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Black Writers Read
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Black Writers Read
Author: Nicole M. Young-Martin
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© 2025 Black Writers Read
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Black Writers Read showcases, celebrates, and honors the words, work, and traditions of Black writers from across the country, across genres, across experiences, and across the African Diaspora. This podcast series is produced and hosted by performance poet, playwright, events curator, and educator Nicole M. Young-Martin. Find us on Instagram: @blackwritersread. Find Nicole on Instagram: @coco_penexplore.
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Send us a text This episode features our conversation with Justin Haynes, which was live-streamed on January 18, 2025. Justin Haynes is a fiction writer originally from the Caribbean. His work has been supported by various residencies and fellowships, including from the Fine Arts Work Center and the Tin House Summer Workshop. His writing has been published in various literary magazines and journals, including Caribbean Quarterly and SX Salon|Small Axe Project. Haynes lives in Atla...
Send us a text This episode features our conversation with T’challa Williams, which was live-streamed on January 11, 2025. Through love, marriage, motherhood and loss, T’challa Williams' voice has matured and narrated her experiences in a way that produced seven collections of poetry over the last five years. In addition to poetry, she shares her most intimate life experiences in anthologies. The most recent contribution with A Queen’s Narrative for their anthology, Heavy is The Crown, ...
Send us a text This episode features our conversation with Jennifer Janell (spicy women's fiction.), which was live-streamed on December 21, 2024. Jennifer Janell is a new women's fiction author who lives in San Antonio, Texas. She has a passion for writing spicy stories that resonate with readers, explore relationships, and offer an escape from everyday life. Her love for writing about flawed characters inspired her first book series. The Lee Series includes The Year of Lee (available ...
Send us a text This episode features our conversation with Crystal Senter-Brown, which was live-streamed on December 14, 2024. Crystal Senter-Brown's life's purpose can be summed up in one sentence: Empowering Women and Children. And Crystal lives her purpose every single day, whether it is by publishing books that teach children the importance of being kind to others, leading writing workshops in the community, speaking at local schools or leading the career center at Bay Path Univer...
Send us a text This episode features our conversation with Dr. DuEwa Frazier, which was live-streamed on December 7, 2024. Dr. DuEwa Frazier is an award-winning author, poet, writer, editor, professor, creative entrepreneur, keynote speaker, arts and education leader, and digital creator. She is the editor of Introduction to Afrofuturism: A Mixtape in Black Literature & Arts (Routledge, 2024). DuEwa's writing focuses on contemporary education issues, arts and culture, hip - hop cu...
Send us a text This episode features our conversation with Sabin Prentis Duncan, which was live-streamed on December 7, 2024. Dr. Sabin Prentis Duncan is a husband, father, educator, and creator of Literary Soul Food. He holds an Executive Masters from Georgetown University’s McDonough School of Business, Doctorate and Specialist degrees from Eastern Michigan University, and Masters and Bachelor degrees from Hampton University. He writes fiction & Hip Hop essays as Sabin Prentis a...
Send us a text This episode features our conversation with Ebony Aya, which was live-streamed on November 23, 2024. During our chat, we talked about her latest book, Reconsidering Eve: Towards a Deepened Consciousness. Ebony Aya works at Macalester College as a Program Manager for the Jan Serie Center for Scholarship and Teaching. She is a recent doctoral graduate from the University of Minnesota in Curriculum and Instruction, with minors in Culture and Teaching and African American and Afr...
Send us a text This episode features our conversation with Brianna Wheeler, which was live-streamed on November 16, 2024. Brianna Wheeler covers cannabis, culture, food, film, parenting and local politics for print and web. She served as host, writer and producer of the Willamette Week news podcast, and is a frequent contributor to Portland City Cast. Her creative nonfiction work has appeared in The Nasiona, Midnight and Indigo, and has been featured in Medium’s Human Parts newsletter. Her ...
Send us a text This episode features our conversation with Nathan Alexander Moore (Speculative Fiction. Poetry. Nonfiction. Critical Theory.), which was live-streamed on November 2, 2024. Nathan Alexander Moore (she, they) is a Black nonbinary transfemme writer, cultural theorist, and educator. Currently she is the Assistant Professor of Black Trans and Queer Studies in the Department of Women & Gender Studies at University of Colorado Boulder. Her research explores Black transfem...
