A Hit Dog Will Holler by Selena Anderson Divorce twins, the girls could be cruel. Tiny’s stepdaughters May and Annie were strong beyond her understanding: smart mouthed, sensible, defiant. They had their own private kingdom of science fiction speak and candy jewelry and laughing fits brought on mostly by spelling Mississippi as fast as possible. […]
Novelist Tayari Jones talked with Ravi Howard on the occasion of the publication of his latest book,“Driving the King.” This is their conversation. Tayari Jones: So first off, how is the weather down there? Ravi Howard: I almost hate to say it to people who are not down here, but we got into the 60s […]
Reviewed in the LA Times: With her 2006 fiction collection “Get Down,” Asali Solomon established herself as a short-form artist with a knack for writing misfits in black middle-class Philadelphia. Her first novel, “Disgruntled,” is a fitting follow-up — a smart, philosophical coming-of-age tale featuring a vivid protagonist who battles.. Read More Here: http://www.latimes.com/books/jacketcopy/la-ca-jc-asali-solomon-20150201-story.html
TELL THEM HOW YOU LOVE ME Our shelves are cluttered with photographs of us together, from our first, second, and third New Years, pictures of us kissing in chronology. There are snapshots of us at the beach squinting, of us standing in the woods that frame the towns where we grew up. You bring me […]
THIS WILD LIFE The children wriggled and cursed in the old SUV, summoning me to exhortations about proper car-riding behavior. “Y’all know better!” I warned. I turned down whatever music was playing. I did these things while I watched traffic conditions on 30th street, which, if you’re traveling east in Tacoma, has a precipitous, San […]
How To Hear Music Grow up with music—Sam & Dave and Dionne Warwick, The Temptations, The Supremes. MC Hammer, Michael Jackson, Teena Teena, Boys II Men. As a kid dance the electric slide with your cousins at weddings, and then, once you’ve moved south with your parents, re-learn. This time with a grape vine, the […]
Afro-Puerto Ricans encompass a dual heritage that provides a rich and unique cultural perspective. “Now We Will Be Happy” (University of Nebraska Press, $16.95) is a prize-winning collection of stories about Afro-Puerto Ricans, U.S. mainland-born Puerto Ricans and displaced native Puerto Ricans who are living between spaces while attempting to navigate the unique culture that […]
You Can Feel It Like a Demon, Swallowing You Slow: An Interview with Marlon James By Andrew Ervin | August 13th, 2014 – 09:00 am Marlon James is no longer a promising writer. He’s no longer a writer of enormous potential. That’s because his third novel A Brief History of Seven Killings places him securely among our most vital contemporary […]
Kinda Like Brothers author Coe Booth discusses her new children’s book and how her job as a caseworker informed her writing.
For those interested in culturally-specific craft… If White Characters Were Described Like People Of Color In Literature
