watcher and watched, the speaker of these poems uses mirrors and reflections to flip the script and talk back to histories of art, text, photography, relationships, and men. From Polaroids to gesso primer to sculpture, Byas creates a world in which the artist calls out and the muse responds. For not only does she enter the world of the long-revered classic artist, but she also infuses her poems with such iconic pop culture works as The Joker, WandaVision, and Last Tango in Paris. BIO Dr. Taylor Byas, Ph.D. is a Black Chicago native currently living in Cincinnati, Ohio, where she is a Features Editor for The Rumpus, an Editorial Advisor for Jackleg Press, a member of the Beloit Poetry Journal Editorial Board, and a Poetry Editor-at-Large for Texas Review Press. Her debut full-length, I Done Clicked My Heels Three Times from Soft Skull Press, won the 2023 Maya Angelou Book Award, the 2023 Chicago Review of Books Award in Poetry, and the 2024 Ohioana Book Award in Poetry. Her second full-length, Resting Bitch Face, is forthcoming in August 2025 and is a September pick for Roxane Gay’s Audacious Book Club. She is also a coeditor of The Southern Poetry Anthology, Vol X: Alabama, from Texas Review Press, and Poemhood: Our Black Revival, a YA anthology from HarperCollins. [P] Soft Skull Press / August 26, 2025 0.4" H x 8.2" L x 5.5" W (0.25 lbs) 256 pages

Resting Bitch Face: Poems /// Taylor Byas /// new

The Second Emancipation, the second work in a trilogy from best-selling author Howard W. French about Africa’s pivotal role in shaping world history, underscores Adam Hochschild’s contention that French is a “modern-day Copernicus.” The title—referring to a brief period beginning in 1957 when dozens of African colonies gained their freedom—positions this liberation at the center of a “movement of global Blackness,” with one charismatic leader, Kwame Nkrumah (1909–1972), at its head.That so few people today know about Nkrumah is an omission that French demonstrates is “typical of our deliberate neglect of Africa’s enormous role in the birth of the modern world.” Determined to re-create Nkrumah’s life as “an epic twentieth-century story,” The Second Emancipation begins with his impoverished, unheralded birth in the far-western region of Ghana’s Gold Coast. But blessed with a deep curiosity, a young Nkrumah pursued an overseas education in the United States. Nowhere is French’s consummate style more vivid than in Nkrumah’s early years in Depression-era America, especially in his mesmerizing portrait of a culturally effervescent Harlem that Nkrumah encountered in 1935 before heading to college. During his student years in Pennsylvania and later as an activist in London, Nkrumah became steeped in a renowned international Black intellectual milieu—including Du Bois, Garvey, Fanon, Padmore, and C.L.R. James, who called him “one of the greatest political leaders of our century”—and formed an ideology that readied him for an extraordinarily swift and peaceful rise to power upon his return to Ghana in 1947.Four years later, in a political landslide he engineered while imprisoned, Nkrumah stunned Britain by winning the first general election under universal franchise in Africa, becoming Ghana’s first independent prime minister in 1957. As leader of a sovereign nation, Nkrumah wielded his influence to promote the liberation of the entire continent, pushing unity as the only pathway to recover from the damages of enslavement and subjugation. By the time national military and police forces, aided by the CIA, overthrew him in 1966, Nkrumah’s radical belief in pan-African liberation had both galvanized dozens of nascent African states and fired a global agenda of Black power.In its dramatic recasting of the American civil rights story and in its tragic depiction of a continent that once exuded all the promise of a newly won freedom, The Second Emancipation becomes a generational work that positions Africa at the forefront of modern-day history. BIO Howard W. French wrote from Africa for The Washington Post and at The New York Times was bureau chief in Central America and the Caribbean, West and Central Africa, Japan, and China. He is the recipient of two Overseas Press Club awards and a two-time Pulitzer Prize nominee. He is the author of A Continent for the Taking: The Tragedy and Hope of Africa and China's Second Continent: How a Million Migrants Are Building a New Empire in Africa; he has written for The Atlantic, The New York Review of Books, The New York Times Magazine, and Rolling Stone, among other national publications. He is on the faculty of the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. REVIEWS In this magisterial account, journalist French (Born in Blackness) revisits the history of the Pan-Africanist movement through the life of Ghanaian prime minister Kwame Nkrumah, who in 1957 became the first head of state of the first colonized African nation to gain independence . . . Weaving a staggering amount of history into a propulsive narrative that recasts the 20th century as a long struggle for liberation, this is a towering achievement. —Publishers Weekly, starred reviewA fluent exploration of an important if often overlooked political leader whose ideas still bear consideration.—Kirkus ReviewsFrench adeptly places the rise and fall of Kwame Nkrumah, first president of Ghana, the first liberated African colony, in the context of wider anti-colonial movements in Asia and the Middle East, as well as Nkrumah's influence on racial justice in the U.S…Despite assassination threats, ethnic rivalries, and failure to achieve his greatest goal of a pan African Federation, Nkrumah’s influence on African and African American liberation remains unparalleled. -- Lesley Williams, Booklist"It would be as impossible to overstate the importance of Nkrumah as it would be to overstate the brilliance of this study. For too many, Africa as a whole remains an enigma. Howard W. French’s masterwork clarifies the continent, both its history and the backstory to its current conflicts, with remarkable precision." -- Greg Grandin, winner of the Pulitzer Prize for The End of the Myth"A brilliant examination. . . . Howard W. French illuminates a period of time when people believed that standards of justice and equality could prevail for African people on the continent and in the diaspora, especially in the United States during the civil rights movement." -- Annette Gordon-Reed, winner of the Pulitzer Prize for The Hemingses of Monticello [H] Liveright Publishing Corporation / August 26, 2025 1.18" H x 9.53" L x 6.22" W (1.89 lbs) 512 pages

The Second Emancipation: Nkrumah, Pan-Africanism, and Global Blackness at High Tide /// Howard W. French /// new

“Equal parts mischievous, moony, and tart.” — The New Yorker“Audacious, incisive and very funny.” ― Daily MailA masterful story that asks: What if the different sides of your personality had trust issues with each other?New Day, New You!Kinga is a woman who is just trying to make it through the week. There’s a Kinga for every day: On Mondays, you can catch Kinga-A deleting food delivery apps. By Friday, Kinga-E is happy to spend the days soaking, wine-drunk, in the bath.Kingas A–G, perhaps unsurprisingly, live a varied life—between them is a professional matchmaker, a scent-crazed perfumer, and a window cleaner, all with varying degrees of apathy, anger, introversion, and bossiness. At least three of them are Team Toxic.It’s an arrangement that’s not without its fair share of admin, grudges, and half-truths. But when Kinga-A discovers a man tied up in their apartment, the Kingas have to reckon with the possibility that one of them might be planning to destroy them all.How many versions of oneself can one self safely contain? BIO Helen Oyeyemi is the author of seven novels, including Peaces, Gingerbread, and Boy, Snow, Bird, and of the story collection What Is Not Yours Is Not Yours. Winner of the PEN Open Book and the Hurston/Wright Legacy Award, and a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize, Oyeyemi was named one of Granta’s Best Young British Novelists. REVIEWS “A writer whose style is equal parts mischievous, moony, and tart. Her books occupy the borderlands of realism and fable, where the plausible brushes up against the impossible, and the laws of narrative logic are bent just enough to let in the surreal…Some novels insist on being read as prescriptions for living; Oyeyemi’s simply depicts a process: one splinter of a soul briefly gains control of a body, and goes out to be engulfed by the world.” -- The New Yorker“Screams ‘commercial break out’ . . . An audacious, incisive and very funny novel about self knowledge in today’s tech mediated age.” -- Daily Mail“A comedy about the masks we wear, if you will, as well as an existential mystery […] The denouement, when it finally comes, is so gloriously absurd, you can’t help but salute.” -- Guardian“Any ideas of where the plot might be going will most definitely be derailed by Oyeyemi’s dizzyingly funny narrative. But the story’s crowning jewel is the author’s ability to create seven unique voices belonging to one individual.” -- New Statesman [H] Riverhead Books / August 26, 2025 0.86" H x 9.31" L x 6.28" W (0.8 lbs) 224 pages

