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

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

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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

Paperback

An outstanding feast of distinctively American culinary genius, this comprehensive collection of authentic African-American recipes was assembled by a well-known cooking columnist for Ebony magazine. Freda DeKnight was baking bread and biscuits by the time she was five years old. In the course of her career as a teacher and counselor of culinary arts, she assembled and shared thousands of fabulous recipes, the best of which appear here. Filled with the aroma of childhood memories, this guide helps modern cooks re-create hundreds of classic dishes for every meal of the day, from chicken and oyster gumbo to sweet potato pudding. The recipes start with appetizers, cheese, soups, relishes, and sauces, advancing to meats, fowl, fish, and all-in-one dishes. In addition to suggestions for vegetables, salads, and breads, the menu includes a mouthwatering selection of Creole dishes and delightful desserts. BIO Freda DeKnight was the Home Service Director for Johnson Publishing Company and author of Ebony magazine's monthly column, A Date with a Dish. [P] Dover Publications / January 15, 2014 1.3" H x 8.4" L x 5.4" W (1.05 lbs) 390 pages This item is not returnable.

A Date with a Dish: Classic African-American Recipes /// Freda DeKnight

﻿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

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

﻿THIS BOOK IS CURRENTLY OUT OF STOCK. Born in 1923 in Madisonville, Louisiana, Leah Chase would marry into the Chase restaurant family in nearby New Orleans, but that small geographic move would end up taking her worlds away. Today she is a national-award-winning cook and civic figure. This novel, told in the form of letters to God, shares her inspirational journey with middle-grade readers. BIO Carol Allen was born in Elton, Louisiana, part of Cajun country. As a young girl, she traveled across the state with her father and became fascinated with the richness of Louisiana culture and her own unique heritage. In 1968, she began teaching at Oakdale High School, where she experienced the switch to the integrated school system. Soon after, she became an elementary-school principal and completed her doctorate at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. After a year as an assistant professor at the University of South Carolina, she returned home to become the superintendent of curriculum and instruction for New Orleans Public Schools. In 1985, Allen married a Frenchman and moved to France. There, she volunteered for various service organizations, served on boards for international schools, and worked for an educational institute in Paris that was affiliated with the American College in Paris. Allen helped plan and direct an international conference designed to address the needs and interests of expatriate women. The conference, organized and conducted entirely by volunteers, attracted four hundred conferees representing nineteen different nationalities from twenty-one different countries of residence. She went on to create the Paris Writers Workshop, now an internationally respected program that allows aspiring writers to develop their talents. Allen has written articles for the Writer's Chronicle, Washington Post, Epicurean Magazine, and the New Orleans Times-Picayune. Allen compiled and edited They Only Laughed Later: Tales of Women on the Move, a book of humorous essays written by women about their experiences living abroad. In 1996, she received honorable mention from Writer’s Market for a self-published book in the children's-literary category. She has been a guest lecturer at the Geneva Writers' Conference and is a motivational speaker for the European Speakers Bureau. Allen has been close friends with Leah Chase, the subject of her biography, Leah Chase: Listen, I Say Like This, for more than twenty years. For the book, she spent hours with Chase herself, in the woman's kitchen, reminiscing her own Louisiana childhood and the diverse background and joie de vivre that both the author and her subject share. In addition to writing, Allen loves to cook. Much to the surprise of her French neighbors, she garnered the grand prize in what is known as Les Journées Gourmandes in the region of the Vaucluse, Provence, where she lives most of the time. Her winning recipes were for jams and jellies in 1995 and for Wild-Mushroom Soup in 2001. [P] Pelican Publishing Company / August 24, 2020 0.6" H x 8.4" L x 5.4" W (0.65 lbs) 160 pages

﻿THIS BOOK IS CURRENTLY OUT OF STOCK.
<meta charset="utf-8">Born in 1923 in Madisonville, Louisiana, Leah Chase would marry into the Chase restaurant family in nearby New Orleans, but that small geographic move would end up taking her worlds away. Today she is a national-award-winning cook and civic figure. This novel, told in the form of letters to God, shares her inspirational journey with middle-grade readers.
BIO
<meta charset="utf-8">Carol Allen was born in Elton, Louisiana, part of Cajun country. As a young girl, she traveled across the state with her father and became fascinated with the richness of Louisiana culture and her own unique heritage. In 1968, she began teaching at Oakdale High School, where she experienced the switch to the integrated school system. Soon after, she became an elementary-school principal and completed her doctorate at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. After a year as an assistant professor at the University of South Carolina, she returned home to become the superintendent of curriculum and instruction for New Orleans Public Schools. In 1985, Allen married a Frenchman and moved to France. There, she volunteered for various service organizations, served on boards for international schools, and worked for an educational institute in Paris that was affiliated with the American College in Paris. Allen helped plan and direct an international conference designed to address the needs and interests of expatriate women. The conference, organized and conducted entirely by volunteers, attracted four hundred conferees representing nineteen different nationalities from twenty-one different countries of residence. She went on to create the Paris Writers Workshop, now an internationally respected program that allows aspiring writers to develop their talents. Allen has written articles for the Writer's Chronicle, Washington Post, Epicurean Magazine, and the New Orleans Times-Picayune. Allen compiled and edited They Only Laughed Later: Tales of Women on the Move, a book of humorous essays written by women about their experiences living abroad. In 1996, she received honorable mention from Writer’s Market for a self-published book in the children's-literary category. She has been a guest lecturer at the Geneva Writers' Conference and is a motivational speaker for the European Speakers Bureau. Allen has been close friends with Leah Chase, the subject of her biography, Leah Chase: Listen, I Say Like This, for more than twenty years. For the book, she spent hours with Chase herself, in the woman's kitchen, reminiscing her own Louisiana childhood and the diverse background and joie de vivre that both the author and her subject share. In addition to writing, Allen loves to cook. Much to the surprise of her French neighbors, she garnered the grand prize in what is known as Les Journées Gourmandes in the region of the Vaucluse, Provence, where she lives most of the time. Her winning recipes were for jams and jellies in 1995 and for Wild-Mushroom Soup in 2001.
[P]  Pelican Publishing Company  /  <meta charset="utf-8">August 24, 2020
<meta charset="utf-8">0.6" H x 8.4" L x 5.4" W (0.65 lbs) 160 pages

A Long Way from the Strawberry Patch: The Life of Leah Chase /// Carol Allen with Leah Chase

A national best seller, deemed one of Morrison's most haunting works by the New York Times, A Mercy reveals what lies beneath the surface of slavery. But at its heart, like Beloved, it is the story of a mother and a daughter--a mother who casts off her daughter in order to save her, and a daughter who may never exorcise that abandonment. In the 1680s the slave trade in the Americas is still in its infancy. Jacob Vaark is an Anglo-Dutch trader and adventurer, with a small holding in the harsh North. Despite his distaste for dealing in "flesh," he takes a small slave girl in part payment for a bad debt from a plantation owner in Catholic Maryland. This is Florens, who can read and write and might be useful on his farm. Rejected by her mother, Florens looks for love, first from Lina, an older servant woman at her new master's house, and later from the handsome blacksmith, an African, never enslaved, who comes riding into their lives. BIO Toni Morrison is the author of eleven novels, from The Bluest Eye (1970) to God Help the Child (2015). She received the National Book Critics Circle Award, the Pulitzer Prize, and in 1993 she was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature. She died in 2019. REVIEWS "A Mercy is a sinewy novel [that] contains passages of insight and sensuality . . . It gathers its own power: Morrison plays a tight game with the social, legal and personal connections between her chess set of characters, a game in which each word-and every detail-counts. . . . Morrison renders the ugly beautiful and the unimaginable real: she is a fine teacher." --Heather Thompson, The Times Literary Supplement "The landscape of A Mercy is full of both beauties and terrors: snow 'sugars' eyelashes, yet icicles hang like 'knives' . . . But whatever the glories and rigors of nature may signify to the civilized, for these characters, living in the midst of it, nature doesn't signify. It's simply to be embraced or dreaded-like the people with whom they have to live. In Morrison's latest version of pastoral, it's only mercy or the lack of it that makes the American landscape heaven or hell, and the gates of Eden open both ways at once." --David Gates, The New York Times Book Review "Above all, A Mercy brims with the omnipresence of the author's questing, sifting brain, which the reader can feel injecting each strand of the story, subjecting it to the closest scrutiny before weaving it into the whole. The result is both a compelling yarn and a meditation on the varieties and degrees of enslavement and liberation; it is as precise, taut and tough-minded as Morrison herself." --Kevin Nance, Poets & Writers [H] Knopf Publishing Group / November 11, 2008 0.88" H x 9.56" L x 5.88" W (0.85 lbs) 176 pages [P] Vintage / August 11, 2009 0.7" H x 7.9" L x 5.2" W (0.46 lbs) 195 pages

A national best seller, deemed one of Morrison's most haunting works by the New York Times, A Mercy reveals what lies beneath the surface of slavery. But at its heart, like Beloved, it is the story of a mother and a daughter--a mother who casts off her daughter in order to save her, and a daughter who may never exorcise that abandonment.
In the 1680s the slave trade in the Americas is still in its infancy. Jacob Vaark is an Anglo-Dutch trader and adventurer, with a small holding in the harsh North. Despite his distaste for dealing in "flesh," he takes a small slave girl in part payment for a bad debt from a plantation owner in Catholic Maryland. This is Florens, who can read and write and might be useful on his farm. Rejected by her mother, Florens looks for love, first from Lina, an older servant woman at her new master's house, and later from the handsome blacksmith, an African, never enslaved, who comes riding into their lives. 
BIO
<meta charset="utf-8">Toni Morrison is the author of eleven novels, from The Bluest Eye (1970) to God Help the Child (2015). She received the National Book Critics Circle Award, the Pulitzer Prize, and in 1993 she was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature. She died in 2019.
REVIEWS
<meta charset="utf-8"><meta charset="utf-8">"A Mercy is a sinewy novel [that] contains passages of insight and sensuality . . . It gathers its own power: Morrison plays a tight game with the social, legal and personal connections between her chess set of characters, a game in which each word-and every detail-counts. . . . Morrison renders the ugly beautiful and the unimaginable real: she is a fine teacher." --Heather Thompson, The Times Literary Supplement 
"The landscape of A Mercy is full of both beauties and terrors: snow 'sugars' eyelashes, yet icicles hang like 'knives' . . . But whatever the glories and rigors of nature may signify to the civilized, for these characters, living in the midst of it, nature doesn't signify. It's simply to be embraced or dreaded-like the people with whom they have to live. In Morrison's latest version of pastoral, it's only mercy or the lack of it that makes the American landscape heaven or hell, and the gates of Eden open both ways at once." --David Gates, The New York Times Book Review
"Above all, A Mercy brims with the omnipresence of the author's questing, sifting brain, which the reader can feel injecting each strand of the story, subjecting it to the closest scrutiny before weaving it into the whole. The result is both a compelling yarn and a meditation on the varieties and degrees of enslavement and liberation; it is as precise, taut and tough-minded as Morrison herself." --Kevin Nance, Poets &amp; Writers 
[H] Knopf Publishing Group  /  <meta charset="utf-8">November 11, 2008
0.88" H x 9.56" L x 5.88" W (0.85 lbs) 176 pages
[P] Vintage  /  August 11, 2009
<meta charset="utf-8"><meta charset="utf-8">0.7" H x 7.9" L x 5.2" W (0.46 lbs) 195 pages