Send us a text This episode features our conversation with Adrian Burks, which was live-streamed on October 20, 2024. Adrian Burks is a director, writer, actor and producer. An ex-collegiate athlete originally from Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Adrian has been a filmmaker in Los Angeles for over a decade. He has appeared in movies such as the Academy Award winning WHIPLASH, and the comedic cult classic FIRST PERIOD. Adrian has also appeared in television shows such as CBS: CODE BLACK, and ALL...
Send us a text This episode features our conversation with Dr. Khadijah Z. Ali-Coleman, which was live-streamed on October 19, 2024. We chatted about her recently released poetry collections, For the Girls Who Do Too Much and The Summoning of Black Joy. Dr. Khadijah Z. Ali-Coleman is founder of the 501(c)3 nonprofit, Black Writers for Peace and Social Justice, and the current Poet Laureate of Prince George's County, Maryland. Her creative work as a poet and playwright has been showcased...
Send us a text On this episode, we welcomed back Tracy Cross (who first joined us in Season Two) for our conversation on October 5, 2024 to talk about her recently released second book, A Gathering of Weapons. About A Gathering of Weapons Nearly four years have passed since the events of Rootwork (the first book of The Conjure Series) and the youngest Conway sister, Pee Wee, is now thirteen years old and on the cusp of magical greatness. Ever since the tragedy of 1889, she's worked tire...
Send us a text This episode features our conversation from September 28, 2024 with Lori L. Tharps, founder of the Reed, Write & Create platform. Lori is an award-winning author, journalist and educator. A self-described, storytelling evangelist, Tharps is a recognized voice in the areas of race, identity politics and African-American culture. She has written for The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Philadelphia Inquirer, Glamour and Essence magazines, among others. In 2021, Tharps...
Send us a text This special bonus episode of Black Writers Read is the first episode of Season Eight of Podcasting is the New Kink! which features me as a guest co-host! I was invited by Jasmine Gary to join her on her platform to chat about the novel, The Other Black Girl (Atria, 2021) by Zakiya Delila Harris, and the subsequent television series adaptation (now available to stream on Hulu). Urgent, propulsive, and sharp as a knife, this thriller, Harris's debut novel, is about the tensi...
Send us a text This episode features my conversation with guest host, fellow Black woman podcaster Jasmine Gary, about the book, Caste: The Origin of our Discontents (2020), by Pulitzer Prize-winning author and journalist, Isabel Wilkerson and its film adaptation, Origin, written and directed by Ava DuVernay (Array). Both the book and the film revisit some very dark moments in history, making important connections to today’s political climate. Both are vital to experience now as DuVernay has ...
Send us a text This episode features our conversation with Yael Valencia Aldana, the recipient of the 2024 Pushcart Prize for Poetry. We chatted about her forthcoming poetry collection, BLACK MESTIZA, which is scheduled for release in January of 2025 . Yael Valencia Aldana is an award-winning poet and writer. She is the author of the poetry collection Black Mestiza (University of Kentucky Press, 2025) and the chapbook, Alien(s) (Bottlecap Press, 2023). She is a Pushcart Prize winner, and he...
Send us a text Welcome to Season Five of Black Writers Read! For this season, we're expanding the definition of “writer” to look at narrative construction. We start the season with a Pushcart Prize winning author and we’ll end Season Five with a documentary filmmaker. We're beyond excited to add the genre Afrofuturism to the platform as well as two countries. I’ll also be bringing back some past guests to talk about their newest work. Please be sure to subscribe as we'll be posting exclusiv...
Send us a text This episode features our conversation with Lisa Braxton about her recently released memoir, Dancing Between the Raindrops: A Daughter’s Reflections on Love and Loss, which was live-streamed on June 1, 2024. Lisa Braxton is the author of the award-winning Dancing Between the Raindrops: A Daughter’s Reflections on Love and Loss (Sea Crow Press, April 2024). The memoir in essays is a powerful meditation on grief, a deeply personal mosaic of a daughter’s remembrances of beau...
Send us a text This episode features our conversation with Wakisha Stewart, which was live-streamed on May 18, 2024 in recognition of Women’s Health Week (May 12th-18th) and National Share a Story Month. Wakisha (Kisha) Stewart is a wife, mother of three, nurse, heart attack survivor, and a national advocate for heart health dedicated to improving the quality of cardiovascular health care for everyone. Since her heart attack in 2011 at age 31, she has conducted extensive research about ...