A New New Me: A Novel /// Helen Oyeyemi /// new

Kwesi doesn't know how to swim... and discovers his grandmother doesn't either! Can they conquer their fear of water together with the help of the West African legend Mami Wata?"How about we make a deal?" Nana rubbed Kwesi's head. "I will learn to swim, if you do.""Deal!"Kwesi likes spending time at the lake with his friends, except there's one tiny problem... he can't swim. But guess what? Neither can Nana Ruby! When she comes over for dinner one night, she tells Kwesi about when she moved from Ghana to the US and the history of segregation that kept her out of pools and caused a fear of water among many Black people."So I will never learn how to swim?" Kwesi asks. But Nana Ruby tells him they will call on the strength of Mami Wata, the sea creature of West African legend, to conquer their fears together. This touching intergenerational story teaches the importance of naming, acknowledging and facing fears. End notes include more information on West African cultures, including the Akan people, day names, and adinkra symbols. Teaches kids about the history of segregation of public pools and beaches in an accessible way BIO Kobina Commeh moved from Ghana to the United States as a teenager. He is an avid reader who loved to scribble sequels to books he enjoyed when he was six years old. He was inspired to write stories for children while raising his two daughters. He still scribbles in his spare time. He works as a foot doctor and lives with his family in California, USA. REVIEWS “A wonderful story to show how it is possible to overcome our fears of doing something new by accepting help from others.” -- School Library Journal, starred review "The love between Kwesi and his grandmother is both powerful and empowering, and readers will be inspired to see not only a child but also an adult naming their fears and drawing on deep roots to help the family overcome historical obstacles and personal anxiety." -- Booklist, starred review "Writer Kobina Commeh shares a poignant story of resilience and courage across generations" -- Chicago Book Review “When Kwesi confides to his Nana Ruby that he is embarrassed by his inability to swim, she makes him a deal: if he learns to swim, she will, too” -- Foreword Reviews “An informative and celebratory, multigenerational story of swimming.” -- Kirkus Reviews "A bright, engaging, 5+ picture book about overcoming intergenerational fears." -- The Guardian [H] Barefoot Books / February 04, 2025 0.38" H x 10.83" L x 8.77" W (0.89 lbs) 32 pages For ages 6 to 8

Kwesi doesn't know how to swim... and discovers his grandmother doesn't either! Can they conquer their fear of water together with the help of the West African legend Mami Wata? "How about we make a deal?" Nana rubbed Kwesi's head. "I will learn to swim, if you do." "Deal!" Kwesi likes spending time at the lake with his friends, except there's one tiny problem... he can't swim. But guess what? Neither can Nana Ruby! When she comes over for dinner one night, she tells Kwesi about when she moved from Ghana to the US and the history of segregation that kept her out of pools and caused a fear of water among many Black people. "So I will never learn how to swim?" Kwesi asks. But Nana Ruby tells him they will call on the strength of Mami Wata, the sea creature of West African legend, to conquer their fears together. This touching intergenerational story teaches the importance of naming, acknowledging and facing fears.
<ul>
<li>End notes include more information on West African cultures, including the Akan people, day names, and adinkra symbols.</li>
<li>Teaches kids about the history of segregation of public pools and beaches in an accessible way</li>
</ul>
BIO
<meta charset="utf-8">Kobina Commeh moved from Ghana to the United States as a teenager. He is an avid reader who loved to scribble sequels to books he enjoyed when he was six years old. He was inspired to write stories for children while raising his two daughters. He still scribbles in his spare time. He works as a foot doctor and lives with his family in California, USA.
REVIEWS
 
“A wonderful story to show how it is possible to overcome our fears of doing something new by accepting help from others.” --  School Library Journal, starred review
"The love between Kwesi and his grandmother is both powerful and empowering, and readers will be inspired to see not only a child but also an adult naming their fears and drawing on deep roots to help the family overcome historical obstacles and personal anxiety." -- Booklist, starred review
"Writer Kobina Commeh shares a poignant story of resilience and courage across generations" -- Chicago Book Review
“When Kwesi confides to his Nana Ruby that he is embarrassed by his inability to swim, she makes him a deal: if he learns to swim, she will, too” -- Foreword Reviews
“An informative and celebratory, multigenerational story of swimming.” -- Kirkus Reviews
"A bright, engaging, 5+ picture book about overcoming intergenerational fears." -- The Guardian
[H]  Barefoot Books  /  February 04, 2025
 0.38" H x 10.83" L x 8.77" W (0.89 lbs) 32 pages
For ages 6 to 8

Kwesi and Nana Ruby Learn to Swim /// Kobina Commeh, illustrations by Bárbara Quintino

Hello! Come along for a day in the United States. Enjoy a hearty Southern breakfast, play a pickup game of hoops in Chicago, and fall asleep under the estrellas in New Mexico with eight different characters from a wide variety of backgrounds across the country. Even learn words in from several of the most spoken spoken languages in the USA with pronunciation guides throughout the story. BIO Joëlle Retener (they/them) is a Kreyol American children’s author from the Washington, DC, metro area. A proud Spelman College graduate, Joëlle is passionate about sharing stories that celebrate Black pride and Queer joy. When they are not writing, you can find them gardening or tending to their small homestead. Joëlle lives in a cabin in the woods with their partner and three tiny humans. REVIEWS “This series offers solid glimpses of faraway places, more poetry than a tour guide . . . evocative and inviting” -- School Library Journal [B] Barefoot Books / March 25, 2025 0.67" H x 6.34" L x 6.75" W (0.7 lbs) 20 pages For ages 0 to 4

Hello! Come along for a day in the United States. Enjoy a hearty Southern breakfast, play a pickup game of hoops in Chicago, and fall asleep under the estrellas in New Mexico with eight different characters from a wide variety of backgrounds across the country. Even learn words in from several of the most spoken spoken languages in the USA with pronunciation guides throughout the story.
BIO
Joëlle Retener (they/them) is a Kreyol American children’s author from the Washington, DC, metro area. A proud Spelman College graduate, Joëlle is passionate about sharing stories that celebrate Black pride and Queer joy. When they are not writing, you can find them gardening or tending to their small homestead. Joëlle lives in a cabin in the woods with their partner and three tiny humans.
REVIEWS
“This series offers solid glimpses of faraway places, more poetry than a tour guide . . . evocative and inviting” -- School Library Journal
[B]  Barefoot Books  /  March 25, 2025
<meta charset="utf-8">0.67" H x 6.34" L x 6.75" W (0.7 lbs) 20 pages
For ages 0 to 4

Our World: USA /// Joëlle Retener, illustrations by Sarah Walsh

Board Book

Joining the growing Black creative movement currently refashioning horses and cowboy imagery, a thoughtful, probing exploration of the shared history of Blackness and horses which reveals what its image can teach us about nationhood, race, and culture. Drawing on their personal history as a former urban equestrian, Black queer person, and child of Jamaican and Filipino immigrants, essayist and art critic Bitter Kalli contends the horse should be regarded as a critical source of power and identity in Black life. In a series of astute essays, Kalli explores the work of Black artists and influencers from Beyoncé to filmmakers Tiona Nekkia-McClodden and Jeymes Samuel and explores their own life-long relationship to equines. Alternatively playful and critical, meditative and biting, these essays navigate time and place—from the shadows of racetracks where jockey culture and the ubiquity of “equestrian chic” was born, to the reclamation—or, in Lil Nas X’s word, yeehawification—of the image of the cowboy, to the fraught connections of equestrian sport to slavery, US militarization, and European colonial domination. At heart, Kalli probes a central question: What does it mean for Black people to ride and tend horses in the context of a culture that has also used horses against them? Throughout these essays, Kalli reflects on the experience of being the only Black member of the equestrian team at Columbia University, and how the aesthetics, ethos, and practice of horse stewardship contributed to their understanding of gender, sexuality, and radical community building. Mounted moves beyond the reductive stereotypes that dominate our perceptions of “horse people”—the swaggering masculinity, snooty elitism, and assumed whiteness—to reveal how Black people relate to the image and physical presence of the horse in nature and culture, considering violence, sexualization, power, migration, and more through its image. BIO Bitter Kalli was born and raised in Brooklyn, New York. Their essays and criticism have been published in Harper’s Bazaar, Architectural Digest, and BOMB Magazine, among others. They are a landworker and founder of Star Apple Nursery, a project focused on the stewardship of Caribbean and Southeast Asian heritage crops. Bitter is a child of the Atlantic Ocean. They are based in Philadelphia. REVIEWS “Bitter Kalli’s Mounted is a tour de force: an epic journey into the ancient heart of the human-equine relationship, these essays offer readers an exhilaratingly panoramic and achingly intimate exploration of our shared animal life—the long history of horse and human entanglement, a history both mundane and mythic, as much about exploitation as emancipation. The thrilling pleasure of this collection feels like riding wild and free in the company of a nimble friend: it gives the vivifying joy of being the rider and the horse, all at once.” -- Elaine Castillo, author of Moderation and How to Read Now “Reading Mounted moved me deeply. Bitter Kalli weaves history, memory, and identity into a stunning reflection on Blackness, queerness, and liberation. This book made me see horses—and freedom—in a whole new light.” -- Kareem Rosser, author of When You're Ready and Crossing the Line "In Mounted, Bitter Kalli tends and tills at the fence between liberation and harness. These essays gallop. They both dig deep into the ground we stand on while breaking open the space into which we might reach, and it is thrilling to follow this work. While reading I felt the horizon of possibilities for freedom—of thought, movement, and future—get further and further away, with Bitter at the helm, leading us on. All I wanted to do was go with them." — Johanna Hedva, author of How to Tell When We Die: On Pain, Disability, and Doom [H] Amistad Press / August 19, 2025 0.9" H x 8.4" L x 5.5" W (0.6 lbs) 192 pages

