Sarai Johnson
I’m Sarai (pronounced Sara).
I’m a writing educator in the DC-Metropolitan Area with more than 10 years of experience. My career started in lifestyle journalism; I worked for The Indianapolis Star, The Alexandria Gazette, and DC Modern Luxury. I’ve worked with writing nonprofits Shout Mouse Press and Writopia Lab. I’ve also taught writing at Howard University and American University where I earned degrees in Journalism and Literature, respectively. I’m currently teaching full-time at Howard University while working on a second novel.
I grew up in the South (mostly Nashville, Tennessee) where I spent a lot of time hanging out by creeks and eating catfish (some of my favorite hobbies to this day).
I live in Alexandria, Virginia with my husband
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Herb Boyd is an awarding-winning American author and journalist who has published 17 books and countless articles for national magazines and newspapers. Brotherman:The Odyssey of Black Men in America: An Anthology (One World/Ballantine, 1995), co-edited with Robert Allen of the Black Scholar journal, won the American Book Award for nonfiction. In 1999, Boyd won three first place awards from the New York Association of Black Journalists for his articles published in the Amsterdam News.
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In 2006, Boyd worked with world music composer Yusef Lateef on his autobiography The Gentle Giant, which was published by Morton Books of New Jersey. In 2008, he published Baldwin's Harlem: A Biography of James Baldwin, and is working with filmmaker Keith Beau -
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Daniel Black
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Tanisha C. Ford
Tanisha C. Ford is a foremost voice, speaking at the intersection of politics and culture. She is an award-winning writer, cultural critic, and Associate Professor of Africana Studies & History at the University of Delaware. Tanisha is also a co-founder of TEXTURES, a pop-up material culture lab creating and curating content on bodies and the built environment. Her commitment to social justice and communities of color is evident in everything she produces.
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A native of a mid-sized Midwestern city most people have never heard of, Tanisha enjoys researching the histories of often-overlooked people and places. Her work centers on social movement history, feminism(s), material culture, the built environment, black life in the Rust Belt, girlhood -
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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.
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McFadden has also penned five novels under the pseudonym: Geneva Holliday
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Vanessa Miller
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Vanessa’s novels have received rave reviews, with several appearing on Essence Magazine’s Bestseller’s List. Miller’s work has receiving numerous awards, including “Best Christian Fiction Mahogany Award” and the “Red Rose Award for Excellence in Christian Fiction.” Miller graduated from Capital University with -
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Rhonda McKnight
Even as she pursued degrees in Textile Technology, Organizational Leadership and finally, Adult Education, Rhonda McKnight’s love for books and desire to write stories was always in the back of her mind and in the forefront of her heart. Rhonda loves reading and writing stories that touch the heart of women through complex plots and interesting characters in crisis. She writes from the comfort of her South Carolina home with black tea, potato chips and chocolate on hand. At her feet sits a snappy mixed breed dog. She can be reached at her website at www.rhondamcknight.com and on social media at www.facebook.com/booksbyrhonda www.twitter.com/rhondamcknight www.instagram.com/authorrhondamcknight
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Dolen Perkins-Valdez
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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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Renée’s one woman show, Roses are Red, Women are Blue, debuted at New York City's Lincoln Center at a showcase for emerging artists. Her poetry and articles have been published in Rethinking Schools, Theatre of the Mind and With Hearts Ablaze.
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Shanora Williams
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She currently lives near Charlotte, North Carolina and is the mother of three amazing boys, has a fiercely devoted and supportive husband, and is a sister to eleven.
When she isn’t writing, she’s spending time with her family, binge reading, or running marathons on TV streaming services. Visit her at shanorawilliams.com or interact with her on Instagram @reallyshanora.
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Kennedy Ryan
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I write contemporary romance and women's fiction. I always give my characters their happily ever after, but I love to make them work for it! It's a long road to love, so sit back and enjoy the ride.
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A graduate of Princeton University and the Bennington Writing Seminars, Jerkins is the current Senior Editor at ZORA of Medium and former Associate Editor at Catapult. She teaches at Columbia University's School of the Arts and most recently was the Picador Professor at Leipzig University in Germany.
