Black & Published

This week on Black & Published, Nikesha speaks with Shannon Sanders, author of the short story collection, Company. A lawyer by trade, Shannon came to crafting her award-winning collection after attending several writing workshops and having to produce on a deadline. In our conversation, Shannon explains why she thinks about what's enjoyable for her reader as she's cr

This week on Black & Published, Nikesha speaks with Rudy Francisco, author of the poetry collection, Excuse Me As I Kiss the Sky. Rudy is a renowned spoken word artist who has published two previous collections: Helium (2017) and I'll Fly Away (2020). As a spoken word artist, Rudy said taking his work from the stage to the page allowed him to grow and write about more than

This week on Black & Published, Nikesha speaks with Roberto Carlos Garcia, author of the poetry anthology, What Can I Tell You. Roberto is the author of three previous poetry collections Elegies, black / Maybe: An Afro Lyric, and Melancolía. In our conversation, Roberto discusses unlearning the ways in which colonialism have infected the mind. How anti-Blackness begins at home

This week on Black & Published, Nikesha speaks with Tracey Rose Peyton, author of the novel, Night Wherever We Go. The novel follows the lives of six enslaved women on a struggling plantation in Texas. When their owners The Lucy's, nicknamed after Lucifer himself, come up with a plan to increase their prosperity through reproduction, the women refuse despite the consequenc

This week on Black & Published Nikesha speaks with Kim Johnson, author of the YA novel, Invisible Son. The book is set in Oregon during the height of the COVID pandemic in 2020. A setting Kim chose to bear witness to all that was happening while also balancing the trauma of that year with its triumphs as well. In our conversation, Kim readily admits that she came to writing lat

This week on Black and Published, Nikesha speaks with Jennifer Baker, author of the YA novel, Forgive Me Not. The story centers the life, loves and struggles of a teenaged Black girl to explore the pitfalls and failures of mass incarceration and carceral systems. In our conversation, Jennifer opens up about how she stayed motivated to continue writing while working for some twenty

This week on Black and Published, Nikesha speaks with Lamya H, author of the memoir, Hijab Butch Blues. The book is an in depth extension of the personal essays Lamya has penned for years. Their writing has appeared in Vice, Salon, Vox, Black Girl Dangerous, Autostraddle, and the Los Angeles Review of Books. They are a former Lambda Literary Fellow and currently live in New York wi

This week on Black and Published, Nikesha speaks with K E Garland, author of the memoir, In Search of a Salve: Memoir of a Sex Addict. K E Garland is an award-winning creative nonfiction writer and blogger who uses personal essays and memoir to de-marginalize women's experiences with an intent to highlight and humanize contemporary issues including adoption and addiction. In o

This week on Black and Published, Nikesha speaks with Kim Coleman Foote, author of the biomthyography novel, Coleman Hill. The novel draws from Kim's own family legend, historical record, and fervent imagination to create an unforgettable new history. In our conversation, Kim discusses how she came to tell the story of her family while she was working on another novel. Plus, h

This week on Black and Published, Nikesha speaks with Liv Little, author of the novel, Rosewater. A writer of Jamaican and Guyanese descent living in South London, Liv tells stories about the people and places that matter to her; specifically the Black, queer, femme community. In our conversation, Liv discusses why she was dedicated to illustrating the ways Black, queer and femme c