Black & Published

Order Your Copy of The Seven Daughters of Dupree!This week on Black & Published, Nikesha speaks with Helena Haywoode Henry, author of the YA novel, Last Chance Live!The book looks at the price of eternity through the eyes of an 18-year-old girl on death row, who decides to try to win her freedom on a reality show.In our conversation, Helena discusses the legal papers she read during her time as a lawyer that inspired the premise of her novel. Plus, the reason Helena believes reimagining the current state of capital punishment is one small way to reimagine the current state of America.Mahogany BooksMentioned in this episode:Rate & ReviewThanks for listening, family! Please do us a solid and take a quick moment to rate and/or leave a review for this podcast. It will go a long way to making sure content featuring our stories and perspectives are seen on this platform

Order Your Copy of The Seven Daughters of Dupree!This week on Black & Published, Nikesha speaks with Reginald Dwayne Betts, author of the poetry collection, Doggerel, which he says is his most joyous to date.In our conversation, Dwayne explains how he became intentional about singing a different song after realizing he’d become a long suffering Black man. Plus, why he believes identity is always in flux and why he said he’s never had a problem reading his work in prisons until he started writing about love.Mahogany BooksMentioned in this episode:Rate & ReviewThanks for listening, family! Please do us a solid and take a quick moment to rate and/or leave a review for this podcast. It will go a long way to making sure content featuring our stories and perspectives are seen on this platform

Order Your Copy of The Seven Daughters of Dupree!This week on Black & Published, Nikesha speaks with Lizzie Damilola Blackburn about her second novel, The Re-Write. A second chance romance between a full-figured woman and a reality TV star who’s struggling to decide exactly what kind of man he wants to be.In our conversation, Lizzie explains why she wanted to tackle toxic masculinity and fat phobia.Mahogany BooksMentioned in this episode:Rate & ReviewThanks for listening, family! Please do us a solid and take a quick moment to rate and/or leave a review for this podcast. It will go a long way to making sure content featuring our stories and perspectives are seen on this platform

Order Your Copy of The Seven Daughters of Dupree!This week on Black & Published, Nikesha speaks with Ashley M. Jones, author of the poetry collection, Lullaby for the Grieving. A deeply personal look at what it means to find and lose love at the same time of unprecedented political turmoil.At 31-years-old, Ashley became the poet Laureate of Alabama, becoming both the youngest and the first person of color ever to hold that title.In our conversation, she discusses the amplified pressure she faced during her four-year term, what she’s learned about creating a sustainable writing practice, and the reason she says writing love poems feels unnatural.Mahogany BooksMentioned in this episode:Rate & ReviewThanks for listening, family! Please do us a solid and take a quick moment to rate and/or leave a review for this podcast. It will go a long way to making sure content featuring our stories and perspectives are seen on this platform

Order Your Copy of The Seven Daughters of Dupree!This week on Black & Published, Nikesha speaks with Lauren Morrow. Author of the novel, Little Movements. A book that explores what it means to leave behind the life you know and take a risk on what you love without the guarantee of reward.In our conversation, Lauren explains why she's not turned off by her book being characterized as auto-fiction. Plus, what she’s learned about her own artistic voice and where it fits in the Black literary canon And how she views starting over as an artist on the verge of breakout.Mahogany BooksMentioned in this episode:Rate & ReviewThanks for listening, family! Please do us a solid and take a quick moment to rate and/or leave a review for this podcast. It will go a long way to making sure content featuring our stories and perspectives are seen on this platform

Order Your Copy of The Seven Daughters of Dupree!This week on Black & Published, Nikesha speaks with Jodi-Ann Burey, author of the book Authentic: The Myth of Bringing Your Full Self to Work.Part memoir, part sociological study of how women, queer, disabled, and minoritized people are discriminated against in the workplace, the book is an outgrowth of Jodi-Ann’s 2020 Ted Talk on the same subject that’s been viewed nearly two million times.In our conversation, Jodi-Ann shares the life-threatening health diagnosis that shifted her relationship with work, the predatory publishing offers she received after internet virality, and why she says the future of work depends on other people.Mahogany BooksMentioned in this episode:Rate & ReviewThanks for listening, family! Please do us a solid and take a quick moment to rate and/or leave a review for this podcast. It will go a long way to making sure content featuring our stories and perspectives are seen on this platform

Order Your Copy of The Seven Daughters of Dupree!This week on Black & Published, Nikesha speaks with Tayari Jones, author of the novel Kin.Kin, is Tayari’s fifth novel and her second Oprah’s book club pick after 2018’s An American marriage.In our conversation, she explains why she’s grateful for her “slow burn career" and how she surrendered to the story that wanted to be written … even though it was not the novel she planned.Mahogany BooksMentioned in this episode:Rate & ReviewThanks for listening, family! Please do us a solid and take a quick moment to rate and/or leave a review for this podcast. It will go a long way to making sure content featuring our stories and perspectives are seen on this platform