Joining the growing Black creative movement currently refashioning horses and cowboy imagery, a thoughtful, probing exploration of the shared history of Blackness and horses which reveals what its image can teach us about nationhood, race, and culture.
Drawing on their personal history as a former urban equestrian, Black queer person, and child of Jamaican and Filipino immigrants, essayist and art critic Bitter Kalli contends the horse should be regarded as a critical source of power and identity in Black life.
In a series of astute essays, Kalli explores the work of Black artists and influencers from Beyoncé to filmmakers Tiona Nekkia-McClodden and Jeymes Samuel and explores their own life-long relationship to equines. Alternatively playful and critical, meditative and biting, these essays navigate time and place—from the shadows of racetracks where jockey culture and the ubiquity of “equestrian chic” was born, to the reclamation—or, in Lil Nas X’s word, yeehawification—of the image of the cowboy, to the fraught connections of equestrian sport to slavery, US militarization, and European colonial domination. At heart, Kalli probes a central question: What does it mean for Black people to ride and tend horses in the context of a culture that has also used horses against them?
Throughout these essays, Kalli reflects on the experience of being the only Black member of the equestrian team at Columbia University, and how the aesthetics, ethos, and practice of horse stewardship contributed to their understanding of gender, sexuality, and radical community building. Mounted moves beyond the reductive stereotypes that dominate our perceptions of “horse people”—the swaggering masculinity, snooty elitism, and assumed whiteness—to reveal how Black people relate to the image and physical presence of the horse in nature and culture, considering violence, sexualization, power, migration, and more through its image.
BIO
<meta charset="utf-8">Bitter Kalli was born and raised in Brooklyn, New York. Their essays and criticism have been published in Harper’s Bazaar, Architectural Digest, and BOMB Magazine, among others. They are a landworker and founder of Star Apple Nursery, a project focused on the stewardship of Caribbean and Southeast Asian heritage crops. Bitter is a child of the Atlantic Ocean. They are based in Philadelphia. 
REVIEWS
“Bitter Kalli’s Mounted is a tour de force: an epic journey into the ancient heart of the human-equine relationship, these essays offer readers an exhilaratingly panoramic and achingly intimate exploration of our shared animal life—the long history of horse and human entanglement, a history both mundane and mythic, as much about exploitation as emancipation. The thrilling pleasure of this collection feels like riding wild and free in the company of a nimble friend: it gives the vivifying joy of being the rider and the horse, all at once.” -- Elaine Castillo, author of Moderation and How to Read Now
“Reading Mounted moved me deeply. Bitter Kalli weaves history, memory, and identity into a stunning reflection on Blackness, queerness, and liberation. This book made me see horses—and freedom—in a whole new light.” -- Kareem Rosser, author of When You're Ready and Crossing the Line
"In Mounted, Bitter Kalli tends and tills at the fence between liberation and harness. These essays gallop. They both dig deep into the ground we stand on while breaking open the space into which we might reach, and it is thrilling to follow this work. While reading I felt the horizon of possibilities for freedom—of thought, movement, and future—get further and further away, with Bitter at the helm, leading us on. All I wanted to do was go with them." — Johanna Hedva, author of How to Tell When We Die: On Pain, Disability, and Doom
[H]  Amistad Press  /  August 19, 2025<meta charset="utf-8">
<meta charset="utf-8">0.9" H x 8.4" L x 5.5" W (0.6 lbs) 192 pages

Mounted: On Horses, Blackness and Liberation /// Bitter Kalli /// new

Betty meets Queenie in this courageous coming-of-age story about a Black girl fighting for recognition in a South Carolina Cherokee community that refuses to accept her ancestry as legitimate.Ophelia Blue Rivers is a descendent of Cherokee Freedmen: Blacks formerly enslaved by rich southern Cherokee. She is “Black” but doesn’t understand why that makes her different. She is “Cherokee” but struggles to know what that means.Their town of Etsi—once a reservation—still lives with the wounds of its disbanding. When the town, and the river that sustains it, are put in mortal danger personal rivalries threaten their very survival. Against this backdrop Ophelia begins her spirited, at times harrowing, search for place and family. She must discover: what does it mean to belong when belonging comes at such a high price?With dazzling language, keen insight, and an unforgettable voice, Black Cherokee is an astonishing novel from an emerging literary talent. BIO Antonio Michael Downing is the author of the acclaimed memoir Saga Boy and children’s book, Stars in My Crown. Antonio Michael is the current host of the CBC Radio program The Next Chapter where he discusses books with authors and columnists. He spends his time writing books, singing songs, and trying to make his grandma proud. Black Cherokee is his debut novel. [H] Simon & Schuster / August 19, 2025 0.98" H x 9.25" L x 6.31" W (0.93 lbs) 272 pages

Black Cherokee: A Novel /// Antonio Michael Downing /// new

Chicago Public Library’s 2017 Best of the Best Books selection“A fine addition to book collections about families, food, counting, and joyous gatherings” — The Horn BookThis sweet, rhyming counting book introduces young readers to numbers one through ﬁfteen as Grandma’s family and friends ﬁll her tiny house on Brown Street. Neighbors, aunts, uncles, nieces, nephews, and grandkids crowd into the house and pile it high with treats for a family feast.But when the walls begin to bulge and nobody has space enough to eat, one clever grandchild knows exactly what to do. BIO JaNay Brown-Wood, PhD, is an award-winning children’s author, poet, educator, scholar, and a former professor of Early Childhood Education and Child Development. Her first children’s book Imani’s Moon won the NAESP Children’s Book of the Year Award and was featured on Stephen Colbert’s The Late Show and Storytime with the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and her second book Grandma’s Tiny House: A Counting Story! received a starred review from Publisher’s Weekly and won the CELI Read Aloud Book Award. JaNay is also the author of the popular picture book series Where in the Garden (Peachtree Publishing), four Chicken Soup for the Soul Babies/Kids books, Crayola’s Follow That Line! Magic at Your Fingertips (Running Press Kids, 2022), the Harriet Tubman Little Golden Book Biography, the Simone Biles Little Golden Book Biography and the New York Times Bestselling book Why Not You? (Penguin/Random House) which she collaborated with Ciara and Russell Wilson. She has many more books both published and forthcoming including titles in her chapter book series Love Puppies (Scholastic, 2023-2024), Jam, Too (Nancy Paulsen Books/Penguin Random House, 2024), and Mahogany (Charlesbridge, 2024) REVIEWS "A grandmother welcomes her family, friends, and neighbors into her small home, and everyone arrives with lots of food and energy. As the guests show up, Brown-Wood counts up to “15 hungry grandkids,” writing in breezy, confident rhymes: “Nine chatting aunties all head for the den,/ and set down the cheesecakes that add up to ten.” Burris introduces the mostly African-American cast in smudgy digital illustrations with crayonlike outlines, creating a vibe of good-natured chaos. With no room indoors, the party moves into the backyard: “Perfect in size, at the edge of Brown Street,/ sits Grandma’s backyard, where we all go to eat.” A warmhearted tribute to the messy joys of a big, impromptu gathering." -- Publishers Weekly, starred review "A fantastic feast unfolds as Grandma’s family gathers at her very small home.There are “TWO turkeys send[ing] scrumptious smells through the air,” “FOUR pots of hot greens and ham hocks galore.” And that’s just to start. Beyond the food, there are the bearers of all these treats. “SEVEN cool uncles stroll up in a line, / with EIGHT jugs of lemonade, ice-cold and fine.” This rhyming counting book features a large family with brown skin, mostly of the same shade with some slight variations in skin tone but lots of different hairstyles, body types, and looks. The party doesn’t seem to be celebrating any particular holiday, just an excuse for family, neighbors, and friends (there are a few white faces among the friends) to come together and enjoy a multigenerational summer day. But there is a problem accommodating everyone, and one of the “FIFTEEN hungry grandchildren,” a logical little girl with a yellow headband holding back her Afro, has the solution. She suggests using the backyard, and the party moves outside without skipping a beat. There is a great sense of movement and bustle, and Grandma’s cat and dog can be spotted in each double-page spread. Grandma’s lucky to have all these family members, and young readers are even luckier to be invited to this wonderful family gathering." -- Kirkus Reviews [H] Charlesbridge Publishing / August 08, 2017 0.5" H x 9.6" L x 8.7" W (0.85 lbs) 32 pages For ages 2 - 5