Send us a text This episode features our conversation with David Jackson Ambrose, which was live-streamed on May 11, 2024 in recognition of National Mental Health Awareness Month. David Jackson Ambrose writes on the intersections of race, sexuality and generational trauma. Through fiction, his work explores various genres, topics, and themes including African American life, Black history, LGBTQ issues and life, prison industrial complex, mental health, and generational trauma. David has an MF...
Send us a text This episode features our conversation with Lynne Thompson, which was live-streamed on April 14, 2024 closing out National Poetry Month. Lynne Thompson served as the 4th Poet Laureate of the City of Los Angeles. She's the author of four collections of poetry: Beg No Pardon (Perugia Press, 2007), Start With A Small Guitar (What Books Press, 2013), Fretwork (Marsh Hawk Press, 2019) and, most recently, Blue On A Blue Palette (BOA Editions, 2024). In 2022, Thompson was awarded a La...
Send us a text This episode features our conversation with M. Nzadi Keita, which was live-streamed on April 14, 2024 during National Poetry Month. M. Nzadi Keita's new poetry collection, Migration Letters (Beacon Press, April 2, 2024), reflects on Black working-class identity and culture in Philadelphia. Her second book, Brief Evidence of Heaven (Whirlwind Press, 2014), shed light on Anna Murray Douglass, Frederick Douglass’ first wife and was cited in David Blight ‘s prize-winning biog...
Send us a text Happy National Poetry Month! Launched in April of 1996 by the Academy of American Poets, National Poetry Month celebrates the literary traditions sustained by this mode of storytelling. Thank you so very much to every single poet who has joined me on this platform. This episode features our conversation with Nandi Comer (poetry.), which was live-streamed on April 7, 2024. Nandi Comer is the Poet Laureate of Michigan. She is the author of American Family: A Syndrome (Fini...
Send us a text This episode features our conversation with Chana Shinegba, which was live-streamed on March 30, 2024. Chana Shinegba, a gifted storyteller, embodies the spirit of resilience and creativity that defines her generation. Coming of age as a young Black girl in the vibrant but complex landscape of the 1980s and 1990s, Chana grappled with acknowledging her innate talents amidst the backdrop of societal expectations and personal fears. From a tender age, Chana’s artistic pr...
Send us a text This episode features our conversation with Angie Chatman, which was live-streamed on March 16, 2024. For long-time Black Writers Read supporters you may remember Angie from our Black History Month Virtual Event in 2021. Angie Chatman is a writer and storyteller. She's written for Insider Personal Finance, MIT Tech Review, the National Science Foundation, Yahoo News and elsewhere. Her literary work has appeared in Brevity, TaintTaintTaint Magazine, Literary Landscapes, P...
Send us a text This episode features our conversation with Janine Fondon, which was recorded during our live event held in person on March 4, 2024 at Holyoke Media. Janine Fondon, MFA, is an award-winning writer, digital media producer, and educator/historian who uses the art and science of communication and inclusion to elevate voices, engage audiences, and inspire creative thinking in a world of change. As Assistant Professor and Chair of Undergraduate Communications at Bay Path Universit...
Send us a text This episode features our conversation with Donna Hemans, which was live streamed on Saturday, February 17, 2024. We chatted about her recently released novel, The House of Plain Truth, and her writing career. Donna Hemans is the author of three novels, River Woman, Tea by the Sea, and The House of Plain Truth. Her short fiction and essays have appeared in Slice, Electric Literature, Ms. Magazine, The Rumpus, Crab Orchard Review, among others. She received her undergraduate deg...
Send us a text This episode features our conversation with T.H. Moore, which was live streamed on Saturday, February 10, 2024. We chatted about his forthcoming memoir, Ghetto Bastard, and his expansive body of work. T.H. Moore is a Southwest Philadelphia native who relocated to Camden, New Jersey at the age of ten. He’s an active member of Omega Psi Phi Fraternity, Inc., and earned a Bachelor of Science degree from Morgan State University. His career as an Information Technology Consultant an...
Send us a text This episode features our conversation with K E Garland, which was live streamed on Saturday, January 6, 2024. We chatted about her debut memoir, In Search of a Salve. K E Garland is a creative nonfiction writer and blogger based in Florida. She uses personal essays and memoir to de-marginalize women's experiences with an intent to highlight and humanize contemporary issues. She has published essays with Midnight & Indigo, Raising Mothers, and For Harriet. Other works have ...