Order Your Copy of The Seven Daughters of Dupree!This week on Black & Published, Nikesha speaks with Donika Kelly, author of the poetry collection, The Natural Order of Things.It’s a collection of poems paying homage to Donika’s wife, her friends, and especially her family. In our conversation, we discuss how she uses poetry to imagine a future that doesn’t feel possible, the comfort she finds in the natural world, and why she says she’s never writing toward a book. Mahogany BooksMentioned in this episode:Mahogany BooksRate & ReviewThanks for listening, family! Please do us a solid and take a quick moment to rate and/or leave a review for this podcast. It will go a long way to making sure content featuring our stories and perspectives are seen on this platform

Order Your Copy of The Seven Daughters of Dupree!This week on Black & Published, Nikesha speaks with Damon Young, author and editor of That’s How They Get You: An Unruly Anthology of Black American Humor.The anthology features essays and stories from 24 acclaimed Black writers whose words do work on the page but are also funny AF.In our conversation, we discuss how humor is a vehicle to explore human vulnerabilities, the reason Damon believes Black American humor is the best humor, and the reason he’s got sex on his mind for his future projects.Mahogany BooksMentioned in this episode:Mahogany BooksRate & ReviewThanks for listening, family! Please do us a solid and take a quick moment to rate and/or leave a review for this podcast. It will go a long way to making sure content featuring our stories and perspectives are seen on this platform

Order Your Copy of The Seven Daughters of Dupree!This week on Black & Published, Nikesha speaks with Ebony LaDelle, editor of the YA Romance Collection: You’ve Got a Place Here too: An Anthology of Black Love Storie set at HBCUs.The collection provides a gathering place for 11 authors to share stories of all representations of love within the HBCU ecosystem.In our conversation, we discuss why it’s necessary to give teens the tools we all need to navigate healthy love relationships, what a platonic soul mate taught her about romantic love, and how the death of her best friend propelled her into her purpose.Mahogany BooksMentioned in this episode:Rate & ReviewThanks for listening, family! Please do us a solid and take a quick moment to rate and/or leave a review for this podcast. It will go a long way to making sure content featuring our stories and perspectives are seen on this platformMahogany Books

Order Your Copy of The Seven Daughters of Dupree!This week on Black and Published, Nikesha speaks with Dorsía Smith Silva, author of the poetry collection, In Inheritance of Drowning.The collection was born out of Dorsía’s experience of living through Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico in 2017, becoming a mother, and witnessing the racial reckoning of 2020.In our conversation, we discuss the reason she shays she cannot write light verse, how long she had to put her creative dreams aside to secure her career, and why she believes poetry is the form that offers the most freedom.Mahogany BooksMentioned in this episode:Rate & ReviewThanks for listening, family! Please do us a solid and take a quick moment to rate and/or leave a review for this podcast. It will go a long way to making sure content featuring our stories and perspectives are seen on this platformMahogany Books

Order Your Copy of The Seven Daughters of Dupree!This season on Black & Published, guests help answer the question: What does it mean to be a Black writer?Mahogany BooksMentioned in this episode:Rate & ReviewThanks for listening, family! Please do us a solid and take a quick moment to rate and/or leave a review for this podcast. It will go a long way to making sure content featuring our stories and perspectives are seen on this platform

This week on Black & Published, Nikesha celebrates the publication of her latest novel, The Seven Daughters of Dupree, with Bookstagram and Book Tok favorites, Jamise Harper (@diversespines, @spinesvines) and Edrick Scarver (@edrickreadit).They discuss the original title of the novel that informed the whole story line, the greatest takeaway Nikesha wants readers to have when they finish the novel, and the experience of going from an indie to trad author.Order Your Copy of The Seven Daughters of Dupree!See Nikesha on TourMahogany BooksMentioned in this episode:The Seven Daughters of Dupree Pre-Order Offer Nikisha Elise Williams, the host of the Black and Published podcast, is celebrating the release of her forthcoming novel, The Seven Daughters of Dupree. This historical fiction novel is about the secrets kept between mothers and daughters over the course of seven generations and is told backwards in time from 1995 to 1860. The Seven Daughters of Dupree will be released on January 27th, 2026, but is available for pre-order now at MahoganyBooks.com. Please consider pre-ordering The Seven Daughters of Dupree today.Mahogany BooksRate & ReviewThanks for listening, family! Please do us a solid and take a quick moment to rate and/or leave a review for this podcast. It will go a long way to making sure content featuring our stories and perspectives are seen on this platform

