Title:  The Seventh Octave: The Early Writings of Saul Stacey Williams
(Click title to Purchase Online and Learn more about this Book and Poet)

ALL TIME AALBC BEST SELLING BOOK for 1998 & 1999
(out of almost 1,000 different titles sold)!

Author:  Saul Stacey Williams, Jessica C. Moore (Editor)
(Click name to learn more about author and editor)

Publisher:  Moore Black Press
Date Published:  February 1998
Format:  Trade Paper

Hailed as "a dreadlocked dervish of words...the Bob Marley of American poets" (Esquire), Saul Williams is a gifted young poet who is opening up this literary art form to a new generation of readers. Like his writing -- a fearless mix of connecting rhythms and vibrant images -- Saul Williams is unstoppable. He received raves for his performance as an imprisoned street poet in the Trimark Pictures release Slam, winner of the Camera d'Or at Cannes and the Grand Jury prize at the 1998 Sundance Film Festival. The consummate spoken-word performance artist, Williams has also been signed by producer Rick Rubin to record a CD of his poetry.

#2

Title:  She
(Click title or book to purchase on-line)

Author: Saul Stacey Williams
(Click name to learn more about author)

Publisher:  Simon and Schuster Inc.
Date Published:  June 1999
Format:  Paperback And CD - $9.60 (plus shipping and tax)

"Who says poetry does not sell?" -- Troy Johnson AALBC.com

She is a fascinating and unique collection of interconnected poems by this multi-talented star -- and marks the beginning of an incredible and totally original artistic career.

She is a fascinating and unique collection of interconnected poems by this multi-talented star -- and marks the beginning of an incredible and totally original artistic career.

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#3

Satin Doll
(Click title or book to purchase on-line)

Author:  Karen E. Quinones Miller
Publisher:  Oshum Publishing Company Inc.
Date Published:  November 1999
Format:  Trade Paper

". . . a real page turner! You won't want to put it down. . . . It's about wanting more, getting it, and finding sometimes that the brass ring is just that - brass. A great book club choice."Jenice M. Armstrong, Philadelphia Daily News"Satin Doll moves, grooves, fights and delights. It's wonderfully entertaining and a must read."Jamal Joseph, Screenwriter, director and producer"Filled with sassy, humorous, and thought-provoking dialogue, Satin Doll is a wonderful, page-turning debut."
-- Kimberla Lawson Roby, (Author of best-selling novel "Behind Closed Doors" and "Casting the First Stone" 

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#4

The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man
(Click title or book to purchase on-line)

Author:  James Weldon Johnson, Philip Smith (Editor)
Publisher:  Dover Publications, Incorporated
Date Published:  May 1995
Format:  Trade Paper

One of the most prominent African-Americans of his time, James Weldon Johnson (1871-1938) was a successful lawyer, educator, social reformer, songwriter and critic. But it was as a poet and novelist that he achieved lasting fame.

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#5

Fragments That Remain

Author:  Steven Corbin
Publisher:  Alyson Publications, Inc.
Date Published:  February 1995
Format:  Trade Paper

Skylar Whyte, a critically-acclaimed actor, must come to terms with his dysfunctional African-American family, while at the same time confronting racism both from his white lover and the gay community.

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#6

A Thirst for Rain
(Click title or book to read more about this title)

Author:  Roslyn Carrington
Publisher:  Kensington Publishing Corporation
Date Published:  August 1999
Format:  Trade Cloth

Set in the bone-dry northern foothills of Trinidad, this debut evokes the vibrant rhythms of the Caribbean and captures the island unseen by tourists, as men and women struggle side by side in a cramped hillside neighborhood, thirsting for love, wholeness, and a better future

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#7

Title: Words Don't Fit In My Mouth
(Click title or book to purchase on-line)

Author:  Jessica C. Moore
(Click name to learn more about author)

Format: Trade Paper, 125 pages
Published April 1997, Moore Black Press

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#8

Behind Closed Doors

Author:  Kimberla Lawson Roby
Publisher:  Black Classic Press
Date Published:  October 1997
Format:  Trade Paper

Best friends since childhood, Regina Moore and Karen Jackson have everything two "just-turned-30" women could possibly want--beautiful homes in an upper-echelon Chicago suburb, loving husbands, and financial security. But are their lives really as wonderful as they seem?

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#9

Cookie Cutter
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Author:  Sterling Anthony
Publisher:  Ballantine Books, Inc.
Date Published:  October 1999
Format:  Trade Cloth

For the Shaw family, the nightmare begins in a small, ranch-style house outside a dusty Alabama town. A black man in his late twenties. A white woman in her teens. And an unborn baby, about to emerge into a scene of horrific, fear-driven violence.

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#10

Slapboxing with Jesus
(Click title or book to purchase on-line)

Author:  Victor D. La Valle
Publisher:  Knopf Alfred A
Date Published:  October 1999
Format:  Trade Paper

"Twelve original and interconnected stories, Victor D. LaValle's astonishing, violent, and funny debut offers harrowing glimpses at the vulnerable lives of young people who struggle not only to come of age, but to survive the city streets."

"In "ancient history," two best friends graduating from high school fight to be the one to leave first for a better world; each one wants to be the fortunate son. In "pops," an African-American boy meets his father, a white cop from Connecticut, and tries not to care. And in "kids on colden street" a boy is momentarily uplifted by the arrival of a younger sister only to discover that brutality leads only to brutality in the natural order of things."

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