A Mercy /// Toni Morrison

Through images and texts both historical and contemporary, this book looks at the Great Migration and its profound and ongoing impactThis thoughtful interweaving of text and imagery presents a variety of perspectives on the Great Migration (1915–70), the mass exodus and dispersion of millions of African Americans out of the South. Through archival photography, newspaper clippings, maps, journal articles, book excerpts, and ephemera such as family recipes, the book immerses readers in Black history, the Great Migration, and its legacy. The book includes texts by authors ranging from W. E. B. Du Bois and Jean Toomer to Toni Tipton-Martin and culminates in a candid roundtable discussion about familial migration stories among some of the most respected Black artists, writers, and scholars working today: Theaster Gates, Kiese Laymon, Carrie Mae Weems, and others. The material is presented in three unique, thematic sections that explore the Great Migration’s impact on the American city, Black Southern foodways, and cultural expression. Taken as a whole, this important volume provides powerful testimony to the systemic challenges such as social segregation, racism, and discrimination that Black communities have faced from the post-Emancipation period to the present moment. BIO Jessica Bell Brown is curator and department head of contemporary art at the Baltimore Museum of Art. Ryan N. Dennis is chief curator and artistic director of the Center for Art & Public Exchange at the Mississippi Museum of Art. [H] Yale University Press / June 21, 2022 ﻿1.5" H x 10.5" L x 8.2" W (3.45 lbs) 320 pages

A Movement in Every Direction: A Great Migration Critical Reader /// edited by Jessica Bell Brown and Ryan N. Dennis

Femi and her friends planned to leave traditional Caribbean treats out for Santa, including Black Cake. The children shared warm wishes for their favorite dishes while enjoying winter activities at the Christmas fair. This book includes a Black Cake recipe for all to enjoy! BIO Yolanda T. Marshall is a Guyanese-born Canadian Author. The daughter of a Jazz musician, she began writing poems at eight. A cross-genre writer, world traveller, jazz lover and devoted mother, she embodies art and takes her readers on adventurous, cultured journeys. This author is Agented. Titles since 2020 have been traditionally published in Canada. She is also a proud member of CANSCAIP (Canadian Society of Children's Authors, Illustrators and Performers) and The Writer's Union of Canada. [H] Garnalma Press / November 18, 2019 0.25" H x 8.5" L x 11.0" W (0.89 lbs) 32 pages

A Piece of Black Cake for Santa /// Yolanda T. Marshall, illustrations by Subi Bosa

By the time of her death, at the tragically young age of thirty-four, Lorraine Hansberry had created two electrifying masterpieces of the American theater. With A Raisin in the Sun, Hansberry gave this country its most movingly authentic portrayal of black family life in the inner city. Barely five years later, with The Sign in Sidney Brustein’s Window, Hansberry gave us an unforgettable portrait of a man struggling with his individual fate in an age of racial and social injustice. These two plays remain milestones in the American theater, remarkable not only for their historical value but for their continued ability to engage the imagination and the heart.With an Introduction by Robert Nemiroff BIO Lorraine Hansberry (1930-1965) electrified the theatrical world with her first play, A Raisin in the Sun, which won the New York Critics Circle Award for the 1958-59 season. Before her tragic death from cancer at the age of 34, she had already produced a remarkable body of work, including The Sign in Sidney Brustein’s Window and Les Blancs. Her former husband and literary executor, the late Robert Nemiroff, posthumously produced and published her To Be Young, Gifted and Black and the musical Raisin. REVIEWS "Rich and warm and funny and varied … beautifully written." -– Los Angeles Times, on The Sign in Sidney Brustein’s Window"One of a handful of great American plays — it belongs in the inner circle, along with Death of a Salesman, Long Day’s Journey Into Night and The Glass Menagerie." -– Washington Post, on A Raisin in the Sun [P] Vintage / June 13, 1995 0.9" H x 7.9" L x 5.1" W (0.6 lbs) 368 pages

A Raisin in the Sun and The Sign in Sidney Brustein's Window /// Lorraine Hansberry

"Dora Charles is the real deal, and hers may be the most honest - and personal - southern cookbook I've ever read." - John Martin Taylor In her first cookbook, a revered former cook at Savannah's most renowned restaurant divulges her locally famous Savannah recipes--many of them never written down before--and those of her family and friends. Hundreds of thousands of people have made a trip to dine on the exceptional food cooked by Dora Charles at Savannah's most famous restaurant. Now, the woman who was barraged by editors and agents to tell her story invites us into her home to taste the food she loves best. These are the intensely satisfying dishes at the heart of Dora's beloved Savannah: Shrimp and Rice; Simple Smoky Okra; Buttermilk Cornbread from her grandmother; and of course, a truly incomparable Fried Chicken. Each dish has a "secret ingredient" for a burst of flavor: mayonnaise in the biscuits; Savannah Seasoning in her Gone to Glory Potato Salad; sugar-glazed bacon in her deviled eggs. All the cornerstones of the Southern table are here, from Out-of-This-World Smothered Catfish to desserts like a jaw-dropping Very Red Velvet Cake. With moving dignity, Dora describes her motherless upbringing in Savannah, the hard life of her family, whose memories stretched back to slave times, learning to cook at age six, and the years she worked at the restaurant. "Talking About" boxes impart Dora's cooking wisdom, and evocative photos of Savannah and the Low Country set the scene. BIO From a huge Savannah family of accomplished cooks, Dora Charles worked in Savannah's most famous restaurant for 22 years, where she taught dozens of staffers and managers. REVIEWS "Dora Charles's take on classic Southern recipes is approachable and creative, and her moment in the spotlight is long overdue." --Eater.com "The book is itself a tribute to a woman who never imagined she would have to practice signing her name for fans... Some recipes...like crab cakes, poundcakes, and jambalaya, are the best of scratch cooking... Ms. Charles is a meticulous and methodical cook...[she] is also an astute interpreter of culture... [She] stresses the importance of selecting good raw ingredients and building flavor at every step, like saving what she called fry-meat-grease from bacon, sausage, or pork chops to rub on sweet potatoes as they bake or to enliven rice and greens..." --The New York Times "Dora Charles and her family recipes are legendary in Savannah, and finally she has written them down for the rest of us." --Nathalie Dupree, author and television personality Rux Martin/Houghton Mifflin Harcourt / September 08, 2015 0.96" H x 10.33" L x 8.25" W (2.35 lbs) 272 pages

A Real Southern Cook: In Her Savannah Kitchen /// Dora Charles

A dazzling story of modern Nigeria and two families caught in the riptides of wealth, power, romantic obsession, and political corruption from the celebrated author of Stay with Me, “in the lineage of great works by Chinua Achebe and Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie” (The New York Times).Eniola is tall for his age, a boy who looks like a man. Because his father has lost his job, Eniola spends his days running errands for the local tailor, collecting newspapers, begging when he must, dreaming of a big future.Wuraola is a golden girl, the perfect child of a wealthy family. Now an exhausted young doctor in her first year of practice, she is beloved by Kunle, the volatile son of an ascendant politician.When a local politician takes an interest in Eniola and sudden violence shatters a family party, Wuraola’s and Eniola’s lives become intertwined. In her breathtaking second novel, Ayobámi Adébáyo shines her light on Nigeria, on the gaping divide between the haves and the have-nots, and the shared humanity that lives in between. BIO Ayobámi Adébáyo was born in Lagos, Nigeria. Her debut novel, Stay with Me, won the 9mobile Prize for Literature, was shortlisted for the Baileys Prize for Women’s Fiction, the Wellcome Book Prize, and the Kwani? Manuscript Prize. It has been translated into twenty languages and the French translation was awarded the Prix Les Afriques. Longlisted for the International Dylan Thomas Prize and the International Dublin Literary Award, Stay with Me was a New York Times, Guardian, Chicago Tribune, and NPR Best Book of the Year. REVIEWS A SheReads Best Book Club Pick of The Year A MOST ANTICIPATED BOOK: Refinery 29, Financial Times, The Guardian, Oprah Daily, Electric Literature, Brittle Paper, and Write or Die Mag“Adebayo is a gifted storyteller, and like her debut novel, Stay with Me, her second book does not disappoint. The thin line between the poor and the wealthy is decimated when the lives of Eniola, an errand boy for a tailor, and Wuraola, a physician, collide. The violence of elections and the empty promises of politicians, the obscene wealth of the connected, the hunger and desperation of the have-nots all intersect in this examination of a community in Nigeria.” -- Oprah Daily“Eniola and Wuraola come from different classes in Nigeria, and in this dynamic sophomore novel from Adebayo, we see how socioeconomic stratification, exacerbated by gender inequality, can destroy lives at all levels. Never mind that these layers are all interdependent and innately connected —a paradox that leads here to a shocking, violent act from which there is no turning back.” -- Bethanne Patrick, Los Angeles Times“Adébáyo shines a light on modern Nigeria in this dynamic political novel, crafting a dazzling tale of wealth and love in the process.” -- Chicago Review of Books [H] Knopf Publishing Group / February 7, 2023 1.5" H x 9.7" L x 6.8" W (1.5 lbs) 352 pages

A Spell of Good Things /// Ayobámi Adébáyo

Chef Joe Randall and Toni Tipton-Martin showcase the rich heritage of African-American cooking in this authentic collection of 300 recipes. Drawn from Joe Randall's personal recipes, the book also includes recipes from chefs who have worked with Randall's A Taste of Heritage Foundation, including Edna Lewis and Patrick Clark. African-American cooking has evolved over more than 200 years to become a sophisticated and distinctive cuisine. More than just soul food, African-American cuisine has become world class. Experience Catfish Stew with Cornmeal Dumplings, Southern Fried Quail, or Crepes with Country Fried Apples. Geared to the home cook, the recipes are also enhanced by a section of menus, complete with wine selections. The final section introduces readers to the stories and menus of the prominent African-American chefs who contributed to the book. BIO Chef Joe Randall is a preeminent American chef. He has been the executive chef for a dozen restaurants, including the award-winning Closter restaurant in Buffalo, New York, and Fishmarket in Baltimore, Maryland. His affiliations include the American Culinary Federation, the Chefs de Cuisine Association of California, and the American Academy of Chefs. He is the founder and president of A Taste of Heritage Foundation, an organization devoted to introducing African-American chefs to a wider audience and supporting beginning chefs. Toni Tipton-Martin is a culinary journalist and community activist and the author of the James Beard Award-winning The Jemima Code. Her collection of more than three hundred African American cookbooks has been exhibited at the James Beard House, and she has twice been invited to the White House to participate in First Lady Michelle Obama's programs to raise a healthier generation of kids. Tipton-Martin is a founding member of the Southern Foodways Alliance and Foodways Texas. Houghton Mifflin / January 07, 2002 1.0" H x 9.2" L x 7.5" W (1.38 lbs) 334 pages This item is not returnable.