This week on Black & Published, Nikesha speaks with her editor, Alison Callahan who has been working as an editor for 20+ years. They discuss why their editor-author relationship was always destined to be. Plus, the deep dive Alison and her team did into Nikesha's background before making the deal. And why she feels intimidated every time she takes off her editorial hat and tries to approach the page as a potential author.Order Your Copy of The Seven Daughters of Dupree!See Nikesha on TourMahogany BooksMentioned in this episode:Rate & ReviewThanks for listening, family! Please do us a solid and take a quick moment to rate and/or leave a review for this podcast. It will go a long way to making sure content featuring our stories and perspectives are seen on this platform

This week on Black & Published, Nikesha speaks with her literary agent, Peter Steinberg. An agent since 1996, Peter explains the one thing that remains true in publishing even after all these years. Plus, the importance of rejection to an author's career, and what he thinks is the death of good fiction.Order Your Copy of The Seven Daughters of Dupree!See Nikesha on TourMahogany BooksMentioned in this episode:Rate & ReviewThanks for listening, family! Please do us a solid and take a quick moment to rate and/or leave a review for this podcast. It will go a long way to making sure content featuring our stories and perspectives are seen on this platform

This week on Black & Published, Nikesha dives into how she wrote her forthcoming novel The Seven Daughters of Dupree. From starting the book for a publishing contest just days before she gave birth, to writing and revising as her life fell apart Nikesha breaks down how her novel kept her from a break down, and the kismetic happenstance that occurred between she, her agent, and editor.Order Your Copy of The Seven Daughters of Dupree!See Nikesha on TourMahogany BooksMentioned in this episode:Rate & ReviewThanks for listening, family! Please do us a solid and take a quick moment to rate and/or leave a review for this podcast. It will go a long way to making sure content featuring our stories and perspectives are seen on this platform

Black & Published is back for season 6, but before we dive into our regularly scheduled episodes, we're having a mini series all about Nikesha's forthcoming novel The Seven Daughters of Dupree. Over these next four weeks she'll discuss:the writing processhow she got her agenthow the novel sold in a weekthe themes already resonating with early readers.Order Your Copy of The Seven Daughters of Dupree!See Nikesha on TourMahogany BooksMentioned in this episode:Rate & ReviewThanks for listening, family! Please do us a solid and take a quick moment to rate and/or leave a review for this podcast. It will go a long way to making sure content featuring our stories and perspectives are seen on this platform

Order Your Copy of The Seven Daughters of Dupree!This week on Black & Published, Nikesha speaks with author Deesha Philyaw about the new writing resource she created with graphic designer Diamonde Williamson, Writer Beware. The 20 page infographic takes a look at the distinctions among different publishing paths in order to dispel misinformation and help writers avoid predatory publishers. The resource is a compliment to Jane Friedman’s, Key Book Publishing Paths chart which breaks down all the avenues writers can take to publication. Mentioned in this episode:The Seven Daughters of Dupree Pre-Order Offer Nikisha Elise Williams, the host of the Black and Published podcast, is celebrating the release of her forthcoming novel, The Seven Daughters of Dupree. This historical fiction novel is about the secrets kept between mothers and daughters over the course of seven generations and is told backwards in time from 1995 to 1860. The Seven Daughters of Dupree will be released on January 27th, 2026, but is available for pre-order now at MahoganyBooks.com. Please consider pre-ordering The Seven Daughters of Dupree today.Mahogany BooksRate & ReviewThanks for listening, family! Please do us a solid and take a quick moment to rate and/or leave a review for this podcast. It will go a long way to making sure content featuring our stories and perspectives are seen on this platform

Order Your Copy of The Seven Daughters of Dupree!This week on Black & Published Nikesha speaks with Rachel Howzell Hall, the author of the thriller Fog and Fury. The publication of this books marks twenty three years since Rachel’s publishing debut. In our conversation, Rachel discusses why it’s important for authors to know and lean into their brand. Plus, what she found to be the true secret sauce to go from writer to published author. And the reason she says even when you achieve all your writer dreams, your life still doesn’t change. Mahogany Books Mentioned in this episode:Rate & ReviewThanks for listening, family! Please do us a solid and take a quick moment to rate and/or leave a review for this podcast. It will go a long way to making sure content featuring our stories and perspectives are seen on this platform

Order Your Copy of The Seven Daughters of Dupree!This week on Black & Published, Nikesha speaks with Laura Pegram, the editor of Sing The Truth: The Kweli Journal Short Story Collection. The anthology comes 15 years after Kweli debuted as the premier online literary journal focused on nuturing the voices of emerging writers who identify as Black, indigenous, or as other people of color. In our conversation, Laura explains how she got the idea to start the journal when she was in the hospital and could barely move. Plus, why at her weakest moments she held tight to creating a life of literary arts. And how she’s reframing the notion that for writers, rejection is the rule.Mahogany Books  Mentioned in this episode:Rate & ReviewThanks for listening, family! Please do us a solid and take a quick moment to rate and/or leave a review for this podcast. It will go a long way to making sure content featuring our stories and perspectives are seen on this platform