J. California Cooper

J. California Cooper first found acclaim as a playwright. The author of seventeen plays, she was named Black Playwright of the Year in 1978. It was through her work in the theater that she caught the attention of acclaimed poet and novelist Alice Walker. Encouraged by Walker to turn her popular storytelling skills to fiction, Cooper wrote her first collection of short stories, A Piece of Mine, in 1984. Called "rich in wisdom and insight" and "a book that's worth reading," A Piece of Mine introduced Cooper's trademark style: her intimate and energetic narration, sympathetic yet sometimes troubled characters, and the profound moral messages that underlie seemingly simple stories. Two more story collections followed on the heels of A Piece of

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Terry McMillan

Terry McMillan is an African-American author. Her interest in books comes from working at a library when she was fourteen. She received her BA in journalism in 1986 from the University of California at Berkeley and the MFA Film Program at Columbia University. Her work is characterized by strong female protagonists.

Her first book, Mama, was self-promoted. She achieved national attention in 1992 with her third novel, Waiting to Exhale, which remained on The New York Times bestseller list for many months. Forest Whitaker turned it into a film in 1995. In 1998, another of McMillan's novels, How Stella Got Her Groove Back, was made into a movie. McMillan's novel Disappearing Acts was subsequently produced as a direct-to-cable feature.

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Victoria Christopher Murray

Victoria Christopher Murray is the author of nine Essence bestselling novels, including The Ex Files; Too Little, Too Late; and Lady Jasmine. Winner of the African American Literary Award for Fiction and Author of the Year (Female).

She has received numerous awards including the Golden Pen Award for Best Inspirational Fiction and the Phyllis Wheatley Trailblazer Award for being a pioneer in African American Fiction. Since 2007, Victoria has won nine African American Literary Awards for best novel, best Christian fiction and Author of the Year — Female. After four nominations, Victoria finally won an NAACP Image Award in Outstanding Literary Work for her social commentary novel, Stand Your Ground.

Victoria splits her time between Los Angeles a
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Mary Monroe

I am the third child of Alabama sharecroppers and the first and only member of my family to finish high school. I never attended college or any writing classes. I taught myself how to write and started writing short stories around age four. I spent the first part of my life in Alabama and Ohio and moved to Richmond, California in 1973. I have lived in Oakland since 1984.

My first novel THE UPPER ROOM was published by St. Martin's Press in 1985 and was widely reviewed throughout the U.S. and in Great Britain. An excerpt is included in Terry McMillan's anthology BREAKING ICE. I endured fifteen years and hundreds of more rejection letters before I landed a contract for my second novel, GOD DON'T LIKE UGLY. It was published in October 2000 by Ke
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Bernice L. McFadden

BERNICE L. McFADDEN is the author of ten critically acclaimed novels including Praise Song for the Butterflies (Long listed for the 2019 Women's Prize in Fiction ) The Book of Harlan (winner of a 2017 American Book Award and the NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Literary Work, Fiction) Sugar, Loving Donovan, Nowhere Is a Place, The Warmest December, Gathering of Waters (a New York Times Editors’ Choice and one of the 100 Notable Books of 2012) and Glorious . She is a four-time Hurston/Wright Legacy Award finalist, as well as the recipient of four awards from the Black Caucus of the American Library Association (BCALA).
McFadden has also penned five novels under the pseudonym: Geneva Holliday
She is a visiting assistant professor of creative
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Tayari Jones

Tayari Jones is the author of the novels Leaving Atlanta, The Untelling, Silver Sparrow, and An American Marriage (Algonquin Books, February 2018). Her writing has appeared in Tin House, The Believer, The New York Times, and Callaloo. A member of the Fellowship of Southern Writers, she has also been a recipient of the Hurston/Wright Legacy Award, Lifetime Achievement Award in Fine Arts from the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation, United States Artist Fellowship, NEA Fellowship and Radcliffe Institute Bunting Fellowship. Silver Sparrow was named a #1 Indie Next Pick by booksellers in 2011, and the NEA added it to its Big Read Library of classics in 2016. Jones is a graduate of Spelman College, University of Iowa, and Arizona State Univers
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Daniel Black

Daniel Black is a native of Kansas City, Kansas, yet spent the majority of his childhood years in Blackwell, Arkansas. He is an associate professor at his alma mater, Clark Atlanta University, where he now aims to provide an example to young Americans of the importance of self-knowledge and communal commitment. He is the author of "They Tell Me of a Home" and "The Sacred Place".
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Lerone Bennett Jr.

Lerone Bennett Jr. was an African-American scholar, author and social historian, known for his analysis of race relations in the United States.
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Dolen Perkins-Valdez

Dolen Perkins-Valdez is the New York Times bestselling author most recently TAKE MY HAND (2022). Take My Hand was awarded the 2023 NAACP Image Award for Literary Work-Fiction and the BCALA Fiction Award. It was named a Most Anticipated Book of 2022 in Newsweek, San Francisco Chronicle, Essence, NBC News, and elsewhere, and it was an IndieNext and LibraryReads pick for April 2022. The Washington Post called it "a jewel of a book." Her other novels include Wench (2010) and Balm (2015).