A Taste of Heritage: The New African American Cuisine /// Toni Tipton-Martin and Joe Randall

A culinary adventure and celebration of African cooking and cultural diversity, from a pioneering West African food writer, television personality, and cooking teacher. Food writer and cook Lerato Umah-Shaylor’s magnificent cookbook is a delicious eating tour of the African continent, introducing vibrant and varied cuisines that are rich in flavor, diverse in culture, and steeped in tradition. Lerato adds her own modern twist and inventive style to traditional African dishes that have been passed down and enjoyed for generations, and combines these recipes with personal stories of Africa infused with her delectable sense of adventure. With Africana, home cooks can learn how to create some of the most iconic African dishes, from Nigeria to Madagascar and Morocco to South Africa. Here are more than 100 recipes to delight and inspire, such as Spice Island Coconut Fish Curry, Harissa Leg of Lamb with Hibiscus, Senegalese Yassa, Tunisian Tagine, South African Malva Pudding, and the secret to the perfect Jollof. A feast for the senses, bursting with flavor, and offering a sense of wanderlust, Africana will bring the magic of the continent to any kitchen. BIO Lerato Umah-Shaylor is an award winning author, broadcaster and chef, a leading voice in contemporary cooking espeically in African cooking. Her debut cookbook Africana: Treasured Recipes and Stories from Across the Continent will be published in 2023 [H] Amistad Press / March 07, 2023 1.2" H x 9.3" L x 7.4" W (2.0 lbs) 288 pages

A culinary adventure and celebration of African cooking and cultural diversity, from a pioneering West African food writer, television personality, and cooking teacher. 
Food writer and cook Lerato Umah-Shaylor’s magnificent cookbook is a delicious eating tour of the African continent, introducing vibrant and varied cuisines that are rich in flavor, diverse in culture, and steeped in tradition.
Lerato adds her own modern twist and inventive style to traditional African dishes that have been passed down and enjoyed for generations, and combines these recipes with personal stories of Africa infused with her delectable sense of adventure.
With Africana, home cooks can learn how to create some of the most iconic African dishes, from Nigeria to Madagascar and Morocco to South Africa. Here are more than 100 recipes to delight and inspire, such as Spice Island Coconut Fish Curry, Harissa Leg of Lamb with Hibiscus, Senegalese Yassa, Tunisian Tagine, South African Malva Pudding, and the secret to the perfect Jollof.
A feast for the senses, bursting with flavor, and offering a sense of wanderlust, Africana will bring the magic of the continent to any kitchen.
BIO
Lerato Umah-Shaylor is an award winning author, broadcaster and chef, a leading voice in contemporary cooking espeically in African cooking. Her debut cookbook Africana: Treasured Recipes and Stories from Across the Continent will be published in 2023
[H]  Amistad Press  /  March 07, 2023
<meta charset="utf-8">1.2" H x 9.3" L x 7.4" W (2.0 lbs) 288 pages

Africana: More Than 100 Recipes and Flavors Inspired by a Rich Continent /// Lerato Umah-Shaylor /// new

- Vibrant plant-based dishes fusing African and European flavors from a young British-Nigerian cook - Includes almost 50 recipes Introducing Zoe Alakija, a London-based cook, whose rich recipes blend modern British flavors with the rich colors and tastes of her Nigerian upbringing. African food in general, and Nigerian food in particular, is on the rise in the UK and dishes like cheesy kokoro and nutty plantain brownies take European vegan food far beyond the more muted flavors and colors that we are used to. Zoe's immaculate balance of tastes combined with playful presentation ensures these are recipes to remember for those willing to explore broader, more environmentally responsible horizons. BIO Zoe Alakija is an art director and food stylist based in London. This is her first book. Hoxton Mini Press / June 29, 2021 0.87" H x 9.13" L x 6.85" W (1.41 lbs) 196 pages

Afro Vegan: Family Recipes from a British-Nigerian Kitchen /// Zoe Alakija

The past as a building block of a more affirming and hopeful future As early as the eighteenth century, white Americans and Europeans believed that people of African descent could not experience nostalgia. As a result, black lives have been predominately narrated through historical scenes of slavery and oppression. This phenomenon created a missing archive of romantic historical memories. Badia Ahad-Legardy mines literature, visual culture, performance, and culinary arts to form an archive of black historical joy for use by the African-descended. Her analysis reveals how contemporary black artists find more than trauma and subjugation within the historical past. Drawing on contemporary African American culture and recent psychological studies, Ahad-Legardy reveals nostalgia's capacity to produce positive emotions. Afro-nostalgia emerges as an expression of black romantic recollection that creates and inspires good feelings even within our darkest moments. Original and provocative, Afro-Nostalgia offers black historical pleasure as a remedy to contend with the disillusionment of the present and the traumas of the past. BIO Badia Ahad-Legardy is an associate professor in the Department of English and Vice Provost for Faculty Affairs at Loyola University Chicago. She is the author of Freud Upside Down: African American Literature and Psychoanalytic Culture. REVIEWS "If you've been waiting for a book that steps out of trauma-time and the perpetual present of slavery clear-eyed and with its critical faculties alight, you've found it. Badia Ahad-Legardy breathes gentle and sweet smelling fresh air into stale corners in her book on Afro-Nostalgia, which cogently analyzes and affectively affirms Black cultural producers and chefs who treat the past less as an ongoing traumatic wound and more as a surrealistic space of black historical regenerative possibility and happiness. A gem." --Avery Gordon, author of Ghostly Matters: Haunting and the Sociological Imagination "This thoroughly researched book seeks and sheds light on the spaces where Black joy can live and flourish. Though its tone is academic, its insights reach far beyond the classroom.... a worthy addition to any multicultural studies library and to readers interested in American culture." --Museum of Americana "An important dissection of looking beyond the traumas of the past to find the happiness that existed (and exists) within the Black community. " --Library Journal [P] University of Illinois Press / April 12, 2021 ﻿0.7" H x 8.9" L x 6.0" W (0.75 lbs) 240 pages

Afro-Nostalgia: Feeling Good in Contemporary Black Culture /// Badia Ahad-Legardy

Renowned chef and food justice activist Bryant Terry reworks and remixes the favorite staples, ingredients, and classic dishes of the African Diaspora to present more than 100 wholly new, creative culinary combinations that will amaze vegans, vegetarians, and omnivores alike. NAMED ONE OF THE BEST VEGETARIAN COOKBOOKS OF ALL TIME BY BON APPÉTIT Blending African, Caribbean, and southern cuisines results in delicious recipes like Smashed Potatoes, Peas, and Corn with Chile-Garlic Oil, a recipe inspired by the Kenyan dish irio; and Cinnamon-Soaked Wheat Berry Salad with dried apricots, carrots, and almonds, which is based on a Moroccan tagine. Creamy Coconut-Cashew Soup with Okra, Corn, and Tomatoes pays homage to a popular Brazilian dish while incorporating classic Southern ingredients, and Crispy Teff and Grit Cakes with Eggplant, Tomatoes, and Peanuts combines the Ethiopian grain teff with stone-ground corn grits from the Deep South and North African zalook dip. There's perfect potluck fare, such as the simple, warming, and intensely flavored Collard Greens and Cabbage with Lots of Garlic, and the Caribbean-inspired Cocoa Spice Cake with Crystallized Ginger and Coconut-Chocolate Ganache, plus a refreshing Roselle-Rooibos Drink that will satisfy any sweet tooth. With more than 100 modern and delicious dishes that draw on Terry's personal memories as well as the history of food that has traveled from the African continent, Afro-Vegan takes you on an international food journey. Accompanying the recipes are Terry's insights about building community around food, along with suggested music tracks from around the world and book recommendations. For anyone interested in improving their well-being, Afro-Vegan's groundbreaking recipes offer innovative, plant-based global cuisine that is fresh, healthy, and forges a new direction in vegan cooking. BIO A national leader in the movement to promote healthy eating, Bryant Terry is the author of The Inspired Vegan and the critically acclaimed Vegan Soul Kitchen. Along with Anna Lappé, Bryant co-authored Grub, which the New York Times called "ingenious." He is also the host of Urban Organic, a multi-episode web series that he co-created. Bryant's work has been featured in the New York Times, Gourmet, Food & Wine, O: The Oprah Magazine, Essence, Yoga Journal, and Vegetarian Times, among others. He has made dozens of national television and radio appearances including the Martha Stewart Show, Emeril Green, The Splendid Table, and Morning Edition. He lives in Oakland, California. REVIEWS "I'm a big fan of food. I'm also a fan of stories. What Bryant Terry has done with Afro-Vegan is tell a new and important story of food. He's connected health with history and culture and made the combination delicious. As important, he's encouraging all of us to learn the story of the food we make and consume and helping us generate our own stories as we share these healthy eats with the communities we love." --Baratunde Thurston, best-selling author of How to Be Black and CEO and cofounder of Cultivated Wit "Afro-Vegan animates the cuisine of the African diaspora with the detail, reverence, and passion it deserves. Bryant elevates our often-overlooked culinary traditions and infuses a personal, smart, and practical love. He goes beyond teaching us to cook. He inspires us to celebrate and explore." --Dayo Olopade, author of The Bright Continent: Breaking Rules and Making Change in Modern Africa Ten Speed Press / April 08, 2014 1.0" H x 9.1" L x 7.6" W (1.75 lbs) 215 pages

Afro-Vegan: Farm-Fresh African, Caribbean, and Southern Flavors Remixed /// Bryant Terry

Discover the untold story of African surf culture in this glorious and colorful collection of profiles, essays, photographs, and illustrations. AFROSURF is the first book to capture and celebrate the surfing culture of Africa. This unprecedented collection is compiled by Mami Wata, a Cape Town surf company that fiercely believes in the power of African surf. Mami Wata brings together its co-founder Selema Masekela and some of Africa's finest photographers, thinkers, writers, and surfers to explore the unique culture of eighteen coastal countries, from Morocco to Somalia, Mozambique, South Africa, and beyond. Packed with over fifty essays, AFROSURF features surfer and skater profiles, thought pieces, poems, photos, illustrations, ephemera, recipes, and a mini comic, all wrapped in an astounding design that captures the diversity and character of Africa. A creative force of good in their continent, Mami Wata sources and manufactures all their wares in Africa and works with communities to strengthen local economies through surf tourism. With this mission in mind, Mami Wata is donating 100% of their proceeds to support two African surf therapy organizations, Waves for Change and Surfers Not Street Children. BIO Mami Wata is an African surf brand whose mission is to be a creative force for good in Africa. They manufacture their products in Africa to create jobs and build skills, support the African surf therapy organization Waves for Change, and help strengthen African surf tourism to grow local economies. They are located in Cape Town. Selema Masekela is a beloved commentator, journalist, host, activist, and Emmy-nominated producer best known for his work across VICE, E!, ESPN/ABC, National Geographic, Red Bull Media House, and beyond. He is a co-founder of Mami Wata and lives in Los Angeles, California. Ten Speed Press / June 15, 2021 1.3" H x 11.1" L x 8.6" W (3.7 lbs) 320 pages

Afrosurf /// Mami Wata with foreword by Selema Masekela

In the tradition of The Glass Castle, this "gorgeous" (The New York Times, Editors' Choice) and deeply felt memoir from Whiting Award winner Nadia Owusu tells the "incredible story" (Malala Yousafzai) about the push and pull of belonging, the seismic emotional toll of family secrets, and the heart it takes to pull through. "In Aftershocks, Nadia Owusu tells the incredible story of her young life. How does a girl--abandoned by her mother at age two and orphaned at thirteen when her beloved father dies--find her place in the world? This memoir is the story of Nadia creating her own solid ground across countries and continents. I know the struggle of rebuilding your life in an unfamiliar place. While some of you might be familiar with that and some might not, I hope you'll take as much inspiration and hope from her story as I did." --MALALA YOUSAFZAI ​ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF 2021 SELECTED BY VULTURE AND TIME MAGAZINE! Young Nadia Owusu followed her father, a United Nations official, from Europe to Africa and back again. Just as she and her family settled into a new home, her father would tell them it was time to say their goodbyes. The instability wrought by Nadia's nomadic childhood was deepened by family secrets and fractures, both lived and inherited. Her Armenian American mother, who abandoned Nadia when she was two, would periodically reappear, only to vanish again. Her father, a Ghanaian, the great hero of her life, died when she was thirteen. After his passing, Nadia's stepmother weighed her down with a revelation that was either a bombshell secret or a lie, rife with shaming innuendo. With these and other ruptures, Nadia arrived in New York as a young woman feeling stateless, motherless, and uncertain about her future, yet eager to find her own identity. What followed, however, were periods of depression in which she struggled to hold herself and her siblings together. "A magnificent, complex assessment of selfhood and why it matters" ( Elle), Aftershocks depicts the way she hauled herself from the wreckage of her life's perpetual quaking, the means by which she has finally come to understand that the only ground firm enough to count on is the one written into existence by her own hand. "Full of narrative risk and untrammeled lyricism" (The Washington Post), Aftershocks joins the likes of Don't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight and William Styron's Darkness Visible, and does for race identity what Maggie Nelson does for gender identity in The Argonauts. BIO Nadia Owusu is a Brooklyn-based writer and urban planner. She is the recipient of a 2019 Whiting Award. Her lyric essay So Devilish a Fire won the Atlas Review chapbook contest. Her writing has appeared or is forthcoming in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Granta, The Guardian, Bon Appétit, Electric Literature, The Paris Review Daily, and Catapult. Aftershocks is her first book. REVIEWS "'I have lived in disaster, and disaster has lived in me, ' writes one of the literary world's most promising new voices, Nadia Owusu, in this astonishing memoir. After her mother left and her father died, Owusu became a woman of many homelands and identities: she grew up in many countries including Tanzania, Ethiopia, Ghana, Uganda, Italy, and the UK. [ Aftershocks] is Owusu's account of hauling herself out of the wreckage; an intimate look behind the division of today's world." --RED (UK) "Aftershocks is more than just a book--it is delicate, intricate choreography. This memoir is a testimony to how certain books and writers can tell you their story in a way that mirrors your own. Even if the facts of that story are different, the emotion is familiar. Owusu is that writer. She has created a book full of shared emotional memories and I wanted to sit in those memories with her for as long as I could. Nadia Owusu is powerful, beautiful, poetic, and Aftershocks is a testimony to her commitment to constructing towering, lovingly-rendered sentences. Quite simply, Aftershocks is one of the most beautiful books I have ever read." --BASSEY IKPI, New York Times bestselling author of I'm Lying but I'm telling the Truth "Nadia Owusu's Aftershocks bleeds honesty. It is a majestically rendered telling of all the history, hurt and love a body can contain. A wonderful work of art made of so many stories and histories it is bursting with both harshness and perseverance. An incredible debut."-- NANA KWAME ADJEI-BRENYAH, author of New York Times bestseller Friday Black [H] Simon & Schuster / January 12, 2021 1.1" H x 8.5" L x 5.5" W (1.01 lbs) 320 pages