Send us a text This episode features our conversation with Nada Samih-Rotondo (nonfiction. fiction.), which was live-streamed on Saturday, December 16, 2023. This episode is presented in collaboration with Levee Break Lit. Nada Samih-Rotondo is a multi-genre Palestinian American writer, educator, and mother. A graduate of Rhode Island College, she earned degrees in English and Education and an MFA in creative writing from Lesley University. When she is not befriending trees or at...
Send us a text This episode features our conversation with Minda Honey, which was live streamed on Saturday, November 18, 2023, about her memoir, THE HEARTBREAK YEARS. Minda Honey’s essays on politics and relationships have appeared in the Los Angeles Review of Books, the Washington Post, the Guardian, the Oxford American, Teen Vogue, and Longreads. Her work is featured in “Burn It Down: Women Writing About Anger”, “A Measure of Belonging: Writers of Color on the New American South”, an...
Send us a text This episode features our latest conversation with Kerika Fields, which was live- streamed on Saturday, October 28, 2023. We chatted about her latest book, With Your Bad Self. Kerika Fields is a Brooklyn, New York-based writer and photographer whose work has been published and exhibited widely. She is the author of With Your Bad Self (Jacaranda Books, November 29, 2022). With Your Bad Self is a coming-of-age love story set in an economically challenged Brooklyn on the p...
Send us a text Welcome to our special series, Black Writers Read Presents Writers Across the Margins, our opportunity to chat with writers from other Diasporas! This episode features our conversation with Jason Montgomery which was live streamed on Saturday, October 7, 2023. During our chat, Jason shared an excerpt from his latest poetry collection, These Latest Apocalypses which was recently published by Arteidolia Press. Jason R. Montgomery (he/they), or JRM, is a Chicano/Indigenous Califo...
Send us a text This episode features our latest conversation with Aina Hunter (science fiction.), which was live-streamed on Sunday, September 24, 2023. We chatted about her debut novel, Charlotte and the Chickenman: the Inevitable Nigrescence of Charlotte-Noa Tibbit (Whiskey Tit Books, 2022) Based in Western Massachusetts, Aina Hunter is an artist with a background in journalism, Food Studies and Japanese having studied at Columbia University, New York University’s Steinhardt School o...
Send us a text This episode features our latest conversation with Aaron Dworkin, which was live-streamed on Sunday, September 17, 2023. We chatted about his latest poetry collection, The Poetjournalist, and his evolving work as a writer. Named a 2005 MacArthur Fellow, President Obama’s first appointment to the National Council on the Arts and member of President Biden’s Arts Policy Committee, Aaron P. Dworkin is former dean and current Professor of Arts Leadership & Entrepreneurship at th...
Send us a text Welcome to our first episode of Season Four of Black Writers Read! This episode featu4res our latest conversation with Sami Miranda, which was live-streamed on Saturday, September 9, 2023. We chatted about his latest poetry collection, Protection from Erasure, and his body of work. Samuel "Sami" Miranda grew up in the South Bronx and resides in Washington, DC. He is a visual artist, poet, and teacher who uses his craft to highlight the value of everyday people and places. His ...
Send us a text We are super excited to kick off Season Four of Black Writers Read! Learn more about our upcoming lineup of guests and an upcoming project, Writers from the Margins. We're also thrilled to share with you our new online home: www.blackwritersread.com. We launched our website earlier this summer. On it, you'll have access to past episodes and information on upcoming events including live-streamed interviews and book discussions with our authors. Be sure to visit our website and...
Send us a text This episode features excerpts from four conversations we’ve had with guests that reflect on topics relevant to the Juneteenth holiday including family, ancestral influences, food, culture, and honoring our pasts. Included on this bonus episode are the following conversations: Saida Agostini (S2 E6 of the livestream series/Retrospective Episode on the audio podcast) read excerpts from let the dead in. let the dead in is an exploration of the mythologies that seek to subjugate ...
Send us a text This episode features our latest livestream from Saturday, June 10, 2023 with our guest, Kimberly Mack to discuss her latest book, Time’s Up, which is on the band, Living Colour’s sophomore album. Kimberly Mack will begin her time as the Associate Professor of English at University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign this coming fall. Her book, Living Colour’s Time’s Up, part of Bloomsbury’s 33 1/3 book series, was published in May 2023. She is also the author of Fictional Blues...
Send us a text This episode features our latest livestreamed from Sunday, June 4, 2023 with our guest, Itua Uduebo to discuss his debut novel, Parade of Streetlights. Itua was born in Lagos, Nigeria and currently resides in New York, NY. He graduated from Georgetown University with a degree in International Politics and works in the financial technology industry. Itua's writing journey began in 2016 and to date, he has several essays, articles, freeform poems, and short stories published onli...