Grandma's Tiny House /// JaNay Brown-Wood, illustrations by Priscilla Burris

A celebration of cultural icon Shaquille O’Neal’s love of food, family, and fun, with 80 low-stress comfort food recipes for busy families.“The flavors and recipes in this book are big, bold, and fun just like Shaq Daddy himself! If you love the man, you’ll love this book!”—Michael Symon, author of Fix It with FoodBasketball Hall of Famer Shaquille O’Neal loves food. A lot. In fact, fans of Inside the NBA know they’ll most likely hear Shaq tell his co-hosts all about what he ate for dinner while they analyze the action in the paint.Shaq’s love of food, eating, and family cooking began in his childhood home, where his mom cooked for him and his three siblings. With his own family, he carries on the commitment to creating family connection and fun through food. In Shaq’s Family Style, featuring his inimitable sense of humor, he shares eighty recipes for bringing family together around the table, plus 100 photographs to whet the appetite. From Loaded Potato Waffles to One Pan Baked Southern Mac & Cheese, Sheet Pan BBQ Chicken Thighs with Sweet Potato Bake, and Spicy Jambalaya with Andouille Meatballs, these are meals that busy home cooks can get on the table after the kids’ practice or when there’s a houseful over to watch a game.Even novices will be able to cook these recipes with confidence the first time—and on replay. When the plates are cleared, it’s time for banana pudding (there’s always banana pudding!) or one of Shaq’s other family-favorite desserts. It’s the Shaq Attaq! . . . in the kitchen. BIO Shaquille O’Neal is one of the world’s most successful athletes-turned-businesspeople, whose accomplishments on and off the court have translated into his highly sought-after consumer brand. As an entrepreneur, sports analyst, DJ, restaurateur, and brand ambassador, O’Neal brings his signature “Business of Fun” mantra to each of his endeavors.The fifteen-time NBA All-Star’s unprecedented athletic career spanned nearly two decades and earned him countless awards and honors, including NBA Most Valuable Player, NBA Rookie of the Year, four NBA championships, and a first ballot NBA Hall of Famer. Currently, O’Neal is an analyst on TNT’s Emmy Award–winning Inside the NBA. O’Neal, who has a PhD in leadership and education, established The Shaquille O’Neal Foundation, which provides resources for underserved youth. He also gives back through a number of annual philanthropic programs, including Shaq-to-School, Shaqsgiving, and Shaq-a-Claus.The launch of his Las Vegas eatery Big Chicken further elevated O’Neal’s visibility as a successful restaurateur. In 2015, O’Neal partnered with Authentic Brands Group (ABG), a brand development, marketing, and entertainment company. The transformative alliance focuses on managing and growing O’Neal’s brand around the world and building on his legacy through strategic partnerships that tap into his tremendous personality and broad appeal. REVIEWS “If there’s any teammate I trust in the kitchen, it’s my man Shaq! All I can say is . . . pass me a plate!” -- Dwyane Wade, three-time NBA champion“Shaq had me at “Breakfast for Dinner.” Get ready to create new family favorites. These easy-to-follow recipes are a slam dunk.” -- Carla Hall, author of Carla Hall’s Soul Food [H] Ten Speed Press / April 05, 2022 0.9" H x 10.1" L x 8.1" W (2.3 lbs) 240 pages

Shaq's Family Style: Championship Recipes for Feeding Family and Friends /// Shaquille O’Neal with Rachel Holtzman, Matthew Silverman and Matthew Piekarski

“Rosie is my go-to when it comes to recipes.” -- Angie Thomas, #1 New York Times-bestselling author of The Hate U Give and On the Come UpRosie Mayes, author of I Heart Soul Food, and creator of I Heart Recipes, serves up 100+ amped-up, super soul food recipes—including fan favorites—guaranteed to bring her cousins joy!If I Heart Soul Food left you satisfied yet also hungry for more, you’re going to love Super Soul Food with Cousin Rosie! Here, Rosie shares more of her comfort soul food dishes, starting with traditional southern and creole favorites and jazzing them up with her own “special sauce.” Rosie organizes these recipes by type of meal and adds in side dishes, breads, drinks to sip on, as well as a chapter of over-the-top desserts that make her fans swoon! Included are some of her most sought-after fan favorites (only available online until now), including: Southern Baked Macaroni and Cheese Casserole Seafood Boil with Creole Garlic Sauce Red Velvet Biscuits This is Rosie at her best, putting satisfying, soulful spins on classic, comfort southern and creole dishes, and also including her best loved fan favorites guaranteed to please old and new fans alike. BIO Rosie Mayes is the creator of the blog and social media channels I Heart Recipes (IHeartRecipes.com). She learned to cook from her Louisiana-born family. Ten years ago, she started her YouTube channel when she was working 12-hour days as a certified nursing assistant, but her platform grew quickly, and five years ago she quit her day job to devote herself to I Heart Recipes. REVIEWS “Rosie is my go-to when it comes to recipes.” -- Angie Thomas, #1 New York Times-bestselling author of The Hate U Give and On the Come Up“Rosie has hit it out of the ballpark yet again with Super Soul Food with Cousin Rosie. She’s really brilliant when it comes to creating seasoning blends and recipes that are easy to follow.” -- Shayla Cowan, film and television producer “I fell in love with Rosie’s recipes from YouTube. I tried to pass them off as my own, but all of my friends and family know I can’t cook like that. I am so amazed by her gift for making simple ingredients into complex, delicious meals. And what makes Rosie even more incredible is that she spells out every step so you cannot go wrong. People will believe that you are a master chef. I love Rosie and I’ll tell the world about it!” -- Lexi Allen, gospel singer, producer, actress, comedian, and television personality“Mayes (I Heart Soul Food) is back with a new collection of recipes straight from her weeknight kitchen. These everyday originals are fused with classic soul food roots but are designed for the modern practical kitchen…Fans of Mayes’s will love the wide variety of recipes that span feeding a crowd for the big game to simple weekday fare. This collection of fun and flavorful recipes will be a hit with patrons. Established fans of Mayes will clamor for the new recipes, while those just discovering her cooking will appreciate her modern yet practical twists on classics.” -- Library Journal [P] Sasquatch Books / October 04, 2022 0.8" H x 9.0" L x 8.0" W (1.8 lbs) 256 pages

Super Soul Food with Cousin Rosie: 100+ Modern Twists on Comfort Food Classics /// Rosie Mayes

-- This title will ship on or after its release date: November 04, 2025 -- Spanning four decades and three continents, Bitter Honey is a story about a mother and daughter divided by long buried secrets, struggling to understand each other as they forge their own paths, from the internationally bestselling author of In Every Mirror She’s Black. 1978: A scholarship draws Nancy from Gambia’s warmth into Stockholm’s frigid winter. When her friendship with charismatic scholar Lars blossoms into something more, she thinks she may have finally found her place. But there’s more to Lars than his charming persona, and Nancy is about to discover the danger of being drawn into his world… 2006: Tina has had her taste of fame as Sweden’s sweetheart pop princess, representing her country at Eurovision. But beneath her glittery façade, she’s uncertain who she really is. Her mother, Nancy, seems desperate to keep the past under wraps, but will the unexpected appearance of Tina’s father—a man she has long thought dead—help open the door to self-discovery? Nancy just wants to protect her daughter from making the same mistakes she did, but Tina longs for the freedom to mess up, knowing her mother will always be there to support her. The two women love each other unconditionally, but can they learn to trust each other as well? This poignant novel delves deep into the complicated relationships between mothers and daughters and delivers a warm, heartfelt story of love, forgiveness, and women finding their voices. BIO Nigerian-American Lọlá Ákínmádé Åkerström is an award-winning travel writer, speaker, photographer, and author of the international bestseller In Every Mirror She’s Black and Everything Is Not Enough. She is based in Stockholm. REVIEWS "If you've ever wondered what on earth is going through your mum's head, Bitter Honey is an urgent call for empathy, grace, and understanding." -- Glamour (UK) on Bitter Honey "[Bitter Honey] is sweet and sour, layered and complex, showing us that secrets buried never stay buried." -- Montecito Journal “Lọlá Ákínmádé Åkerström crafts sharply written and deeply moving characters, raising brutal questions and steering clear of easy answers.” -- Taylor Jenkins Reid, New York Times bestselling author of Atmosphere "Brilliant...Lola Akinmade Akerstrom has a sharp voice in the world of nuanced contemporary women's fiction." -- Jennette McCurdy, New York Times bestselling author of I'm Glad My Mom Died [H] William Morrow & Company / November 04, 2025 448 pages