Aftershocks: A Memoir /// Nadia Owusu

The newest novel by the author of Akata Witch and the forthcoming Marvel comic book series about Shuri, Black Panther's sister! "The most imaginative, gripping, enchanting fantasy novels I have ever read!" --Laurie Halse Anderson, New York Times bestselling author of Speak A year ago, Sunny Nwazue, an American-born girl Nigerian girl, was inducted into the secret Leopard Society. As she began to develop her magical powers, Sunny learned that she had been chosen to lead a dangerous mission to avert an apocalypse, brought about by the terrifying masquerade, Ekwensu. Now, stronger, feistier, and a bit older, Sunny is studying with her mentor Sugar Cream and struggling to unlock the secrets in her strange Nsibidi book. Eventually, Sunny knows she must confront her destiny. With the support of her Leopard Society friends, Orlu, Chichi, and Sasha, and of her spirit face, Anyanwu, she will travel through worlds both visible and invisible to the mysteries town of Osisi, where she will fight a climactic battle to save humanity. BIO Much-honored Nnedi Okorafor, winner of the Hugo, Nebula, and World Fantasy awards, merges today's Nigeria with a unique world she creates. Akata Warrior blends mythology, fantasy, history and magic into a compelling tale that will keep readers spellbound. REVIEWS "★ Akata Warrior swiftly synthesizes the lessons and knowledge of the first book into a heart-racing story of resilience and a determination to save the world. This title is a unique coming of age story, coupling the distinct experience of the cultural duality as both African and African-American with lessons of love, loyalty, and the pains of adolescent insecurities." -- BCCB, starred review "There's more imagination on a page of Nnedi Okorafor's work than in whole volumes of ordinary fantasy epics." --Ursula K. Le Guin, award-winning author of A Wizard of Earthsea "The voice of Nnedi Okorafor does not obey the rules of distance, time, or place. Hers is the voice that fuses matter and imagination. She shows us just how close we are to that alternate reality." --Tchidi Chikere, Nigerian award-winning film director and screenwriter [H] Viking Books for Young Readers / October 03, 2017 1.7" H x 8.3" L x 5.4" W (1.3 lbs) 496 pages [P] Speak / October 16, 2018 1.4" H x 8.2" L x 5.4" W (0.94 lbs) 512 pages

Akata Warrior /// Nnedi Okorafor

“This is a book of wonders, full of intricate beauty, and Giada Scodellaro is an extraordinary talent.” —Katie KitamuraGiada Scodellaro’s debut is a fiercely original collection of stories ranging in length, style, and tone—a collage of social commentary, surrealism, recipes, folklore, art— that centers Black women in moments of imminent change. In language that is lyrical, minimal, and often absurd, the diverse stories in Some of Them Will Carry Me deconstruct intimacy while building a surprising, unnerving new reality of language, culture, consumption, and loss. BIO Giada Scodellaro was born in Naples, Italy and raised in the Bronx, New York. She is a writer, photographer, and translator who holds an MFA in Fiction from The New School. Giada’s work has appeared in or is forthcoming from The New Yorker, BOMB, Harper’s, and Granta, among other publications. Her debut collection, Some of Them Will Carry Me, is out now from Dorothy, a publishing project. REVIEWS “The female protagonists who appear in Scodellaro’s kinetic début collection of stories find themselves in absurdist and fantastical scenarios that interrogate the nature of subjectivity.” -- The New Yorker, “The Best Books of 2022” “Scodellaro debuts with a wild and wonderful collection of surreal and enigmatic accounts of sex, relationships, and encounters with strangers. . . . It’s an auspicious and consistently surprising first outing.” -- Publishers Weekly, Starred Review “These are Black characters whose existence in their surreal landscape is as natural as the soft mentions of cocoa butter on thighs. A world immediately recognizable even in its strangeness. A world confident in and of itself. These are the soft and fragrant spaces of the dreams of Black writers and readers alike. The wholeness of the marginalized existence, what it is like inside the body and inside the love when not viewed from the outside.” -- Georgie Fehringer, The Rumpus “Some of Them Will Carry Me contains thirty-five stories, none like the last. Many are short: gut-punches and tilt-a-whirls and cold plunges. They are immersive, rapid experiences with an impact disproportionate to their length.” -- Maggie Lange, Purse Book Newsletter “An enthralling, brilliant debut collection of stories that vary in length but are equal in craft. . . . Scodellaro questions assumptions and conjures questions—of belonging and of allowance. She writes the same nature of delicate and meandering autofiction that has long been the domain of white writers, reorienting the reader to narrators that are detached and yet wholly present, whose identities inform their observation and ultimate remarks. A stunning collection from a promising singular new talent.” -- Meghana Kandlur, Open Books (Chicago) [P] Dorothy, a Publishing Project / October 11, 2022 0.55" H x 7.01" L x 5.56" W (0.46 lbs) 184 pages

Some of Them Will Carry Me /// Giada Scodellaro

The award-winning, genre-crossing writer demonstrates her power as a funkadelic and formidable feminist voice in this rich and beautiful collection of verse and image—a multi-part retrospective that traverses time, space, and reality to illuminate the expansiveness of Black femme lives. Side Notes from the Archivist is a preservation of Black culture viewed through a feminist lens. The Archivist leads readers through poems that epitomize youthful renditions of a Black girl coming of age in Philadelphia’s pre-funk ’80s; episodic adventures of “the Black Girl” whose life is depicted through the white gaze; and selections of verse evincing affection for self and testimony to the magnificence within Black femme culture at-large. Every poem in Side Notes elevates and honestly illustrates the buoyancy of Blackness and the calamity of Black lives on earth. In her uniquely embracing and experimental style, Anastacia-Reneé documents these truths as celebrations of diverse subjects, from Solid Gold to halal hotdogs; as homages and reflections on iconic images, from Marsha P. Johnson to Aunt Jemima; and as critiques of systemic oppression forcing some to countdown their last heartbeat. From internet “Fame” to the toxicity of the white gaze, Side Notes from the Archivist cements Anastacia-Reneé role as a leading light in the womanist movement—an artist whose work is in conversation with advocates of Black culture and thought such as Audre Lorde, Amiri Baraka, and Nikki Giovanni. BIO Anastacia-Reneé is an award-winning cross-genre writer, educator, interdisciplinary artist, TEDx speaker, and podcaster. She is the author of (v.), Forget It, and Answer(Me), and her work has been anthologized in a number of literary outlets, including Furious Flower: Seeding the Future of African American Poetry, Spirited Stone, Lessons from Kubotas Garden, Seismic, Seattle City of Literature, Foglifter, Cascadia Magazine, Pinwheel, The Fight and the Fiddle, Glow, The A-Line, Ms. Magazine, Spark, Obsidian Literature and Arts in the African Diaspora, Crab Creek Review, Alta, and Catapult. She and has received fellowships and residencies from Cave Canem, Hedgebrook, VONA, Artist Trust, Jack Straw, Ragdale, Mineral School, Hypatia in the Woods, and the New Orleans Writers Residency. She lives in Seattle, Washington. REVIEWS Casting a sharp side-eye at the past with urgent syntax that rockets a reader forward, Anastacia-Reneé’s newest collection is a trenchant critique of US American f#@ckeries. This is a communal book in which unruly voices account for the dead; there are far too many to remember and more coming soon. Side Notes From the Archivist moves the margins to the center, retroactively claiming space and meaning to hold it into whatever future there is. -- Douglas Kearney, author of Sho and The Black Automaton 'What a heavy load to carry and present memory as archivist. But memory is the original archivist. These memories do the labor of dating, storing and preserving objects of queer-ness, girl into woman and hood-ness within temperatures that center their integrity. Anastacia is a poetry-teller. A raw griot. The duty of a griot is to become a body for memories. And with this collection of work, Anastacia has showed up ready for duty.' -- Avery Young, author of neckbone: visual verses [P] Amistad Press / March 14, 2023 0.5" H x 8.2" L x 5.2" W (0.4 lbs) 144 pages

Side Notes from the Archivist: Poems /// anastacia-reneé /// new

A photographic celebration and exploration of Black identity and experience through the twentieth century from the founder and curator of the hit multimedia platform Black Archives.“A spell-binding visual narrativization of family, culture, and history.”—Thelma Golden, director and chief curator of the Studio Museum in HarlemRenata Cherlise’s family loved capturing their lives in photographs and home movies, sparking her love of archival photography. Following in her family’s footsteps, Cherlise established Black Archives, which presents a nuanced representation of Black people across time living vibrant, ordinary lives. Through the platform, many have discovered and shared images of themselves and their loved ones experiencing daily life, forming multidimensional portraits of people, places, and the Black community. These photographs not only tell captivating stories, they hold space for collective memory and kinship. Black Archives is a stunning collection of timeless images that tell powerful, joyful stories of everyday life and shed light on Black culture’s dynamic, enduring influence through the generations. The images showcase reunions, nights out on the town, parents and children, church and school functions, holidays, big life events, family vacations, moments at home, and many more occasions of leisure, excitement, reflection, and pride. Featuring more than three hundred images that spotlight the iconic and the candid, Black Archives offers a nuanced compendium of Black memory and imagination. BIO Renata Cherlise is a multidisciplinary, research-based visual artist who uses various mediums to explore themes of identity, family, and culture. Cherlise’s work seamlessly bridges her Southern upbringing with contemporary methodologies in digital and physical spaces while reimagining notions of the Black experience. Her archival project, Black Archives, has evolved from a photo-based website of visual narratives into a collaborative platform featuring archival histories and modern-day stories from across the African diaspora. REVIEWS “Black Archives excels in cultivating an intimate and accessible experience—one that animates the multidimensional realities of Black existence with the power of community and acknowledgement of heritage. It is a triumph of community—one that denies us the ability to forget the ways that we celebrate our families, fight for our legacies, and support each other throughout the diaspora, from the mundane to the most significant milestones, despite consistently being socialized via white supremacist pathology to believe otherwise.” -- Harper’s Bazaar“In her new book, Black Archives: A Photographic Celebration of Black Life, Renata Cherlise makes the case for celebrating everyday Black joy.” -- Vox“The Black Archives book—out this month—is the embodiment of one of the core ideals of the platform: honoring the Black past by making it accessible.” -- The Cut“Black Archives is a testament to the potency of Black collective memory held through photography. Using her own expansive, familial collection of photographs, Renata Cherlise sets forth a spell-binding visual narrativization of family, culture, and history.” -- Thelma Golden, director and chief curator of the Studio Museum in Harlem“This book is a refuge as it shows how photographs have been consumed and shared by family members, churches, libraries, archives, and photographers. In viewing this book, we see interwoven stories about self-fashioning, representation, beauty, politics, and community memorialized through the camera. The photographs presented here create some of the most compelling visual responses to racialized images that objectified Black people and circulated through the history of the photographic medium. This amazing book with its dazzlingly-designed pages reflects the pride and determination of the people who created their own archives.” -- Dr. Deborah Willis, author of Posing Beauty in Black American Culture“The collection of personal photographs in this visual time capsule showcases the daily lives of African Americans. Thanks to Renata Cherlise, they are now a part of an important historic document giving new life and meaning to each image, while providing future generations with a greater source of stories that are told through photographs.” -- Jamel Shabazz, documentary photographer and author [H] Ten Speed Press / February 14, 2023 0.97" H x 10.22" L x 8.82" W (2.91 lbs) 288 pages