Dolen has established herself as a pre-eminent chronicler of American historical life. In 2017, HarperCollins released her first novel Wench as one of eight "Olive Titles," limited edition modern classics that included books by Edward P. Jones, Louise Erdrich, a
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Chevy Stevens

CHEVY STEVENS lives on Vancouver Island with her husband and daughter. When she’s not working on her next book, she’s spending time with her family and their two dogs. Chevy's debut novel, STILL MISSING, was a New York Times bestseller and won the International Thriller Writers Award for Best First Novel. Her books, including THOSE GIRLS which Stephen King called "incredibly scary" have been published in more than thirty countries. Her eighth novel, THE HITCHHIKERS, is out Oct.7/25

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Tracey Garvis Graves

Tracey Garvis Graves is the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and USA Today bestselling author of contemporary fiction. Her debut novel, On the Island, spent 9 weeks on the New York Times bestseller list, has been translated into thirty-six languages, and is in development for a feature film. She is also the author of Uncharted, Covet, Every Time I Think of You, Cherish, Heart-Shaped Hack, White-Hot Hack, The Girl He Used to Know, Heard It in a Love Song, and The Trail of Lost Hearts. She is hard at work on her next book.

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Kiese Laymon

Kiese Laymon is a black southern writer, born and raised in Jackson, Mississippi. Laymon attended Millsaps College and Jackson State University before graduating from Oberlin College. He earned an MFA from Indiana University and is the author of the forthcoming novel, Long Division in June 2013 and a collection of essays, How to Slowly Kill Yourself and Others in America in August 2013. Laymon is a contributing editor at gawker.com. He has written essays and stories for numerous publications including Esquire, ESPN.com, NPR, Gawker, Truthout.com, Longman’s Hip Hop Reader, Mythium and Politics and Culture. Laymon is currently an Associate Professor of English, Creative Writing and co-director of Africana Studies at Vassar College.
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Danielle Allen

Diversity in Romance Advocate.
Life Coach.

XOXO
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Nikole Hannah-Jones

Nikole Hannah-Jones is an American investigative journalist known for her coverage of civil rights in the United States. In April 2015, she became a staff writer for The New York Times.
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Camilla Sten

Camilla Sten is a writer, and her publisher made the mistake of letting her set this author page up by herself. She is best known for her internationally bestselling novel "The Lost Village", which has sold to 19 countries, and has written books ranging from YA fantasy to contemporary thrillers.

Camilla lives in Sweden with her American boyfriend and two fluffy, evil cats. She is quite enjoying talking about herself in the third person, and might keep it going after she's submitted this author bio.
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Weike Wang

Weike Wang is a graduate of Harvard University, where she earned her undergraduate degree in chemistry and her doctorate in public health. She received her MFA from Boston University. Her fiction has been published in or is forthcoming from Alaska Quarterly Review, Glimmer Train, The Journal, Ploughshares, Redivider, and SmokeLong Quarterly.
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Octavia Grant

Octavia Grant found her passion for Creative Writing in 2002, while a Junior in high school. She began writing professionally in 2016, two years later she decided to take the reins of her literary career and became an Independent Author. As an Independent Author, Octavia has penned over 30 novels. She’s spoken on the Thriller Author Panel at ESSENCE Fest, been interviewed by Narrator iiKane, interviewed by Literary Reviewer and Movie Commentator Tamara Walker of Tam Telling Tales, featured in magazines WYB Lifestyle, VoyageJacksonville, Canvas Rebel, named in 160 Black Women In Horror. Octavia's psychological thriller novella, Dear Vicky, was the winner of Black Girls Who Write It’s Lit Award for Best Black Mystery/Suspense, Audio In Black
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Bella Jay

Miami bred, Bella Jay (born Precious Rodgers) has had a love for books since she was a little girl. Getting lost in them was a favorite past time but writing them has become a true love. In 2018, with a little push she stepped out on faith and released her first novel to the world allowing her writer alter ego, Bella Jay, to take flight into the writing industry.

She writes spicy & contemporary Black romance books with unapologetically flawed characters who she loves to fix.

When she’s not wrapped up in her characters, she can be found traveling the world, building her empire, sipping on tea or wine while reading a book, and wishing healthy eats were pancakes or cupcakes.
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Natasha Bishop

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Luci Adams started out working in tax before moving into copywriting, creating social posts for Apple Music, and assisting with Amazon and BBC productions at Working Title Television. She now works as a senior analyst at The Guardian by day and writes uproariously funny and inventive rom coms by night. Not That Kind of Ever After is her debut novel.
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Kerryn Mayne is an author, former wedding photographer, and current police officer. When not at work attempting to solve crime, she is writing about it or preparing an endless stream of snacks for her four children. Kerryn lives in the bayside suburbs of Melbourne with her husband, children and a highly suspect lovebird. She only owns 11 copies of The Hobbit (for now).
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Venita Blackburn

Venita Blackburn is an English instructor at Arizona State University. Her stories have appeared in numerous publications, including American Short Fiction, Faultline, the Georgia Review, and SmokeLong Quarterly. She was awarded a Bread Loaf fellowship and a Pushcart Prize nomination in 2014.
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