-- This title will ship on or after its release date: November 04, 2025 --
Spanning four decades and three continents, Bitter Honey is a story about a mother and daughter divided by long buried secrets, struggling to understand each other as they forge their own paths, from the internationally bestselling author of In Every Mirror She’s Black.
1978: A scholarship draws Nancy from Gambia’s warmth into Stockholm’s frigid winter. When her friendship with charismatic scholar Lars blossoms into something more, she thinks she may have finally found her place. But there’s more to Lars than his charming persona, and Nancy is about to discover the danger of being drawn into his world… 
2006: Tina has had her taste of fame as Sweden’s sweetheart pop princess, representing her country at Eurovision. But beneath her glittery façade, she’s uncertain who she really is. Her mother, Nancy, seems desperate to keep the past under wraps, but will the unexpected appearance of Tina’s father—a man she has long thought dead—help open the door to self-discovery?
Nancy just wants to protect her daughter from making the same mistakes she did, but Tina longs for the freedom to mess up, knowing her mother will always be there to support her. The two women love each other unconditionally, but can they learn to trust each other as well?
This poignant novel delves deep into the complicated relationships between mothers and daughters and delivers a warm, heartfelt story of love, forgiveness, and women finding their voices.
BIO
<meta charset="utf-8">Nigerian-American Lọlá Ákínmádé Åkerström is an award-winning travel writer, speaker, photographer, and author of the international bestseller In Every Mirror She’s Black and Everything Is Not Enough. She is based in Stockholm.
REVIEWS
"If you've ever wondered what on earth is going through your mum's head, Bitter Honey is an urgent call for empathy, grace, and understanding." -- Glamour (UK) on Bitter Honey
"[Bitter Honey] is sweet and sour, layered and complex, showing us that secrets buried never stay buried." -- Montecito Journal
“Lọlá Ákínmádé Åkerström crafts sharply written and deeply moving characters, raising brutal questions and steering clear of easy answers.”  -- Taylor Jenkins Reid, New York Times bestselling author of Atmosphere
"Brilliant...Lola Akinmade Akerstrom has a sharp voice in the world of nuanced contemporary women's fiction." -- Jennette McCurdy, New York Times bestselling author of I'm Glad My Mom Died
[H]  William Morrow &amp; Company  /  November 04, 2025<meta charset="utf-8">
448 pages

Bitter Honey /// Lolá Ákínmádé Åkerström /// pre

A walk through their bustling city neighborhood brings a girl and her grandfather closer together in this gentle, contemplative picture book that’s “a reminder of the importance of being in the world with unhurried attention and open hearts” (Publishers Weekly, starred review).A child and her grandfather step out of their brownstone and take a walk around their lively city. Together, they practice looking closely. They delight in the world that they see, taste, touch, feel, and hear. Whether learning a yellow bird’s song, tasting a street vendor’s mango slices, or listening to the thumping music from passing cars, they find small wonders in every moment they share—and together, always, they go slow.Simple yet poetic, We Go Slow is a breathtaking invitation to everyday wonder from acclaimed picture book creators Mariahadessa Ekere Tallie and Aaron Becker. BIO Ezra Jack Keats Honor winner Mariahadessa Ekere Tallie is an interdisciplinary artist and PhD candidate at Brown University. In addition to her award-winning picture book Layla’s Happiness, she has authored several collections of poetry and has performed poetry and taught in the United States, Namibia, the Netherlands, Belgium, and England. She was born and raised in Queens, New York, and her journeys across the borough inspired the writing of her picture book We Go Slow. She now resides in Rhode Island and is the mother of three galaxies who look like daughters. Visit her online at EkereTallie.com. [H] Atheneum Books for Young Readers / August 26, 2025 0.6" H x 9.2" L x 11.1" W (0.85 lbs) 32 pages

We Go Slow /// Mariahadessa Ekere Tallie, illustrations by Aaron Becker /// new

-- This title will ship on or after its release: September 02, 2025 -- The acclaimed poetic force celebrates the practice of poetry as healing and prayer in this vital, life-affirming collection about surviving the void and touching the divine—the second book in a creative collaboration between Amistad and Moore Black Press. At age fifteen, Barbara Fant tragically lost her mother, and her world was suddenly upended. “I became an angry teenager. I was mad at the world.,” she recalls. “I even stopped praying, but I began to write. Poetry became my way of communication, my way of processing . . . it became my way to pray.” Rebirth, renewal, and healing are the heart of Joy in the Belly of a Riot. Fant’s monumental collection is a continuation of her lifelong project of using poetry as prayer; this is healing-informed poetry to restore herself, her community, and the world. Exquisitely lyrical and boldly resonant, Fant’s poems excavate the nightmares of a childhood marked by poverty, violence, racism, and the loss of countless loved ones. Suffering seemed endemic to neighborhoods like hers, and yet, in Fant’s own words, “I keep trying to write about the trauma, but the joy won’t let me.” Steeped in a rich Black Christian tradition and drawing on Scripture for artistic inspiration, Fant’s verse offers solace and guidance for all, from the devout to the skeptical. In these poems Fant demands that we see her, and her community, throug more than our grief. As she closes this profound collection, Fant gently preaches that we choose life and reminds us that “wholeness is our birthright.” Joy in the Belly of a Riot is a healing balm in times of sustained uncertainty and a rock upon which we can build and sustain a foundation of joy. Fant’s essential message demands to be heard, now more than ever. BIO Barbara Fant is an acclaimed poet who has been writing and performing for over fifteen years. She has competed in nine National Poetry Slam competitions and placed 8th out of 96 poets in the 2017 Women of the World Poetry Slam. She is the author of two poetry collections: Paint, Inside Out (2010) from Penmanship Books and Mouths of Garden (2022) from Sundress Publications. Her work has been featured in the Academy of American Poets, Electric Literature, McNeese Review, The Ohio State University Press, Button Poetry, and Def Poetry Jam, amongst others. Additionally, she has received residencies in Havana, Cuba and Senegal, West Africa. Fant’s educational background includes a Bachelor of Arts in Literature and Language Arts, a Master’s degree in Theological Studies, and a Master of Fine Arts in Poetry. Her entire life has been a blend of both theology and poetry. She initially went to school to be a prison chaplain, and served in a youth prison ministry. Her thesis in seminary was about lyrical theology and using poetics as a way to not just communicate about faith, but to come into an understanding about personal faith. She is also a certified Healing Centered Engagement Specialist. Fant is the 2009 recipient of the Cora Craig Award for Young Authors from Penmanship Books, was named one of Columbus Alive Magazine’s “People to Watch” in 2017, received the 2017 Trailblazer Award from the Red Zone and the 2017 and 2021 Honored Artist Award from the Arts Foundation of Olde Towne East, was named one of the 2023 “Unstoppable 100 Trailblazing Women & Girls” by Role Model Magazine, and received the 2023 Distinguished Alumni Award from the Methodist Theological School of Delaware, Ohio. She has been commissioned by over 20 local and national organizations and has been the inaugural artist-in-residence for three organizations: Harmony Project, Thiossane Institute, and the Erma Bombeck Writers Workshop. She is the founder of Bloom Life Foundation Inc., the Black Women Rise Poetry Collective, and co-founder of the Senghor Project, West African International Artist Residency. REVIEWS Barbara Fant gives testimony and a blueprint for surviving. Fant revives the people with her poetry and studies each line, like one might study love. With true tenderness, she scribes liberatory practices and prayers; affirmations and songs, a healing song for us wearied by journey. A salve for the numb. Here are the poems we didn't know we needed, they give birth to bravery and give us space to "find the strength to fly". -- Mahogany L. Browne, Author of A Bird in the Air Means We Can Still Breathe & Poet-in-Residence @ Lincoln Center, NY "Barbara Fant’s deep reflections on grief and injustice contain a certain romanticism, but it is always reigned in by a pragmatic interrogation of what those beasts have done to Black life. Not even God escapes her emotional scalpel, and her cuts are deep, but not without light or love. For every shadow there is an ecstatic reckoning around the corner. Hers is a protest made of solemn magic and that conjures a better world whether it wishes to be one or not." -- Scott Woods, author of Black Night is Falling "Some art will sit you down and make you look at your own beautiful self, force you to recognize it and find joy, the same kind you don't think you deserve. Or deserve right now. Joy in the Belly of a Riot cradles your face gently, and with its plutonic lips to your mouth, will tug up from you a response. If not your words, then your body, hoisted by a chain of inspired verbs till you're no longer nonverbal. That is Fant's power on the page, the kind that raises bodies." -- Natashia Deón, author of the critically acclaimed novels The Perishing and Grace “While her poems glimpse at a collective melancholy and ache, experiencing this collection is an embodied exaltation of resilience and joy. This collection is an intimate exposition; it's whispered resignations and bellowing truths.” -- Dasha Kelly Hamilton, Poet Laureate Emerita for the City of Milwaukee & the State of Wisconsin [P] Amistad Press / September 02, 2025 0.32" H x 8.0" L x 6.0" W (0.65 lbs) 128 pages