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Cebo Campbell
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Nancy Johnson
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The Kindest Lie is a Book of the Month selection, an Amazon Editors' pick, as well as an IndieNext and LibraryReads pick. This novel was reviewed by the LA Times and The Washington Post. It has been named a most anticipated book of 2021 by O, the Oprah Magazine, Shondaland, Marie Claire, The Chicago Tribune, The New York Post, Good Hou -
Tati Richardson
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Born in Montgomery, AL, Erin grew up between the South and Los Angeles before moving to New York City to attend Barnard College. Eckstine worked in a variety of digital media internships and jobs before pivoting to education and earning a master’s in secondary English education from Stanford University.
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As a journalist, Fancher worked for The Philadelphia Inquirer, where he was an editor on the Foreign and News desks, and, as a reporter, he wrote features and covered higher education. He also worked for the Detroit Free Press, where he held a variety of positions, including Editor of Detroit Free Press Magazine, the newspaper’s Sunday magazine. His time at the Free Press, also included stints as a member of the -
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Nana Ekua Brew-Hammond
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In 2014, she was included among some of the most promising African authors under 39 in the Hay Festival-Rainbow Book Club Project Africa39: New Writing from Africa South of the Sahara (Bloomsbury). The Africa39 anthology was published in celebration of UNESCO's designation of Port Harcourt, Nigeria as 2014 World Book Capital. Most rece -
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As a social media influencer, Ciera uses her reach of 3 million to spread her message of body positivity, creativity, and empowerment to women worldwide.
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Anissa Gray
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After more than 20 years as a journalist, Anissa, a lifelong book lover and voracious reader, pursued fiction writing, applying he -
Ciera Horton McElroy
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Helen Elaine Lee
Helen Elaine Lee grew up in Detroit, Michigan and she is a graduate of Harvard College and Harvard Law School. Her first novel, The Serpent's Gift, was published by Atheneum and her second novel, Water Marked, was published by Scribner. Helen was on the board of PEN New England for 10 years, and she served on its Freedom to Write Committee and volunteered with its Prison Creative Writing Program, which she helped to start. She is Professor of Comparative Media Studies/Writing at MIT.
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Krystal Marquis
Krystal Marquis happily spends most of her time in libraries and used bookstores. She studied biology at Boston College and University of Connecticut and now works as an environmental, health, and safety manager for an online retailer. A lifelong reader, Krystal began researching and writing on a dare to complete the NaNoWriMo Challenge, resulting in the first partial draft of The Davenports. When not writing or planning trips to the Book Barn to discover her next favorite romance, Krystal enjoys hiking, expanding her shoe collection, and plotting ways to create her own Jurassic Park.
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Ama Asantewa Diaka
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Catherine Adel West
Catherine Adel West was born and raised in Chicago, where she currently resides. She graduated with both her Bachelors and Masters of Science in Journalism from the University of Illinois - Urbana. Her work is published in Black Fox Literary Magazine, Five2One, Better than Starbucks, Doors Ajar, 805 Lit + Art, The Helix Magazine, Lunch Ticket and Gay Magazine. Author of Saving Ruby King, Catherine was named one of USA TODAYS Black Authors You Should Know. The Two Lives of Sara is her sophomore novel.
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Samuel Kolawole
Samuel Kọ́láwọlé was born and raised in Ibadan, Nigeria. His debut novel, The Road to the Salt Sea, won the 2025 Whiting Award for Fiction, was a finalist for the International Book Awards, was longlisted for the 2025 Aspen Words Literary Prize, and is currently a finalist for the 2025 PEN/Hemingway Award for Debut Novel.
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Other honors for his work include being a finalist for the Caine Prize for African Writing, the Graywolf Press Africa Prize, and the UK's The First Novel Prize.
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Michael Lee West
Michael Lee West grew up on the Gulf Coast with a wild tribe of Southern cooks. She lives on a farm near Nashville with her family. Michael is the author of Crazy Ladies, Mad Girls in Love, She Flew the Coop, American Pie, Mad Girls in Love, Mermaids in the Basement, Consuming Passions, and Gone With a Handsomer Man. Her new novel, A Teeny Bit of Trouble, is the second installment in the Teeny Templeton series and will be published on April 10, 2012.
