Kimbilio Fellow Renee Simms (’13, ’15) anchored a panel at AWP 2016 in Los Angeles on the subject of black writers in a white world. JADED IBIS published an extended version of her introductory remarks. Where Writers of African Ancestry in America Find Themselves There has never been a consensus or even a plurality agreement […]
A 2015 Kresge Artist Fellow, Desiree Cooper is a former attorney, Pulitzer Prize-nominated journalist and Detroit community activist. Her fiction and poetry have appeared in Callaloo, Detroit Noir, Best African American Fiction 2010, and Tidal Basin Review, among other online and print publications. Cooper was a founding board member of Cave Canem, a national residency for emerging […]
Stories by Dianca and Nicole have been selected by Stuart Dybek from one hundred finalists and semi-finalists for inclusion in the 2016 edition of THE BEST SMALL FICTIONS. The book is scheduled for release in late October. Read more here about the THE BEST SMALL FICTIONS 2016.
ROMEO NO. 3 Robert don’t need no help pulling girls, now. But when the Dream Date came to Burrell for its Hometown Hunks series, I just had to jump at my chance. See, I’m the type of brother that’s always taking chances. Be it quitting school to become an entrepreneur—because I’m going to have my […]
THE SATURDAY RUMPUS INTERVIEW: ANGELA FLOURNOY BY DEESHA PHILYAW February 13th, 2016 As a faculty member at the Kimbilio Center for African American Fiction’s summer 2015 retreat in Taos, writer Angela Flournoy delivered a craft talk entitled “Talk Isn’t Cheap” that was part literary, part musicology, and 100% unexpected. She shared that Stevie Wonder’s 1973 […]
From DEATH AND TAXES: The first time I listened to Beyoncé’s “Formation,” I was en route to the Brooklyn Museum for an event commemorating Black History Month. While sitting in the back of a cab, I held my phone close to my face, trying to relate to what Black Twitter instantly embraced as a groundbreaking […]
Apogee Journal is excited to welcome Esmé-Michelle Watkins as our newest Fiction Editor on our editorial team. See what she has to say about being a writer and lawyer, literary justice, and the book that was so spectacular, she threw it against the wall. Apogee Journal [AJ]: Welcome to Apogee Journal! As a fiction writer […]
28, NO, MAKE THAT 30, ABSOLUTELY TRUE BLACK HISTORY FACTS ON THE OCCASION OF BLACK HISTORY MONTH 1. In 1857, frustrated by the number of informants undermining her efforts along the Underground Railroad, abolitionist Harriet Tubman printed up 500 “Stop Snitching” shirts and distributed them throughout the South. 2. Black History Month was in danger […]
What are you reading on the subway or in the waiting room today? I am currently reading Lan Samantha Chang‘s Hunger, and it’s one of the best decisions I’ve made so far this year. It’s a short story collection with a novella recommended to me by my friend Sara Finnerty Turgeon. The novella is nothing short […]
Daddy’s Boy by Dennis Norris II January 18, 2016 Art by Katelin Kinney 1. Open your mouth. Sing, boy. Rise up from your pew and praise Him. Take your hands off your hips. Don’t dance, don’t smile, just clap. Firm up those wrists and sing. Your mouth is His. Those lips? That voice? Speaking of […]