-- This title will ship on or after its release: September 02, 2025 --
The acclaimed poetic force celebrates the practice of poetry as healing and prayer in this vital, life-affirming collection about surviving the void and touching the divine—the second book in a creative collaboration between Amistad and Moore Black Press.
At age fifteen, Barbara Fant tragically lost her mother, and her world was suddenly upended. “I became an angry teenager. I was mad at the world.,” she recalls. “I even stopped praying, but I began to write. Poetry became my way of communication, my way of processing . . . it became my way to pray.”
Rebirth, renewal, and healing are the heart of Joy in the Belly of a Riot. Fant’s monumental collection is a continuation of her lifelong project of using poetry as prayer; this is healing-informed poetry to restore herself, her community, and the world. Exquisitely lyrical and boldly resonant, Fant’s poems excavate the nightmares of a childhood marked by poverty, violence, racism, and the loss of countless loved ones. Suffering seemed endemic to neighborhoods like hers, and yet, in Fant’s own words, “I keep trying to write about the trauma, but the joy won’t let me.”
Steeped in a rich Black Christian tradition and drawing on Scripture for artistic inspiration, Fant’s verse offers solace and guidance for all, from the devout to the skeptical. In these poems Fant demands that we see her, and her community, throug more than our grief. As she closes this profound collection, Fant gently preaches that we choose life and reminds us that “wholeness is our birthright.”
Joy in the Belly of a Riot is a healing balm in times of sustained uncertainty and a rock upon which we can build and sustain a foundation of joy. Fant’s essential message demands to be heard, now more than ever.
BIO
Barbara Fant is an acclaimed poet who has been writing and performing for over fifteen years. She has competed in nine National Poetry Slam competitions and placed 8th out of 96 poets in the 2017 Women of the World Poetry Slam. She is the author of two poetry collections: Paint, Inside Out (2010) from Penmanship Books and Mouths of Garden (2022) from Sundress Publications. Her work has been featured in the Academy of American Poets, Electric Literature, McNeese Review, The Ohio State University Press, Button Poetry, and Def Poetry Jam, amongst others. Additionally, she has received residencies in Havana, Cuba and Senegal, West Africa.
Fant’s educational background includes a Bachelor of Arts in Literature and Language Arts, a Master’s degree in Theological Studies, and a Master of Fine Arts in Poetry. Her entire life has been a blend of both theology and poetry. She initially went to school to be a prison chaplain, and served in a youth prison ministry. Her thesis in seminary was about lyrical theology and using poetics as a way to not just communicate about faith, but to come into an understanding about personal faith. She is also a certified Healing Centered Engagement Specialist.
Fant is the 2009 recipient of the Cora Craig Award for Young Authors from Penmanship Books, was named one of Columbus Alive Magazine’s “People to Watch” in 2017, received the 2017 Trailblazer Award from the Red Zone and the 2017 and 2021 Honored Artist Award from the Arts Foundation of Olde Towne East, was named one of the 2023 “Unstoppable 100 Trailblazing Women &amp; Girls” by Role Model Magazine, and received the 2023 Distinguished Alumni Award from the Methodist Theological School of Delaware, Ohio. She has been commissioned by over 20 local and national organizations and has been the inaugural artist-in-residence for three organizations: Harmony Project, Thiossane Institute, and the Erma Bombeck Writers Workshop. She is the founder of Bloom Life Foundation Inc., the Black Women Rise Poetry Collective, and co-founder of the Senghor Project, West African International Artist Residency.
REVIEWS
Barbara Fant gives testimony and a blueprint for surviving. Fant revives the people with her poetry and studies each line, like one might study love. With true tenderness, she scribes liberatory practices and prayers; affirmations and songs, a healing song for us wearied by journey. A salve for the numb. Here are the poems we didn't know we needed, they give birth to bravery and give us space to "find the strength to fly". -- Mahogany L. Browne, Author of A Bird in the Air Means We Can Still Breathe &amp; Poet-in-Residence @ Lincoln Center, NY
"Barbara Fant’s deep reflections on grief and injustice contain a certain romanticism, but it is always reigned in by a pragmatic interrogation of what those beasts have done to Black life. Not even God escapes her emotional scalpel, and her cuts are deep, but not without light or love. For every shadow there is an ecstatic reckoning around the corner. Hers is a protest made of solemn magic and that conjures a better world whether it wishes to be one or not." -- Scott Woods, author of Black Night is Falling 
"Some art will sit you down and make you look at your own beautiful self, force you to recognize it and find joy, the same kind you don't think you deserve. Or deserve right now. Joy in the Belly of a Riot cradles your face gently, and with its plutonic lips to your mouth, will tug up from you a response. If not your words, then your body, hoisted by a chain of inspired verbs till you're no longer nonverbal. That is Fant's power on the page, the kind that raises bodies."  -- Natashia Deón, author of the critically acclaimed novels The Perishing and Grace 
“While her poems glimpse at a collective melancholy and ache, experiencing this collection is an embodied exaltation of resilience and joy. This collection is an intimate exposition; it's whispered resignations and bellowing truths.” -- Dasha Kelly Hamilton, Poet Laureate Emerita for the City of Milwaukee &amp; the State of Wisconsin
[P]  Amistad Press  /  September 02, 2025<meta charset="utf-8">
<meta charset="utf-8">0.32" H x 8.0" L x 6.0" W (0.65 lbs) 128 pages

Joy in the Belly of a Riot: Poems, Prayers, Memories, and Meditations /// Barbara Fant /// pre

A rediscovered classic from the Harlem Renaissance about a young Black woman’s journey passing as white in 1920s New York City and her quest for self-acceptance—with an introduction by Glory Edim, founder and author of Well-Read Black Girl.Jessie Redmon Fauset is one of the literary titans and foremost tastemakers of the Harlem Renaissance—hired by W. E. B. Du Bois to edit The Crisis, she helped popularize writers like Nella Larsen, Claude McKay, Langston Hughes, amongst countless others. And yet, her own work has been largely underread in the twenty-first century. Written in 1929, at the height of the Harlem renaissance, Fauset’s celebrated second novel tells the story of Angela Murray. Growing up in a Black middle-class Philadelphia neighborhood, Angela has always dreamed of becoming a painter. But the profession is largely reserved for white society. So when Angela’s parents prematurely pass away, she moves to roaring New York City, where she befriends elite artists and presents herself as a white woman. While her sister Virginia’s complexion resembles that of their father’s, Angela’s is lighter, like her mother’s, and passing, she believes, is the only way she’ll ever achieve success. Virginia, meanwhile, refuses to bow to racist pressures, and stays in Philadelphia to embrace her heritage with pride. Each time Angela thinks she’s found artistic, professional, and romantic fulfillment, her ethnicity gets exposed and she finds herself stripped of everything she cares about. As she navigates a world of seduction, betrayal, lust, and heartbreak, she’s forced to consider: What does it mean to find genuine success in a society marred by injustice? Fauset’s “novel without morals” never passes judgement and stays teeming with tenderness. Full of moments that underline the joy of every day Black life, Plum Bun is a pertinent meditation on art, identity, and what it means to find community—as relevant today as ever before. BIO Jessie Redmon Fauset was an African American novelist, critic, poet, and editor known for her discovery and encouragement of several writers of the Harlem Renaissance. [P] Random House Publishing Group / August 26, 2025 0.72" H x 7.96" L x 5.31" W (0.53 lbs) 320 pages

Plum Bun: A Novel Without a Moral /// Jessie Redmon Fauset, introduction Glory Edim /// new

-- This title will ship on or after its release date: September 02, 2025 -- “Taj McCoy’s writing positively crackles with energy, wit and humor.” —Jayci Lee, author of Booked on a FeelingIn this spicy new rom-com, an ambitious entrepreneur working to get her speakeasy supper club off the ground is pushed off balance when her childhood crush turns up, hotter than ever––then tells her she's off-limits. Now that Kendra’s returned home, she can’t help feeling like a kid again—back in her big brother’s shadow, trying to get her restaurant off the ground while his new venture is flying high right out the gate. It doesn’t help that everyone refuses to stop calling her Keke, the childhood nickname she loathes. The only bright spot is her longtime crush BJ. He’s been her big brother’s best friend for most of her life, and he’s always been that cool, chill guy who was easy to talk to and made her laugh. Now he’s looking at her like she’s all grown up, and there’s nothing childish about the chemistry brewing between them. Even better, he takes her dreams seriously, and he’s ready to help her make her supper club a reality. But then BJ extinguishes the sparks flying between them, insisting nothing romantic can ever happen because she’s “off limits.” As her investors fall through and her best chance at fulfilling her professional dreams points toward leaving home again for a fresh start, will BJ be ready for love before Kendra moves on? Or will he sweep her off her feet when she least expects it? BIO Oakland-born law grad Taj McCoy is committed to championing stories that include Black and multiracial women of color, plus-size protagonists, Black love, Black joy, and strong senses of sisterhood and familial bonds. Taj started writing as a small child, enjoying her first publications in elementary school. When she's not writing, Taj may be on Twitter boosting other marginalized writers, practicing yoga, sharing recipes, or cooking private supper club meals for close friends. REVIEWS “McCoy’s talent for crafting steamy scenes, deft hand with dialogue, and mouthwatering food descriptions will make this a popular title.” -- Library Journal (starred review) [P] Mira Books / September 02, 2025 320 pages