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Trisha R. Thomas
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Glory Edim
Glory Edim is the founder of Well-Read Black Girl, a Brooklyn-based book club and digital platform that celebrates the uniqueness of Black literature and sisterhood. In fall 2017 she organized the first-ever Well-Read Black Girl Festival. She has worked as a creative strategist for over ten years at startups and cultural institutions, including The Webby Awards and the New York Foundation for the Arts. Most recently, she was the Publishing Outreach Specialist at Kickstarter. She serves on the board of New York City's Housing Works Bookstore. --Penguin Random House
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Yaa Gyasi
YAA GYASI was born in Ghana and raised in Huntsville, Alabama. She holds a BA in English from Stanford University and an MFA from the Iowa Writers' Workshop, where she held a Dean's Graduate Research Fellowship. She lives in Brooklyn.
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YAA GYASI is available for select speaking engagements. To inquire about a possible appearance, please contact Penguin Random House Speakers Bureau at speakers@penguinrandomhouse.com or visit prhspeakers.com. -
Alex Travis
Alex Travis was born in New York and made her way to Northern Virginia to begin her daytime career as a full-time school psychologist. She has a BA in psychology from University of Pennsylvania, and a Ph.D. in school psychology from the University of Maryland. Alex wrote her first book at the age of 11, and has been losing herself in fictional worlds of her own creation since then. Alex makes her home in Virginia with her husband, an outrageous collection of Funkos, and too many books to count.
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ReShonda Tate
As the national bestselling author of more than 53 books, ReShonda Tate has the credentials, and the passion, to bring stories to life.
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ReShonda writes both adult and teen fiction, as well as nonfiction. Her sophomore novel, Let the Church Say Amen, was made into a film directed by actress Regina King, and produced by TD Jakes and Queen Latifah.
ReShonda made her on-screen movie debut in the film, which was one of BET’s highest-rated programs. Her book, The Secret She Kept, was also made into a movie and aired on TV One. ReShonda made a cameo in that movie as well.
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Edward Kelsey Moore
Edward Kelsey Moore is a professional cellist and author from Chicago. During his high school years, and onward into college, Edward Kelsey Moore experimented with writing short stories. As he finished his education he set writing aside and focused on building a career in music. Many years later, as a member of a string quartet, Edward was hired to perform at a reception for the winners of a local writing contest. As he played background music Edward considered: "I could have sent in a story..." It was an inspiring event and within a few weeks Edward Kelsey Moore began writing again. His short fiction has been published in many literary magazines including: Indiana Review, African American Review, and Inkwell. His short story Grandma and th
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Natashia Deón
Natashia Deón is a 2017 NAACP Image Award Nominee and author of the critically-acclaimed novel, Grace (Counterpoint Press), which was awarded the 2017 First Novel Prize by the American Library Association's Black Caucus (BCALA), was named Kirkus Review Best Book of 2016, a New York Times Top Book 2016, a Book Riot Favorite Book of 2016, The Root Best Book of 2016, and an Entropy Magazine Best Book of 2016.
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In 2017, she served as a U.S. delegate to Armenia in partnership with the University of Iowa's International Writing Workshop (IWP) and the U.S. State Department for Between the Lines, a program bringing international writers together.
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Cebo Campbell
CEBO CAMPBELL is an award-winning, multi-hyphenate creative based in New York and London. He is a winner of the Stories Award for Poetry, and his writings are featured in numerous publications. As co-founder and CCO of the renowned NYC creative agency Spherical, Cebo leads teams of creatives in shaping the best hotel brands in the world. His range of talents as a creative director have sent him all over the globe infusing creativity, from working with the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust in the UK, to concepting the Million Miracles humanitarian campaign throughout Africa and India, to writing and directing the VR short film Refuge: Triumph in Tulsa, based on the famed Black Wall Street in Oklahoma. Cebo’s expansive work as a writer, designer,
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Zinzi Clemmons
Zinzi Clemmons was raised in Philadelphia by a South African mother and an American father. A graduate of Brown and Columbia, her writing has appeared in Zoetrope: All-Story, The Paris Review Daily, Transition, and The Common.
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She is a co-founder and former publisher of Apogee Journal, a contributing editor to Literary Hub, and deputy editor for Phoneme Media.
She has received fellowships from the MacDowell Colony, Bread Loaf, the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown, and the Kimbilio Center for African American Fiction.