Black Archives: A Photographic Celebration of Black Life /// Renata Cherlise /// new

An exuberant picture book written by Alliah L. Agostini and illustrated by Shamar Knight-Justice is about a Black boy with big dancing dreams who learns the meaning of courage and community. It’s the weekend, first in June; speaker’s blasting out big tune!Cousins, aunties, uncles, friends pack the house, and fun begins.Shane is shy but loves to dance—and all year long, he’s picked up cansto earn some money toward his goal: high-tops with a pump-up sole.But then the speaker blows—it’s done! Will this stop his family’s fun?Can Shane come through to save the day and bring back Big Tune Saturday?Set within a vibrant Caribbean American neighborhood and told to a rhythmic beat, Big Tune is a story of Black boy joy that touches on determination, confidence to express who you are, selflessness, and community gratitude. BIO Alliah L. Agostini is an author and the founder of Grownesque, a blog and social media destination for Xennial women. She has an AB and MBA from Harvard and currently resides in New Jersey, where she enjoys impromptu dance parties and making up corny jokes with her husband and two children. Big Tune is her first fiction picture book. Shamar Knight-Justice is an illustrator based in Atlanta, Georgia. He grew up with a crayon in his hand and a love for patterns. He currently serves as the principal of an elementary school in Southwest Atlanta, where his scholars’ stories and personalities inspire him to create illustrations that honor their identities. When not drawing, Shamar loves to spend time hoarding collage materials, going on long walks with his family, and devouring the nearest pancake. REVIEWS This lively, vibrant narrative has an infectious spirit, and Shane is irresistible. Grounded in a tightknit Jamaican American community, the story deftly incorporates visual and textual references to dance styles, food, and other cultural touchstones... Themes of joy, solidarity, and artistic expression are effortlessly woven throughout the words and images... An exuberant celebration of community that leaps off the page." -- Kirkus, starred review"Portrayals of diasporic Caribbean culture and a child’s selflessness distinguish Agostini’s 1990s Brooklyn-set story celebrating connection and community... Agostini’s buoyant rhyming verse pulses with details, and Knight-Justice’s stylized illustrations layer bold patterns and textures with typewritten text, sheet music, and images of the Jamaican flag, building a joyfully immersive portrait of neighborhood gatherings where 'Swaying hips wine fast and slow./ Brown skin shines with black light’s glow.'" -- Publishers Weekly, starred review"The vibrant beat of the rhyming text makes a splendid complement to the energetic art. Rich textures evocative of cutpaper collage and dynamic patterns give enthusiastic life to the more geometric backgrounds, and figures are always in movement, with poses swinging, swaying, and bopping." -- The Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books"The picture book stresses the importance of community and selflessness, essential lessons for a picture book audience. Distinctive and vibrant collage-style illustrations depict a Black community of various skin tones and hair textures. This unique picture book’s celebration of Jamaican culture and community is a great addition to every ­library." -- School Library Journal [H] Farrar, Straus and Giroux (BYR) / March 28, 2023 1.0" H x 11.0" L x 9.0" W (1.0 lbs) 40 pages

Big Tune: Rise of the Dancehall Prince /// Alliah L. Agostini; illustrations by Shamar Knight-Justice /// new

A sharply crafted and unflinchingly honest memoir about gangs, drugs, cooking, and living life on the line—both on the streets and in the kitchen—from one of the most exciting stars in the food world today“As compelling or more so than Boyz N the Hood and Menace II Society . . . When Corbin writes about his life, it burns with the intensity of the best pulp fiction, but it isn’t fiction—it’s the life he lived.” — Los Angeles TimesONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR — SalonChef Keith Corbin has been cooking his entire life. Born on the home turf of the notorious Grape Street Crips in 1980s Watts, Los Angeles, he got his start cooking crack at age thirteen, becoming so skilled that he was flown across the country to cook for drug operations in other cities. After his criminal enterprises caught up with him, though, Corbin spent years in California’s most notorious maximum security prisons—witnessing the resourcefulness of other inmates who made kimchi out of leftover vegetables and tamales from ground-up Fritos. He developed his own culinary palate and ingenuity, creating “spreads” out of the unbearable commissary ingredients and experimenting during his shifts in the prison kitchen.After his release, Corbin got a job managing the kitchen at LocoL, an ambitious fast food restaurant spearheaded by celebrity chefs Roy Choi and Daniel Patterson, designed to bring inexpensive, quality food and good jobs into underserved neighborhoods. But when Corbin was suddenly thrust into the spotlight, he struggled to live up to or accept the simplified “gangbanger redemption” portrayal of him in the media. As he battles private demons while achieving public success, Corbin traces the origins of his vision for “California soul food” and takes readers inside the worlds of gang hierarchy, drug dealing, prison politics, gentrification, and culinary achievement to tell the story of how he became head chef of Alta Adams, one of America’s best restaurants. BIO Chef Keith Corbin has been cooking his entire life. Born on the home turf of the notorious Grape Street Crips in 1980s Watts, Los Angeles, he got his start cooking crack at age thirteen, becoming so skilled that he was flown across the country to cook for drug operations in other cities. After his criminal enterprises caught up with him, Corbin spent years in California’s most notorious maximum security prisons—witnessing the resourcefulness of other inmates who made kimchi out of leftover vegetables and tamales from ground-up Fritos. He developed his own culinary palate and ingenuity, creating “spreads” out of the unbearable commissary ingredients and experimenting during his shifts in the prison kitchen. After his release, Corbin got a job managing the kitchen at LocoL, an ambitious fast food restaurant spearheaded by celebrity chefs Roy Choi and Daniel Patterson, designed to bring inexpensive, quality food and good jobs into underserved neighborhoods. In 2022, Keith was recognized as a semifinalist for the James Beard Award for best chef in California. Keith Corbin is currently the chef and co-owner of modern soul food restaurant Alta Adams in West Adams, Los Angeles. REVIEWS “There is a lot of story to tell, yet there is no word wasted. . . . As I turned the final page of [Keith Corbin’s] riveting book, I felt exhausted by his race to stability, motivated by his fortitude and relieved that he is alive to tell the tale.” -- San Francisco Chronicle“So much of Corbin’s writing . . . is what crime writers aspire to do, but the language and conventions of crime writing sometime seem stilted or manufactured. Reading California Soul is a different experience. . . . Corbin’s story comes through without self-consciousness and in his own language, a language that isn’t the vernacular of the generic streets but the patois of those of us who grew up in Black Los Angeles.” -- Los Angeles Times“Keith Corbin has gone well beyond just writing a remarkable memoir. By refusing to impose a clean redemption narrative on his own experience, Corbin moves beyond the limitations placed on stories of Black lives in America. California Soul is a courageous book.” -- Dr. Ibram X. Kendi, National Book Award winner and author of the #1 New York Times bestseller How to Be an Antiracist“Keith Corbin’s California Soul is the kind of real-life story that—unless you come from the bricks—you never really hear. This is not just one man’s story. It’s a family story, a neighborhood story, an American story. And only through food can it be digested completely. Time to eat.” -- Roy Choi, New York Times bestselling author, James Beard Award–winning host of Broken Bread and The Chef Show, and co-founding chef of Kogi, Best Friend, and LocoL“Keith Corbin grabs you in the first chapter with the sheer rawness and authenticity of his description of what it’s like to live in Watts and in his shoes, and he doesn’t let you go until the last word. Corbin has a way of putting the reader in the moment—mind, body, and soul. This story has heart, and I never wanted it to end.” -- Carla Hall, bestselling author of Carla Hall’s Soul Food and judge on Food Network’s Halloween Baking Championship“In this exhilarating saga of drugs, crime, and culinary passion, Corbin traces his remarkable rise from a life behind bars to a successful career as a chef. . . . Readers shouldn’t miss this.” -- Publishers Weekly (starred review) [H] Random House / August 16, 2022 1.05" H x 8.52" L x 5.81" W (1.04 lbs) 320 pages

California Soul: An American Epic of Cooking and Survival /// Keith Corbin

A poignant and ruthlessly honest journey through cultural expectations of size, race, and gender—and toward a brighter future—from National Book Award nominee Evette Dionne My body has not betrayed me; it has continued rebounding against all odds. It is a body that others map their expectations on, but it has never let me down. In this insightful, funny, and whip-smart book, acclaimed writer Evette Dionne explores the minefields fat Black woman are forced to navigate in the course of everyday life. From her early experiences of harassment to adolescent self-discovery in internet chatrooms to diagnosis with heart failure at age twenty-nine, Dionne tracks her relationships with friendship, sex, motherhood, agoraphobia, health, pop culture, and self-image. Along the way, she lifts back the curtain to reveal the subtle, insidious forms of surveillance and control levied at fat women: At the doctor’s office, where any health ailment is treated with a directive to lose weight. On dating sites, where larger bodies are rejected or fetishized. On TV, where fat characters are asexual comedic relief. But Dionne’s unflinching account of our deeply held prejudices is matched by her fierce belief in the power of self-love. An unmissable portrait of a woman on a journey toward understanding our society and herself, Weightless holds up a mirror to the world we live in and asks us to imagine the future we deserve. BIO Evette Dionne is a journalist, an editor, and a pop-culture critic. She is the National Book Award–nominated author of Lifting as We Climb: Black Women’s Battle for the Ballot Box, a middle- grade nonfiction book about Black women suffragists. Her work has appeared in Glamour, Cosmopolitan, Time, the New York Times, the Guardian, and Teen Vogue, among other publications. A graduate of Bennett College, Dionne is based in Denver, where she works as the executive editor of YES! Media. REVIEWS “Vulnerable, richly detailed…. Incisive and gratifying…. [Dionne’s] book is to be taken as an ‘excavation’ by someone who is, by her own admission, a work in progress. This, too, is a gift of “Weightless”: the chance to witness what it looks like to do the hard, continuing work of self-inquiry in pursuit of a better world.” -- New York Times Book Review“The brilliant Evette Dionne's newest masterpiece discusses life as a fat Black woman and the way that shapes experiences…. Dionne is a spectacular writer, and this book is a necessary addition to shelves.” -- Buzzfeed'It’s clear that Evette Dionne’s pen carries power…. The masterful Dionne is back with an exciting memoir, Weightless, that will surely resonate as she navigates such topics as self-image, societal expectations of women’s bodies, family, and more…. Dionne’s reflections and analyses read like a caring friend who helps one realize that they deserve to love every facet of their being.” -- Shondaland“Dionne’s careful recounting of her own story in Weightless adds particular expertise and nuance to the topic of fat identity….Reading the story of her lifelong work around self-acceptance and body peace is an emotional yet energizing experience.” -- Vogue [H] Ecco Press / December 06, 2022 1.1" H x 8.4" L x 5.4" W (0.66 lbs) 272 pages