-- This title will ship on or after its release date: September 02, 2025 --
<meta charset="utf-8">“Taj McCoy’s writing positively crackles with energy, wit and humor.” —Jayci Lee, author of Booked on a Feeling In this spicy new rom-com, an ambitious entrepreneur working to get her speakeasy supper club off the ground is pushed off balance when her childhood crush turns up, hotter than ever––then tells her she's off-limits.    Now that Kendra’s returned home, she can’t help feeling like a kid again—back in her big brother’s shadow, trying to get her restaurant off the ground while his new venture is flying high right out the gate. It doesn’t help that everyone refuses to stop calling her Keke, the childhood nickname she loathes.   The only bright spot is her longtime crush BJ. He’s been her big brother’s best friend for most of her life, and he’s always been that cool, chill guy who was easy to talk to and made her laugh. Now he’s looking at her like she’s all grown up, and there’s nothing childish about the chemistry brewing between them. Even better, he takes her dreams seriously, and he’s ready to help her make her supper club a reality.   But then BJ extinguishes the sparks flying between them, insisting nothing romantic can ever happen because she’s “off limits.” As her investors fall through and her best chance at fulfilling her professional dreams points toward leaving home again for a fresh start, will BJ be ready for love before Kendra moves on? Or will he sweep her off her feet when she least expects it?
BIO
<meta charset="utf-8">Oakland-born law grad Taj McCoy is committed to championing stories that include Black and multiracial women of color, plus-size protagonists, Black love, Black joy, and strong senses of sisterhood and familial bonds. Taj started writing as a small child, enjoying her first publications in elementary school. When she's not writing, Taj may be on Twitter boosting other marginalized writers, practicing yoga, sharing recipes, or cooking private supper club meals for close friends.
REVIEWS
“McCoy’s talent for crafting steamy scenes, deft hand with dialogue, and mouthwatering food descriptions will make this a popular title.” -- Library Journal (starred review)
[P]  Mira Books  /  September 02, 2025
320 pages

The Dating Prohibition /// Taj McCoy /// pre

One determined party planner + one grumpy pumpkin farmer = a fall to remember… Given the chance to plan her bestie’s 30th birthday bash, Wren Southwick is determined to create an experience so big and so bold that the name of her party planning business spreads beyond the confines of her own small town. The key to her plan? The Finch family’s Goldleaf Pumpkin Farm. It’s not just the perfect venue but also the perfect supply partner for the autumnal-themed bash Wren envisions. But to get what she wants – and needs – she’ll have to get gorgeous grouch August Finch on board. The table is set, and the battle is about to begin … but who will fall first? BIO Athena Carstairs is a Romance and Fantasy author with a desperate need for pining men. Her debut novel, Mr & Mrs Fate, is out now and her Fall-themed spicy romcom There's Pumpkin About You will be out in 2025. She lives in London. [P] One More Chapter / August 26, 2025 0.94" H x 7.8" L x 4.96" W (0.52 lbs) 352 pages

One determined party planner + one grumpy pumpkin farmer = a fall to remember…
Given the chance to plan her bestie’s 30th birthday bash, Wren Southwick is determined to create an experience so big and so bold that the name of her party planning business spreads beyond the confines of her own small town.
The key to her plan? The Finch family’s Goldleaf Pumpkin Farm. It’s not just the perfect venue but also the perfect supply partner for the autumnal-themed bash Wren envisions. But to get what she wants – and needs – she’ll have to get gorgeous grouch August Finch on board.
The table is set, and the battle is about to begin … but who will fall first?
BIO
<meta charset="utf-8">Athena Carstairs is a Romance and Fantasy author with a desperate need for pining men. Her debut novel, Mr &amp; Mrs Fate, is out now and her Fall-themed spicy romcom There's Pumpkin About You will be out in 2025. She lives in London.
[P]  One More Chapter  /  August 26, 2025
0.94" H x 7.8" L x 4.96" W (0.52 lbs) 352 pages

There's Pumpkin About You /// Athena Carstairs /// new

From Denne Michele Norris and Electric Literature, a vital anthology of essays by trans and gender-nonconforming writers of color, sharing stories of joy, heartbreak, rage, and self-discovery. Featuring seventeen essays by trans people of color—spanning writers, scientists, actors, activists, and drag queens—Both/And explores what it means to live as a trans or gender nonconforming person of color today. Acclaimed authors Akwaeke Emezi, Tanaïs, and Meredith Talusan share their stories alongside activist and organizer Raquel Willis and RuPaul’s Drag Race star Peppermint, as well as a host of rising literary talent. Each story is told with honesty, authenticity, and beauty. A nonbinary molecular biologist has nightmares about their estranged father transitioning. A writer revisits a casual hook-up when she discovered her womanhood. And a woman vacations with her wife in Hawaii, where she gets in touch with the fire goddess within. These stories depict real trans lives from trans points of view, at a time when these perspectives are most urgent and valuable. Inspired by Electric Literature’s groundbreaking series and edited by the first Black, openly trans editor-in-chief of a major literary publication, Both/And uplifts and amplifies stories of queer joy, heartbreak, rage, and self-discovery. BIO Denne Michele Norris is the editor in chief of Electric Literature, where she became the first Black, openly transgender woman to helm a major literary publication. A 2021 Out100 Honoree, her writing has been supported by MacDowell, Tin House, and the Kimbilio Center for Black Fiction, and has appeared in McSweeney’s, American Short Fiction, and Zora. She is the former fiction editor of both Apogee Journal and The Rumpus, a co-host of the critically acclaimed podcast Food 4 Thot, and a mentor to emerging writers of color with the Periplus Collective. She lives in New York City. REVIEWS "Stunning … Across the collection, the complex and multifaceted experiences of trans people of color are rendered vividly, and the pieces urge political action in the present while offering a beacon of hope for a more just future. Readers will find this tough to forget." -- Publishers Weekly (starred review) "This outstanding collection includes 17 essays by trans and gender-nonconforming writers of color, some of whom you will be familiar with and others you’ll be grateful to get to know as they share their wisdom on love, loss, rage and joy." -- Ms. Magazine [H] HarperOne / August 12, 2025 0.85" H x 9.19" L x 6.28" W (0.79 lbs) 240 pages

From Denne Michele Norris and Electric Literature, a vital anthology of essays by trans and gender-nonconforming writers of color, sharing stories of joy, heartbreak, rage, and self-discovery.
Featuring seventeen essays by trans people of color—spanning writers, scientists, actors, activists, and drag queens—Both/And explores what it means to live as a trans or gender nonconforming person of color today.
Acclaimed authors Akwaeke Emezi, Tanaïs, and Meredith Talusan share their stories alongside activist and organizer Raquel Willis and RuPaul’s Drag Race star Peppermint, as well as a host of rising literary talent. Each story is told with honesty, authenticity, and beauty. A nonbinary molecular biologist has nightmares about their estranged father transitioning. A writer revisits a casual hook-up when she discovered her womanhood. And a woman vacations with her wife in Hawaii, where she gets in touch with the fire goddess within. These stories depict real trans lives from trans points of view, at a time when these perspectives are most urgent and valuable.
Inspired by Electric Literature’s groundbreaking series and edited by the first Black, openly trans editor-in-chief of a major literary publication, Both/And uplifts and amplifies stories of queer joy, heartbreak, rage, and self-discovery.
BIO
<meta charset="utf-8">Denne Michele Norris is the editor in chief of Electric Literature, where she became the first Black, openly transgender woman to helm a major literary publication. A 2021 Out100 Honoree, her writing has been supported by MacDowell, Tin House, and the Kimbilio Center for Black Fiction, and has appeared in McSweeney’s, American Short Fiction, and Zora. She is the former fiction editor of both Apogee Journal and The Rumpus, a co-host of the critically acclaimed podcast Food 4 Thot, and a mentor to emerging writers of color with the Periplus Collective. She lives in New York City.
REVIEWS
"Stunning … Across the collection, the complex and multifaceted experiences of trans people of color are rendered vividly, and the pieces urge political action in the present while offering a beacon of hope for a more just future. Readers will find this tough to forget." -- Publishers Weekly (starred review)
"This outstanding collection includes 17 essays by trans and gender-nonconforming writers of color, some of whom you will be familiar with and others you’ll be grateful to get to know as they share their wisdom on love, loss, rage and joy." -- Ms. Magazine
[H]  HarperOne  /  August 12, 2025
0.85" H x 9.19" L x 6.28" W (0.79 lbs) 240 pages