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LaToya Watkins
LaToya Watkins’s writing has appeared in A Public Space, The Sun, McSweeney’s, Kenyon Review, The Pushcart Prize Anthology (2015), and elsewhere. She has received grants, scholarships, and fellowships from the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference, MacDowell Colony, Yaddo, Hedgebrook, and A Public Space (she was one of their 2018 Emerging Writers Fellows). She holds a PhD from the University of Texas at Dallas. Perish is her debut novel.
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Julia Fierro
Julia Fierro is the author of the novels The Gypsy Moth Summer(St. Martin’s Press, 2017) and Cutting Teeth (St. Martin’s Press, 2014).
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A graduate of the Iowa Writer’s Workshop, where she was awarded a Teaching-Writing Fellowship, Julia founded The Sackett Street Writers’ Workshop in 2002, and it has since become a creative home to over 3,500 writers in NYC, Los Angeles and Online. Sackett Street was named a “Best NYC Writing Workshop” by The Village Voice, Time Out NY, and Brooklyn Magazine, and a “Best MFA-Alternative” by Poets & Writers and the L Magazine.
Julia’s work has been published, or is forthcoming, in The Millions, Poets & Writers, Flavorwire, Glamour, Psychology Today, and other publications, and she has been profiled in the L Mag -
Ishi Robinson
Ishi Robinson was born and raised in Kingston, Jamaica. A Canadian citizen, she has lived in Bern, Toronto, Rome, London and now lives in Berlin with her Czech husband. Her first published work was a short story in Jamaica’s national newspaper when she was eleven years old. At seventeen, she sent a letter to her father from Switzerland that he thought was so funny he sent it to the other national newspaper, which snagged her a weekly column on teenage life in Kingston. She also previously wrote a weekly column on life as an expat in Rome for a now defunct online magazine. She got back into fiction writing in Berlin, from where she has published short stories in several online publications and one anthology. SWEETNESS IN THE SKIN is her firs
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Kim Coleman Foote
Kim Coleman Foote is the author of Coleman Hill, named a finalist for the Carol Shields Prize, NAACP Image Award, and Audie Award, and long-listed for the Center for Fiction First Novel Prize and more. She was born and raised in New Jersey, where she started writing fiction at the age of seven(ish).
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A recent fellow at the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown, Kim has received additional fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, New York Foundation for the Arts, Bread Loaf, Phillips Exeter Academy, Center for Fiction, and Fulbright, and residencies at Yaddo, MacDowell, and Hedgebrook, among others. Her fiction and essays have appeared in The Best American Short Stories 2022, The Rumpus, Prairie Schooner, Kweli, Obsidian, and else -
Cissy Houston
Emily Drinkard, known professionally as Cissy Houston, was an American soul and gospel singer. Houston was a founding member of the R&B group The Sweet Inspirations, and sang backup for artists such as Roy Hamilton, Dionne Warwick, Elvis Presley, Aretha Franklin, and Chaka Khan. Houston embarked on a solo career in 1970, and won two Grammy Awards in the Traditional Gospel Album category.
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Robert Justice
Novelist by night...Justice does not sleep!
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"Intelligent crime novels inspired by Black history, literature & music."
Wrongful Conviction Novels 1 & 2—Set in the heart of Denver's Black community.
THEY CAN'T TAKE YOUR NAME—Available now!
A DREAM IN THE DARK—Available now!
Host of the Crime Writers of Color podcast.
Twitter/IG/Bluesky/TikTok: Robert4Justice -
Tamara Winfrey Harris
Tamara Winfrey-Harris is a writer who specializes in the ever-evolving space where current events, politics and pop culture intersect with race and gender.
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She says, “I want to be a storyteller of the Black female experience and a truth-teller to all those folks who got us twisted—tangled up in racist and sexist lies. I want my writing to advocate for my sisters. We are better than alright. We are amazing.”
Well-versed on a range of topics, including Beyoncé’s feminism; Rachel Dolezal’s white privilege; and the Black church and female sexuality, Tamara has been published in media outlets, including The New York Times, The Atlantic, Cosmopolitan, New York Magazine and The Los Angeles Times. And she has been called to share her analysis on medi -
Jen Davis
Jen Davis lives in Nashville with her husband and daughter. When not conjuring up stories in her head, she listens to ‘80s music and forces her ornery orange tabby cat to snuggle. For Eva is her debut novel.
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