Weightless: Making Space for My Resilient Body and Soul /// Evette Dionne

An exquisite combination of beautiful photography and compelling stories, this book from Outdoor Afro founder, Rue Mapp, celebrates Black joy in nature. Filled with breathtaking photography, inspiring stories, profiles, and spotlights from Outdoor Afro group members, prominent Black leaders in outdoor spaces, and other organizations, this book inspires Black communities to reclaim their place in the natural world. Interspersed throughout are essays from Mapp on the rich history of Black involvement in the outdoors, activism, and conservation, as well as resources for readers who want to deepen their own connection with the elements. A perfect blend of gorgeous photographs, awe-inspiring stories, and Black history, this collection is the perfect gift for anyone looking to heal in these sacred natural spaces. Perfect for: Black and brown community members with an interest in nature Hikers, campers, birders, and backpackers BIO Rue Mapp is the Founder and CEO of Outdoor Afro, overseeing a carefully selected and trained staff and national volunteer team. Since Outdoor Afro's inception in 2009 as a blog, Rue has captured the attention and support of millions through a multimedia approach that is grounded in personal connections and community organizing. Outdoor Afro is a leading organization in the promotion of Black involvement and interaction with the outdoors. Their powerful work is leaving positive, lasting effects on the Black community and broader conservation community. REVIEWS This book by Mapp (founder of Outdoor Afro, a nonprofit that connects Black explorers to nature and the outdoors) will lure readers with its glimpses of the author's family history and picturesque descriptions of her youthful adventures frolicking on a family-owned California farm. More than 30 other writers from ages 10 to 98 also contribute essays about the outdoors, illustrated by vibrant images of Black people in joyful, triumphant, or still moments in indoor and outdoor settings. Each essay is inviting, conjuring up visions of abundant days spent in painted landscapes of splendor. There are even surprising bits of poetry peppered among the essays. This book is ultimately about joy and how the outdoors is in the domain of Black people, but readers do not have to be Black to enjoy it. The sense of joy and theme of connecting with nature are universal. Mapp's personal stories, along with the other pieces, make this book a valuable addition to any library that wants to encourage exploring the healing beauty of nature. VERDICT The contributors' varied experience levels and expertise make this book accessible and fun; don't miss the valuable resources mentioned in the essays. Recommended for school and public libraries. -- Xan Goodman, Library Journal [H] Chronicle Books / November 01, 2022 1.4" H x 8.8" L x 7.8" W (1.7 lbs) 192 pages

Nature Swagger Stories and Visions of Black Joy in the Outdoors /// Rue Mapp

THIS BOOK WILL BE RELEASED MAY 16, 2023. The first major career survey of work by renowned fiber and textile artist Billie Zangewa Published to accompany the exhibition presented by the Museum of the African Diaspora (MoAD) in San Francisco, Billie Zangewa: Thread for a Web Begun explores Zangewa’s creation of literal and figurative tapestries of the everyday lives and contemporary intersectional identities of Black women. Through her hand-sewn silk collages, which primarily depict Black women in the domestic sphere, Zangewa reclaims a medium that was once relegated as “women’s work” and delves into the familiarity, beauty, and sociopolitical drivers of the seemingly mundane. Beginning her career in the fashion and advertising industries, Zangewa employs her understanding of textiles to portray personal and universal experiences through domestic interiors, urban landscapes, and portraiture. Through the method of their making and their narrative content, Zangewa’s silk paintings illustrate gendered labor in a sociopolitical context, where the domestic sphere becomes a pretext for a deeper understanding of the construction of identity, questions around gender stereotypes, and racial prejudice.This volume, packaged in a beautiful slipcase, showcases the past 15 years of Zangewa’s work as well as new pieces made for this exhibition, and although many of these decontextualized pieces are autobiographical, all of them portray a sense of intimacy and exploration of identity—connecting the pieces to each other through a larger narrative about Black femininity and tugging on the thread of the viewer’s own lived experience. BIO Dexter Wimberly is an American entrepreneur and curator based in Hayama, Japan. He’s the co-founder and CEO of the online education platform CreativeStudy. Wimberly has organized exhibitions in galleries and museums around the world including the Museum of Arts and Design in New York City, The Green Family Art Foundation in Dallas, The Harvey B. Gantt Center in Charlotte, The Museum of the African Diaspora (MoAD) in San Francisco, KOKI Arts in Tokyo, and The Third Line in Dubai. His exhibitions have been reviewed and featured in publications including The New York Times and Artforum, and have received support from The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, and The Kinkade Family Foundation. Wimberly is a Senior Critic at New York Academy of Art, and the founder and director of the Hayama Artist Residency in Japan. Prior to his curatorial career, Wimberly was the managing partner of the New York-based advertising and marketing agency August Bishop, representing a diverse array of clients including Adidas, The Coca-Cola Company, and HBO. The Museum of the African Diaspora opened to the public in 2005 and is a 501 (c)(3) nonprofit organization. MoAD is based in the San Francisco Bay Area and plays a vital role in the local arts community. MoAD is uniquely positioned as one of the few museums in the world focused exclusively on African Diaspora culture and on presenting the rich cultural heritage of the people of Africa and of African descendant cultures all across the globe. [H] Cameron Books / May 16, 2023 112 pages

Billie Zangewa: Thread for a Web Begun /// edited by Dexter Wimberly, produced by Museum of the Africa Diaspora /// pre

An emotionally riveting novel for fans of Ibi Zoboi and Erika L. Sánchez about two sisters in Nigeria on their journey to break free of an oppressive home. Sisters Cheta and Zam couldn’t be more different. Cheta, sharp-tongued and stubborn, never shies away from conflict—either at school or at home, where her mother fires abuse at her. Timid Zam escapes most of her mother’s anger, skating under the radar and avoiding her sister whenever possible. In a turn of good fortune, Zam is invited to live with her aunt’s family in the lap of luxury. Jealous, Cheta also leaves home, but to a harder existence that will drive her to terrible decisions. When the sisters are reunited, Zam alone will recognize just how far Cheta has fallen—and Cheta’s fate will rest in Zam’s hands.Debut author Rimma Onoseta deftly explores classism, colorism, cycles of abuse, how loyalty doesn’t always come attached to love, and the messy truths that sometimes, family is not a source of comfort, and that morality is all shades of grey. BIO Rimma Onoseta is a Nigerian writer whose work explores identity, familial bonds, and the colonial corruption of African spirituality. She holds a degree in finance from Northeastern University and an MBA from Suffolk University. Onoseta grew up reading late into the night, under her covers, with a flashlight and snacks. She writes stories she wanted to read when she was younger, stories about young Nigerian girls who are chaotic and fierce and who question what they’re taught. When she’s not writing, Onoseta enjoys traveling and watching documentaries. REVIEWS A Kirkus Prize FinalistA Kirkus Reviews Best Book of the yearA SLJ Best Book of the yearA Rise: A Feminist Book Project honoreeA Chicago Public Library Best Book of the yearAmazon August Editors' pick for Best Young Adult“The novel tells each sister’s story in ways that are moving and show how understandable the decisions they make are, even when they can’t empathize with one another…. Onoseta explores a range of social issues, including class, colorism, intergenerational trauma, and colonization, through a masterfully crafted and diverse cast of characters. This nonlinear narrative presents a universal story: girls striving to find their way in a patriarchal society. A stunning and emotional debut.” -- Kirkus Reviews, starred review“Onoseta’s devastatingly vulnerable debut, told nonlinearly in two teen Nigerian girls’ dual perspectives, portrays a tempestuous sisterhood amid colorism, familial trauma, and financial precarity…. Onoseta uses visceral prose to sensitively depict Zam and Cheta’s home life and the abuse they endured. The teens’ complicated familial relationships, further ravaged by wealth disparities and societal presumptions, presents an arresting look at two girls embarking on diverging futures in a character-driven story that promises—and delivers—hope for a brighter tomorrow.”-- Publishers Weekly, starred review"Debut author Onoseta’s novel offers exceptionally rich character development…. Modern social and political issues are masterfully woven into the narrative.... An unforgettable, character-driven exploration of sisterhood, survival, and self-advocacy perfect for fans of Elizabeth Acevedo or Ibi Zoboi." -- School Library Journal, starred review"An extraordinary debut." -- The Buffalo News"Debut Nigerian author Rimma Onoseta deftly explores classism, colorism and cycles of abuse." -- Culturess [H] Workman Publishing | August 09, 2022 1.3" H x 8.3" L x 5.7" W (0.9 lbs) 336 pages

How You Grow Wings /// Rimma Onoseta

THIS BOOK WILL BE RELEASED MAY 16, 2023. A delicious dive into cuisines from all over the world, featuring more than 70 recipes that teach need-to-know cooking techniques and build confidence for anyone who wants a seat at the chopping board, stove, and table—from a Top Chef Junior finalist.In this approachable cookbook, Rahanna Bisseret Martinez shares how to make food from around the world that respects the earth, workers, and consumers. A college freshman who has already cooked in the finest restaurants, she serves up lessons, tips, and tricks she has learned since her culinary career began at age thirteen, including techniques for everything from roasting and stir frying to pickling and infusing. The desserts and drinks chapters are perfect for hosting and making everyday meals special. Flavor+Us is filled with stories from Rahanna’s experiences learning to cook in her family’s Californian kitchen, her time competing on Top Chef Junior, and the restaurants where she learned what cooking in community means.Flavor+Us features recipes from: Mexico: Masa Doughnuts with Earl Gray Glaze Haiti: Makawoni au Graten Cuba: Frijoles Negros Korea: Yachaejeon with Cho Ganjang China: Dry-Fried Green Beans The Philippines: Dungeness Crab Tinola Japan: Trinity Korokke Vietnam: New Orleans-Style Vietnamese Iced Coffee Ethiopia: Miser Wot Jamaica: Jerk Eggplant Steaks And more! This is the ideal resource for new cooks and anyone who wants to refine the basics. All are welcome at Rahanna’s table. BIO Rahanna Bisseret Martinez began cooking earlier than most. She was the second-place finisher on season one of Top Chef Junior, after which she began interning around the world: at Dominique Ansel Bakery LA, Chez Panisse, Broken Spanish, Gwen LA, Wolfgang Puck at Hotel Bel Air, Emeril’s, Compere Lapin, Californios, Reem’s, Dyafa, Merchant Roots, Ms. Chi Café, Tartine Bakery, Mister Jiu’s, and Ikoyi. Rahanna contributes recipes to the San Francisco Chronicle, the Today show, and many others. She lives in Oakland, California, with her family. REVIEWS “The recipes in Flavor+Us are like the author herself: smart, considerate, curious, warm, and joyful. Rahanna Bisseret Martinez makes me not only hungry for what she’s cooking, but also optimistic for the future simply by being who she is and showing us what it looks like to have a global, connected, and informed approach to cooking.” -- Julia Turshen, bestselling cookbook author of Simply Julia, Now & Again, Feed the Resistance and Small Victories“With Flavor+Us, Rahanna invites you to the table, teaches you something new, and makes cooking accessible and fun for everyone of all ages.” -- Cat Cora, 1st Female Iron Chef, 1st Female Inducted into the Culinary Hall of Fame, author, restaurateur, television host, philanthropist, and proud mother of six“Rahanna Bisseret Martinez is a talented cook who is much wiser than her years. [She] bridges cultures to show us that food is democratic, to be experienced and shared, so that we better understand ourselves and one another.” -- Andrea Nguyen, James Beard-Award winning author of The Pho Cookbook and Ever-Green Vietnamese“Like Rahanna herself, the recipes in Flavor+Us bubble over with joy, knowledge and enthusiasm. They are at once global in scope and local in heritage, unique, comforting, and most of all, deeply delicious! Rahanna’s ease in the kitchen and curiosity for the world around her are infectious and inspiring.” -- Gail Simmons, Food Expert, TV Host and Author of Bringing It Home: Favorite Recipes from a Life of Adventurous Eating“Rahanna Bisseret Martinez’s deep love for food is palpable right from the very start in her debut book, Flavor + Us. She brings new flavors and textures to the table in dishes like ‘Farmers Market Carbonara’, ‘Jerk Eggplant Steaks’, and ‘Creole Mushroom Hand Pies’—all from one of the most exciting young cooks of our generation.” -- Andy Baraghani, author of The Cook You Want to Be [H] 4 Color Books / May 16, 2023 240 pages