Both/And: Essays by Trans and Gender-Nonconforming Writers of Color /// Denne Michele Norris and Electric Literature /// new

In this lovers-to-enemies-to-lovers rom-com, two exes are faced with one deadline. Will they make it to the end?Temi and Wale meet in London. They flirt, date, meet each other’s friends.Then they break up. And Wale goes on a reality dating show.Instead of giving in to heartbreak, Temi throws herself into her dream: writing. She’s within touching distance of a book deal that would solve all her problems. But publishers keep passing on her novel and bills still have to be paid. So, when the opportunity to ghost-write a celebrity memoir arises, Temi accepts.And, of course, the celebrity turns out to be Wale…Will Temi and Wale repeat the patterns of their past? Or can they write a whole new story? BIO Lizzie Damilola Blackburn is a British-Nigerian charity worker-turned-author who grew up in south London and now lives with her husband and young son in Milton Keynes. Her debut novel, Yinka, Where is Your Huzband?, was selected by Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Malala Yousafzai as a Literati book club pick. Blackburn was also a runner-up for a Diverse Book Award (UK) in 2023. The Re-Write is her second novel. REVIEWS “Lizzie Damilola Blackburn is a romance GENIUS, friends! So witty, so fun, so smart.” -- Tia Williams, New York Times bestselling author of A Love Song for Ricki Wilde“A delicious read” -- Bustle“You’ve heard of enemies-to-lovers, now get ready for lovers-to-enemies-to-lovers.” -- USA Today“A sharp, sexy rom-com that flips the script on reality TV romance … Blackburn brings her signature wit and sizzle, layering flirty banter over deeper conversations about caregiving burnout, toxic masculinity, and what it really means to love yourself before loving someone else.” -- Observer [P] Penguin Books / August 12, 2025 0.7" H x 7.9" L x 5.2" W (0.39 lbs) 288 pages

The Re-Write /// Lizzie Damilola Blackburn /// new

The remarkable story of Edward McCabe, a Black man who tried to establish a Black state within the United States.In this paradigm-shattering work of American history, Caleb Gayle recounts the extraordinary tale of Edward McCabe, a Black man who championed the audacious idea to create a state within the Union governed by and for Black people — and the racism, politics, and greed that thwarted him. As the sweeping changes and brief glimpses of hope brought by the Civil War and Reconstruction began to wither, anger at the opportunities available to newly freed Black people were on the rise. As a result, both Blacks and whites searched for new places to settle. That was when Edward McCabe, a Black businessman and a rising political star in the American West, set in motion his plans to found a state within the Union for Black people to live in and govern. His chosen site: Oklahoma, a place that the U.S. government had deeded to Indigenous people in the 1830s when it forced thousands of them to leave their homes under Indian Removal, which became known as the Trail of Tears. McCabe lobbied politicians in Washington, D.C., Kansas, and elsewhere as he exhorted Black people to move to Oklahoma to achieve their dreams of self-determination and land ownership. His rising profile as a leader and spokesman for Black people as well as his willingness to confront white politicians led him to become known as Black Moses. And like his biblical counterpart, McCabe nearly made it to the promised land but was ultimately foiled by politics, business interests, and the growing ambitions of white settlers who also wanted the land. In Black Moses, Gayle brings to vivid life the world of Edward McCabe: the Black people who believed in his dream of a Black state, the white politicians who didn’t, and the larger challenges of confronting the racism and exclusion that bedeviled Black people’s attempts to carve a place in America for themselves. Gayle draws from extraordinary research and reporting to reveal an America that almost was. BIO Caleb Gayle is an award-winning journalist and the author of We Refuse to Forget: A True Story of Black Creeks, American Identity, and Power. A professor at Northeastern University, he is a contributing writer at The New York Times Magazine, and his work also has appeared in The Atlantic, TIME, The Guardian, Guernica, The New Republic, and The Boston Globe. He lives near Boston. REVIEWS “[E]loquent …. Gayle does more than just rescue a forgotten yet crucial figure; he places McCabe at the center of radical liberation … As our nation continues to fracture into partisan camps, Gayle tells an engrossing tale, revealing that the tensions remain the same.” -- Minneapolis Star Tribune“It’s a rare and satisfying experience to find a nonfiction book that balances the scope of its content with narrative coherence, without sacrificing either. Gayle’s latest carves a historical epic out of a forgotten episode in the Black separatist movement, enthralling as both a character study and a novel look at America’s racial history.” -- The Millions“Gayle presents McCabe’s misguided dream as a cautionary tale of the dangers of one oppressed people attempting to colonize another rather than making common cause.” --Booklist, STARRED review“Gayle has brilliantly captured the little-known history of McCabe and the Black-majority towns that dotted the landscape in Kansas, Oklahoma, Colorado, and other Plains states. . . .[a] deeply researched and well-written history.” -- Library Journal, STARRED review“In this enthralling saga, journalist Caleb Gayle resurfaces the little-remembered late-19th-century effort to turn Oklahoma into a Black state . . . .Gayle’s stylish, brisk account elegantly incorporates many tangents (including spotlighting the Native nations being dispossessed by McCabe’s efforts). It’s one not to miss.” -- Publishers Weekly, STARRED review [H] Riverhead Books / August 12, 2025 1.09" H x 9.19" L x 6.29" W (1.0 lbs) 304 pages

The remarkable story of Edward McCabe, a Black man who tried to establish a Black state within the United States. In this paradigm-shattering work of American history, Caleb Gayle recounts the extraordinary tale of Edward McCabe, a Black man who championed the audacious idea to create a state within the Union governed by and for Black people — and the racism, politics, and greed that thwarted him.   As the sweeping changes and brief glimpses of hope brought by the Civil War and Reconstruction began to wither, anger at the opportunities available to newly freed Black people were on the rise. As a result, both Blacks and whites searched for new places to settle. That was when Edward McCabe, a Black businessman and a rising political star in the American West, set in motion his plans to found a state within the Union for Black people to live in and govern. His chosen site: Oklahoma, a place that the U.S. government had deeded to Indigenous people in the 1830s when it forced thousands of them to leave their homes under Indian Removal, which became known as the Trail of Tears.   McCabe lobbied politicians in Washington, D.C., Kansas, and elsewhere as he exhorted Black people to move to Oklahoma to achieve their dreams of self-determination and land ownership. His rising profile as a leader and spokesman for Black people as well as his willingness to confront white politicians led him to become known as Black Moses. And like his biblical counterpart, McCabe nearly made it to the promised land but was ultimately foiled by politics, business interests, and the growing ambitions of white settlers who also wanted the land.   In Black Moses, Gayle brings to vivid life the world of Edward McCabe: the Black people who believed in his dream of a Black state, the white politicians who didn’t, and the larger challenges of confronting the racism and exclusion that bedeviled Black people’s attempts to carve a place in America for themselves. Gayle draws from extraordinary research and reporting to reveal an America that almost was.
BIO
Caleb Gayle is an award-winning journalist and the author of We Refuse to Forget: A True Story of Black Creeks, American Identity, and Power. A professor at Northeastern University, he is a contributing writer at The New York Times Magazine, and his work also has appeared in The Atlantic, TIME, The Guardian, Guernica, The New Republic, and The Boston Globe. He lives near Boston.
REVIEWS
<meta charset="utf-8">“[E]loquent …. Gayle does more than just rescue a forgotten yet crucial figure; he places McCabe at the center of radical liberation … As our nation continues to fracture into partisan camps, Gayle tells an engrossing tale, revealing that the tensions remain the same.” -- Minneapolis Star Tribune “It’s a rare and satisfying experience to find a nonfiction book that balances the scope of its content with narrative coherence, without sacrificing either. Gayle’s latest carves a historical epic out of a forgotten episode in the Black separatist movement, enthralling as both a character study and a novel look at America’s racial history.” -- The Millions “Gayle presents McCabe’s misguided dream as a cautionary tale of the dangers of one oppressed people attempting to colonize another rather than making common cause.” --Booklist, STARRED review “Gayle has brilliantly captured the little-known history of McCabe and the Black-majority towns that dotted the landscape in Kansas, Oklahoma, Colorado, and other Plains states. . . .[a] deeply researched and well-written history.” -- Library Journal, STARRED review “In this enthralling saga, journalist Caleb Gayle resurfaces the little-remembered late-19th-century effort to turn Oklahoma into a Black state . . . .Gayle’s stylish, brisk account elegantly incorporates many tangents (including spotlighting the Native nations being dispossessed by McCabe’s efforts). It’s one not to miss.” -- Publishers Weekly, STARRED review
[H]  Riverhead Books  /  August 12, 2025
<meta charset="utf-8">1.09" H x 9.19" L x 6.29" W (1.0 lbs) 304 pages

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