Send us a text This episode features our latest livestreamed from Saturday, May 13, 2023 in honor of Mother’s Day weekend. We chatted with poet and nonfiction writer, Shirley A. Jones Luke who read for our 2021 Black History Month virtual event. Shirley A. Jones Luke is a poet and writer. Based in Boston, Massachusetts, Ms. Luke has an MFA in Creative Writing from Emerson College. Her poems focus on culture, family, and society. Ms. Luke is working on her first collection entitled Traumaland,...
Send us a text This episode features our conversation with certified doula, writer, book coach, and host of the Write to Heal Podcast, Danielle Jernigan, which was livestreamed on Saturday, April 15, 2023 during Black Maternal Health Week. During our conversation, we talked about Daniellle's writing for popular audiences, how her past work experience in medical research pairs nicely with her current writing endeavors, and briefly about her current manuscript in development, Healing Mother W...
Send us a text This episode features our conversation with Enzo Silon Surin, which was livestreamed on Saturday, April 8, 2023. We talked about their most recent books including When My Body was a Clinched Fist and the forthcoming poetry collection, American Scapegoat. Enzo Silon Surin is a Haitian-born, award-winning poet, educator, librettist, publisher and social advocate. He is the author of three previous collections of poetry, including When My Body Was A Clinched Fist (Black Lawrence P...
Send us a text This episode features our conversation with Philadelphia’s Dr. Raina J. León, which was livestreamed on Saturday, March 25, 2023 to talk about her expansive body of work. Dr. Raina J. León is Black, Afro-Boricua, and from Philadelphia (Lenni Lenape ancestral lands). She is a mother, daughter, sister, madrina, comadre, partner, poet, writer, artist, digital archivist, podcaster, and teacher educator. She believes in collective action and community work. She is the author o...
Send us a text This episode features our conversation with self-help and business author, La’Vista Jones, which was livestreamed on Saturday, March 18, 2023 to talk about her latest book, The BOSS™ Shift. La’Vista Jones is the founder and CEO of 31 Marketplace, an agency committed to helping women do the work they love, without sacrificing themselves to do it. As a corporate dropout, turned entrepreneur she is on a mission to challenge women to cultivate their own definition of success ...
Send us a text This episode features our conversation with Regine Jackson, which was hosted live at The Artist Cafe in Downtown Springfield, Massachusetts on February 12, 2023. Regine Jackson is a writer who was born and raised in Springfield, Massachusetts. Born in 1997, Jackson has been an avid reader since she was a child. She always wished to write, specifically stories where the main characters looked like her and the people she interacted with on a daily basis. Jackson’s mother worked a...
Send us a text This episode features our conversation with Shanita Hubbard, which was livestreamed on Sunday, January 29, 2023. Shanita Hubbard is the author of the book, Ride-Or-Die: A Feminist Manifesto for the Well-Being of Black Women. Her writing has also appeared in numerous outlets, including the New York Times, Huffington Post, Essence Magazine, The Guardian, and more She is also a journalism instructor at the University of Toronto, a Soros Fellow, and the recipient of the...
Send us a text This episode features our conversation with Lisa Pegram (poetry. nonfiction.), which was livestreamed on Saturday, January 21, 2023. Lisa Pegram is a writer, arts integration specialist and publishing professional who hails from Washington, DC. She has over 20 years of experience in high-level program design for such organizations as the Smithsonian Institute, Corcoran Gallery of Art and National Geographic. She served as DC WritersCorps program director for a decade, and as ...
Send us a text This episode features our conversation with Mbinguni (historical fiction. women’s fiction. literary fiction), which was livestreamed on Saturday, January 7, 2023, opening up the Spring portion of Season Three. Mbinguni is a natural storyteller. Born and raised on the barrier island of Fernandina Beach, FL, she's had dreams of writing professionally for as long as she can remember. An avid reader, she began composing her own narratives as a small child in grade school. Mbi...
Send us a text This episode features our conversation with Toni Ann Johnson, which was livestreamed on Saturday, December 3, 2022. We talked about her award-winning short story collection, LIGHT SKIN GONE TO WASTE which was published in October. It’s received praise from Publishers Weekly, the Los Angeles Review of Books, and the Washington Post. Toni Ann Johnson won the Flannery O'Connor Award for short fiction with her linked story collection LIGHT SKIN GONE TO WASTE, selected for the...
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