Flavor+Us: Cooking for Everyone /// Rahanna Bisseret Martinez /// pre

High Spirits is a collection of eleven interconnected short stories from the Dominican diaspora, from debut author Camille Gomera-Tavarez. It is a book centered on one extended family – the Beléns – across multiple generations. It is set in the fictional small town of Hidalpa – and Santo Domingo and Paterson and San Juan and Washington Heights too. It is told in a style both utterly real and distinctly magical – and its stories explore machismo, mental health, family, and identity. But most of all, High Spirits represents the first book from Camille Gomera-Tavarez, who takes her place as one of the most extraordinary new voices to emerge in years. BIO Camille Gomera-Tavarez is an Afro-Dominican writer, designer, and creative from New Jersey. She has a BFA in Graphic Design & Creative Writing from the Maryland Institute College of Art and is currently based in Philadelphia, PA. Her debut short story collection, High Spirits, received critical acclaim and was named a Pura Belpré Honor Book. REVIEWS Authentic and immersive…A labor of love imbued with dedication to family.” -- Kirkus (starred) “Deeply personal and relatable. Steeped in nostalgia and harsh but fierce love, this is a memorable family saga in its own right.” -- Booklist (starred) “Full of vivid and poetic imagery… settings worthy of drinking in, and thematic material ripe for contemplation about identity, intergenerational memory, and patriarchy and toxic masculinity, Gomera-Tavarez’s soulfully crafted debut is a sensitive, intrinsically feminist work.” -- Publishers Weekly (starred) “A magical and unflinching look at the Dominican Diaspora." -- Dominican Writers Association [H] Levine Querido / April 12, 2022 0.89" H x 8.6" L x 6.03" W (1.08 lbs) 224 pages

High Spirits /// Camille Gomera-Tavarez

#1 New York Times Bestselling and award-winning author of The Undefeated, Kwame Alexander, pens a powerful picture book that tells the story of American slavery through the voice of a teacher struggling to help her students understand its harrowing history. From the fireside tales in an African village, through the unspeakable passage across the Atlantic, to the backbreaking work in the fields of the South, this is a story of a people’s struggle and strength, horror and hope. This is the story of American slavery, a story that needs to be told and understood by all of us. A testament to the resilience of the African American community, this book honors what has been and envisions what is to be. With stunning mixed-media illustrations by newcomer Dare Coulter, this is a potent book for those who want to speak the truth. Perfect for family sharing, the classroom, and homeschooling. BIO Kwame Alexander is the New York Times bestselling author of more than thirty books, including his Newbery Medal-winning novel The Crossover and The Undefeated, winner of the Caldecott Medal and Newbery Honor. He is the founding editor of Versify, which aims to change the world one word at a time. REVIEWS An Indie Next List Pick "Beautifully crafted and brutally honest, this offers a thoughtful introduction to a necessary topic." -- Booklist, starred review "With powerful art from a bold new talent, this is a probing and sensitive take on a devastating chapter of U.S. history." -- Kirkus, starred review "Alexander and Coulter have created a powerful counternarrative in their efforts to answer the question, “How do you tell a story about slavery?” -- Horn Book, starred review "A layered, compassionate telling that considers how to relay difficult truths, and as the art converges into a visual of past and present together, stirring concluding lines suggest a route forward." -- Publisher's Weekly, starred review [H] Little, Brown Books for Young Readers / January 03, 2023 0.6" H x 10.1" L x 10.1" W (1.28 lbs) 56 pages

An American Story /// Kwame Alexander

Take charge of your family’s food security by learning how to grow your own fruits, vegetables, and herbs—and right along with them, you’ll nurture your own inner strength, too.Food insecurity affects millions of people worldwide. Without access to well-stocked stores or nutritious, fresh foods, those living in “food deserts” face more hunger and health issues than communities where a diversity of food is plentiful. With the inspiration and knowledge found in How to Become a Gardener, self-reliance and food autonomy are within reach for anyone willing to get a little dirt under their nails and dig in. Author, health coach, and food security advocate Ashlie Thomas of The Mocha Gardener (@the.mocha.gardener) serves as an experienced and encouraging guide on your journey toward self-empowerment through the cultivation of your own homegrown harvests. With a spirit of respect for others, for nature, and for community, Ashlie walks you step by step through not only the practical ins and outs of gardening—from seed starting to making the harvest—but also through the personal challenges and lessons found within the act of gardening itself. Regardless of whether you only have space to grow in a few pots or you have enough room for multiple raised beds or an in-ground garden, you’ll find freedom and wellnessthrough the food you grow, along with patience, compassion, and perspective. How to Become a Gardener focuses on: What makes a space a garden and how to get one started How gardens can be a symbol of resilience in challenging times Finding what motivates you to grow and using it to cultivate nutrient-dense, homegrown harvests Why reclaiming your food authority is one of the most empowering things you can do for you and your family The importance of finding personal freedom by growing your own garden-to-table food How the garden grows you just as much as you grow the garden How to Become a Gardener is about growing food, yes. But it’s also about finding your strength through gardening, reclaiming your food authority, discovering your motivation, and learning that no matter what your garden yields,it’s always worth the wait. BIO Ashlie Thomas is a food security and home gardening advocate known on social media as The Mocha Gardener. Several years ago, Ashlie began her gardening journey with her husband on their one-acre North Carolina homestead. Through gardening, she has become more conscientious of local food systems and the health of the environment. Ashlie’s love for wellness and the environment fueled her passion to grow food and bring awareness through practice to growing issues of food insecurity in vulnerable communities around the country. After spending her childhood in a rural community that lacked sufficient access to nutritious foods, she understood that one way to address this barrier is through learning how to grow food and educating others on what quality foods consists of and from where it originates. Ashlie not only believes that her garden may serve as a spiritually enlightening place to ground and regenerate, but also as an opportunity to deeply connect and give reverence to what she feeds herself, her family, and her friends. It is her hope and mission to empower others to take control of their well-being through growing the very thing that sustains them…good, nutritious food. REVIEWS Ashlie's book speaks to the exact philosophy I myself adhere to – becoming a gardener, rather than simply learning how to grow plants. This is a small but crucial distinction that she carries throughout her book, laying out a step-by-step process to reclaim ownership over the food you consume – by growing it yourself! A must-read for those looking to walk the path of a gardener.” -- Kevin Espiritu, Epic Gardening, author of Field Guide to Urban Gardening and Grow Bag Gardening“This is book we need right NOW. There are many books that answer the question of how to garden, but few that show us how to become a gardener! It’s more than just growing things; it is also honoring our symbiotic relationship with all of nature, down to the tiniest bug. Ashlie serves as our knowledgeable guide in exploring both, in this beautifully written and illustrated book.” -- Kamili Bell Hill, @plantblerd“Bursting with encouragement, information, and heart, woven together through colorful photography, Ashlie has written an inspiring roadmap that will guide you to become a conscious and grateful steward of your burgeoning garden, both inside and out.” -- Meg Cowden, @seedtofork, author of Plant Grow Harvest Repeat“How to Become a Gardener covers the basics of how to start a garden from scratch for the first-time gardener, provides advice and emotional support to help through the challenges, and dives into the philosophy behind why gardening can transform our lives in the most beautiful of ways. With this book we can not only transform our lives and take control of our health, but also overcome food insecurity and create resilient communities. Unlike many gardening books, Ashlie is inclusive of our most vulnerable communities, making this book a true solution for many who are often left out of the conversation. To grow our own food is to begin the transformation of ourselves and our communities. How to Become a Gardener is the tool of empowerment that is needed by so many to begin this transformation.” -- Rob Greenfield, environmental activist and author of Food Freedom "...is a beautiful encapsulation of Thomas's love and appreciation for gardening that has everything you need to grow your own food and become the gardener you want to be." -- Washington Gardener Magazine [P] Cool Springs Press / November 01, 2022 0.8" H x 9.7" L x 8.3" W (1.45 lbs) 208 pages

How to Become a Gardener: Find Empowerment in Creating Your Own Food Security /// Ashlie Thomas

THIS BOOK WILL BE RELEASED APRIL 4, 2023. Mother-daughter duo, Tekebash and Saba, tell their story and the story of their homeland, Ethiopia, through cherished recipes and family memories. A touching, personal cookbook that tells a larger story of family, history, and the refugee experience.Mother–daughter duo Tekebash and Saba tell their story, and the story of their homeland, Ethiopia, through the lens of food, demonstrating how sharing food from another culture can offer us all a path forward, towards empathy and understanding, and a world that is more cohesive and connected.Born in Tigray, Tekebash escaped the civil war at the age of 17 to join other refugees in Sudan. She has been on a migration journey ever since. Despite having spent more time abroad than she has at home, she is unequivocally Tigre and has worked with food all her life. Her restaurant, Saba’s Ethiopia, brings Ethiopian food and culture to Melbourne.Tekebash not only worked with food but loved her daughter Saba through food. The recipes in this book are its backbone and the structure around which personal and cultural stories are woven. BIO Born in Sudan to Ethiopian parents, Saba Alemayoh arrived in Australia with her mother when she was 9 years old. She left high-school at the end of year 12, joined the army, and became an officer—she hated it but stayed for 5 years and was in the first era of women in the Australian army to go into combat.Her mother, Tekebash, was born under the rule of the last Ethiopian emperor, Haile Selassie. Tekebash became a refugee in Sudan at the time of the rebellion during the transition in the 1990s from communism to a democratic government. [H] Interlink Books / April 04, 2023 208 pages

Tekebash and Saba: Recipes from an East African Kitchen /// Saba Alemayoh /// pre

Winner of the 2021 PEN/Bellwether Prize for Socially Engaged Fiction, a thought-provoking and enchanting debut about a Black woman doing whatever it takes to protect all she loves at the beginning of the civil rights movement in Alabama. It’s 1957, and after leaving the only home she has ever known, Alice Young steps off the bus into the all-Black town of New Jessup, Alabama, where residents have largely rejected integration as the means for Black social advancement. Instead, they seek to maintain, and fortify, the community they cherish on their “side of the woods.” In this place, Alice falls in love with Raymond Campbell, whose clandestine organizing activities challenge New Jessup’s longstanding status quo and could lead to the young couple’s expulsion—or worse—from the home they both hold dear. But as Raymond continues to push alternatives for enhancing New Jessup’s political power, Alice must find a way to balance her undying support for his underground work with her desire to protect New Jessup from the rising pressure of upheaval from inside, and outside, their side of town.Jamila Minnicks’s debut novel is both a celebration of Black joy and a timely examination of the opposing viewpoints that attended desegregation in America. Readers of Brit Bennett’s The Vanishing Half and Robert Jones, Jr.’s The Prophets will love Moonrise Over New Jessup. BIO Jamila Minnicks is the author of Moonrise Over New Jessup, the 2021 winner of the PEN/Bellwether Prize for Socially Engaged Fiction. Her work is also published in CRAFT Literary Magazine, The Write Launch, and The Silent World in Her Vase. Her piece "Politics of Distraction" was nominated for a Pushcart Prize. She is a graduate of the University of Michigan, the Howard University School of Law, and Georgetown University. She lives in Washington, DC. Find her at www.jamila-minnicks.com. REVIEWS"With compelling characters and a heart-pounding plot, Jamila Minnicks pulled me into pages of history I’d never turned before." --Barbara Kingsolver "An immersive and timely recasting of history by a gloriously talented writer to watch. You will fall in love with New Jessup: the town and the book." -- Margaret Wilkerson Sexton, author of The Revisioners "Elegant and nuanced, Moonrise Over New Jessup is an incandescent work of art through-and-through, from a powerful new voice." -- Jason Mott, author of National Book Award winner Hell of a Book “The novel delves smartly into the distinction between the fight for equal rights and the fight for integration … Minnicks provides a nuanced and realistic portrayal of the personal costs of fighting for change.” -- The New York Times Book Review "An outstanding writer, Minnicks excels at capturing the atmosphere and issues of a specific locale at a particular time, the Deep South at the dawn of the civil rights era. This highly recommended title is an excellent choice for book discussion groups and would make a great movie.” -- Library Journal [H] Algonquin Books / January 10, 2023 1.8" H x 8.5" L x 6.4" W (1.05 lbs) 336 pages

Moonrise Over New Jessup /// Jamila Minnicks

Hardcovere

In this brilliant two-part memoir, the Pulitzer Prize–winning writer Hilton Als distills into one cocktail the deep and potent complexities of love and of loss, of Prince and of power, of desire and of race. It’s delicious and it’s got the kick of a mule, especially as Als swirls into his mix the downtown queer nightclub scene, the AIDS crisis, Prince’s ass in his tight little pants, an ill-fated peach pie, Dorothy Parker, and his desire for true love. Always surprising and stealthily—even painfully—moving, Als plumbs longing: “I inched closer to him as he danced to you, Prince. But already he was you, Prince, in my mind. He had the same coloring, and the same loneliness I wanted to fill with my admiration. I couldn’t love him enough. We were colored boys together. There is not enough of that in the world, Prince—but you know that. Still, when other people see that kind of fraternity they want to kill it. But we were so committed to each other, we never could work out what that violence meant. There was so much love between us. Why didn’t anyone want us to share it?” BIO The Pulitzer Prize–winner Hilton Als has been hailed as “exhilarating and audacious” (San Francisco Chronicle), “spectacular” (Bookforum), and “thoroughly wise” (Library Journal). He is a staff writer at The New Yorker and an Associate Professor at Columbia University School of the Arts. He lives in New York City. REVIEWS If we don’t know what love is until we look Prince in the eye and need him forever after, then maybe we’re his pinups and puppets and he’s translating for us an emotion we’ve kept so remote from our conscious minds that he has to go beneath his soul to dig it up. That is the solace of Als’s close encounters, his flash of a songbook—that it honors Prince’s commitment to being untranslatable, unsampleable. -- Harmony Holiday, Bookforum Als has perfected the difficult art of being a discerning fan. -- Tiana Ried, Bomb Who could be a better guide to Prince—to his polymorphous sexuality, his gleeful dismantling of the racial compartmentalization of American popular music, his seemingly effortless sprezzatura as a performer—than Hilton Als? -- Paul Scott Stanfield, Ploughshares A triumph of loving erudition. -- Raúl Niño, Booklist [A] world of difficult loves and lovers…What Prince had—and, by comparison, no one else has ever had—was style, by which I mean insolence, which offers its own kind of protection. He could show his ass (a high compliment). This was something Als learned to do “through language.” It was defiance through prowess. -- Blair McClendon, 4Columns [P] New Directions Publishing Corporation / November 01, 2022 0.3" H x 7.0" L x 4.4" W (0.12 lbs) 48 pages

My Pinup /// Hilton Als

The fates of two unforgettable women—one just beginning a journey of reckoning and self-discovery and the other completing her life’s last vital act—intertwine in this sweeping, powerful novel set at the terminus of the Underground Railroad.In the 1800s in Dunmore, a Canadian town settled by people fleeing enslavement in the American south, young Lensinda Martin works for a crusading Black journalist.One night, a neighboring farmer summons Lensinda after a slave hunter is shot dead on his land by an old woman who recently arrived via the Underground Railroad. When the old woman refuses to flee before the authorities arrive, the farmer urges Lensinda to gather testimony from her before she can be condemned for the crime.But the old woman doesn’t want to confess. Instead she proposes a barter: a story for a story. And so begins an extraordinary exchange of tales that reveal an interwoven history of Black and Indigenous peoples in a wide swath of what is called North America.As time runs out, Lensinda is challenged to uncover her past and face her fears in order to make good on the bargain of a story for a story. And it seems the old woman may carry a secret that could shape Lensinda’s destiny.Traveling along the path of the Underground Railroad from Virginia to Michigan, from the Indigenous nations around the Great Lakes, to the Black refugee communities of Canada, In the Upper Country weaves together unlikely stories of love, survival, and familial upheaval that map the interconnected history of the peoples of North America in an entirely new and resonant way. BIO Kai Thomas is a writer, carpenter, and land steward. He is Afro-Canadian, born and raised in Ottawa, descended from Trinidad and the British Isles. In the Upper Country is his first novel. REVIEWS “Kai Thomas’ In the Upper Country is a sweeping epic that imagines all the ways our ancestors tried to get free. This is an exciting new voice in fiction, as interested in the complexities of land and belonging as in the vagaries of human love and connection.” -- Kaitlyn Greenidge, author of Libertie “Stories within stories; until I read them, I hadn’t realised these are ones I’d long been wanting, needing even. In this remarkable debut, Kai Thomas fills out the picture of a place, a time, peoples and their relationships, all previously neglected in the day-to-day unfolding of the nations. His immensely compelling details, and a host of voices so well-wrought you can see and hear the speakers long after you’ve finished reading, will leave you eager to see what he’ll do next.” -- Shani Mootoo, author of Polar Vortex“In the Upper Country is not only fiction alive with history; it is historic… In the Upper Country reminds me—yes—of Lawrence Hill’s Book of Negroes and Ernest J. Gaines’s A Lesson Before Dying. And practically every page turns up a sentence or a phrase that could have been penned by Toni Morrison or James Baldwin… a gift of lyric genius to enthrall all—and to educate Afro-Métis people about the love and courage that enabled their creation.” -- George Elliott Clarke, Author of Where Beauty Survived: An Africadian Memoir“Canadian history has long oppressed and neglected the Black and Indigenous stories at the foundation of the society that now exists here. That systemic erasure has deprived generations of Canadians the opportunity to learn about the historic kinship between Black and Indigenous peoples. But now, in the spirit of storytelling that has helped these cultures survive despite the horrors of history, a tremendous novel has emerged to fill that void. In the Upper Country enlightens and empowers in a way few other literary sagas can, by humanizing people who have long been historical footnotes and bringing their stories to the centre. Kai Thomas is a visionary, an advocate, and overall a groundbreaking storytelling voice who has now contributed a classic to this country’s canon. This novel will resonate for generations to come.” -- Waubgeshig Rice, bestselling author of Moon of the Crusted Snow“[In In the Upper Country], Thomas makes superb use of [the tale for a tale] framework, with the stories building upon one another until they reach a surprising and satisfying conclusion…Thomas uses evocative detail and immersive description to explore slavery in Canada, a country that has been mythologized as an escape from the institution…[In the Upper Country] is a testament to the power of story and the veneration of those whose tales are often forgotten in mainstream media.” -- New York Times Book Review [H] Viking / January 10, 2023 1.25" H x 9.27" L x 6.34" W (1.18 lbs) 352 pages

In The Upper Country /// Kai Tomas

WINNER OF THE NAACP IMAGE AWARD FOR OUTSTANDING LITERARY WORK–YOUTH/TEENS!It's a summer of family, friendship, and fun fiascos in this acclaimed novel that's as irresistible as a fresh-baked cookie. Ellis Bailey Johnson has the summertime blues. Instead of hanging out with friends, listening to music, and playing his harmonica, Ellis has to help bring his dad’s latest farfetched, sure-to-fail idea to life: open the world’s first chocolate chip cookie store.They have six weeks to perfect their recipe, get a run-down A-frame storefront on Hollywood’s Sunset Boulevard into tip-top shape, and bring in customers. But nothing goes according to plan, especially when family secrets start to surface. Can Ellis bake up a happy ending?Partially based on Shawn Amos’s own experiences growing up the son of Wally “Famous” Amos, and packed with humor, heart, and fun illustrations, this debut novel sings with the joy of self-discovery, unconditional love, and community.“Shawn Amos has written a beautiful story of family and music, of growing up and having adventures, of business building and character building, that is at once very specific and universal. I love Cookies and Milk as much as I love cookies and milk.” –Lisa See, New York Times bestselling and award winning author of Snow Flower and the Secret Fan and Shanghai Girls BIO As a kid, award-winning author Shawn Amos helped his dad, Wally "Famous" Amos, open the world's first chocolate chip cookie store on the corner of Sunset Boulevard and Formosa Avenue in Hollywood, California. Shawn is now a dad himself to three great kids, and he sings and plays harmonica as blues singer "The Reverend Shawn Amos." Cookies & Milk is his first novel. He invites you to visit him online at ShawnAmos.com/author. REVIEWS A Junior Library Guild Selection An NAACP Image Award winner for Outstanding Literary Work - Youth/Teens "Shawn Amos has written a beautiful story of family and music, of growing up and having adventures, of business building and character building, that is at once very specific and universal. I love Cookies and Milk as much as I love cookies and milk." -- Lisa See, New York Times bestselling and award winning author of Snow Flower and the Secret Fan and Shanghai Girls "Full of heart and humor….A wholesome story that bridges generations." -- Kirkus "Offbeat and enchanting. The humorous narration is breezy and conversational …there are also exquisite descriptions of musical transcendence, an uplifting community, and a gorgeous father-son relationship that evolves and deepens throughout. A sweet treat with a warm center." -- Booklist "Amos’s energetic prose encourages pride in one's culture. Championing interpersonal bonds, be they found family or blood relatives, the narrative also emphasizes unconditional love and one community’s impact on a boy shaping his identity." -- Publishers Weekly "Sets a fantastic scene…. Music, family dynamics, friends, and cookies are all delivered with imagery so strong that readers will taste those cookies." -- School Library Journal [H] Little, Brown Books for Young Readers / May 24, 2022 1.11" H x 7.92" L x 5.6" W (0.82 lbs) 320 pages

Cookies & Milk /// Shawn Amos

Lyrical, affirmational, and bursting with love, We Are Here is a poignant story about Black and brown heritage and community. Full of assurance, tenderness, and triumph, this much-anticipated follow-up to the New York Times bestselling picture book All Because You Matter offers an equally inspirational and arresting ode to all of the Black women and men throughout history who have made momentous contributions from the beginning of time. Tami Charles shares the beauty and excellence in the history of the Black community, assuring Black and brown children of the extraordinary legacy from which they come. Charles's powerful and empowering text is accompanied with illustrations by renowned artist Bryan Collier, a four-time Caldecott Honor recipient and a nine-time Coretta Scott King Award winner or honoree. We Are Here celebrates readers with pride, joy, and love, reminding them of their roots, inviting readers to imagine a future that shines ever bright, and strengthening them for their triumphant days to come! BIO Tami Charles is a former teacher and full-time author of picture books, middle grade and young adult novels, and nonfiction. As a teacher, she made it her mission to introduce her students to all types of literature, but especially diverse books. While it was refreshing to see a better selection than what she was accustomed to as a child, Tami felt there weren’t nearly as many diverse books as she’d hoped for. It was then that she decided to reignite her passion for writing. Tami is the author of the middle grade novel Like Vanessa (2018) and the picture book Freedom Soup (Candlewick Press, 2019). Bryan Collier is an American writer and illustrator known best for illustrating children's books. He won both the Coretta Scott King Award, as illustrator, and the Ezra Jack Keats New Illustrator Award for Uptown, the first book he both wrote and illustrated. REVIEWS "A triumphant, encouraging tone permeates the messages to young people of color... asserting recognition and illuminating possibilities for their future." -- School Library Journal, starred review * "A powerful narrative about Black yesterdays that have built the foundation for all our tomorrows." -- Kirkus Reviews, starred review * "Collaborators Charles and Collier meld pithy, free-verse lines and saturated illustrations to form an empowering treatise that celebrates the Black diaspora across time and space.​​​​​​" -- Publishers Weekly, starred review "In storytelling dotted with words in Spanish and other languages, laid against Collier’s lush, gem-toned imagery, the book weaves a unifying and empowering narrative of Black people connected across bodies of water, bonded by a common identity..." -- Nikkole Hannah-Jones, New York Times Book Review "A stunning ode to legacies built from the past and those yet to come." -- Jacqueline Woodson, National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature (2018–2019) [H] Orchard Books / January 03, 2023 0.5" H x 10.1" L x 10.2" W (1.1 lbs) 40 pages

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