3 Books Published by Green Writers Press on AALBC — Book Cover Collage

Transition and change are 21st-century lived experiences. We want to know “what’s next” in our relationships, environment, societies, politics, and everything else that touches our lives. “What’s Next?” is an anthology of short fiction that creatively explores these questions. Editor Sharyn Skeeter personally reached out to a diverse group of contemporary fiction writers and curated the book to reflect our changing times. Rather than include mostly pandemic stories, the editor kept the topics open and the event will reflect a refreshing diversity in modern fiction.

Authors Featured in the Anthology

• Claire Boyles,
• Joseph Bruchac,
• Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni,
• Toiya Kristen Finley,
• Tom Gammarino,
• Amina Gautier,
• Anthony Lee Head,
• Meng Jin,
• Charles Johnson,
• Pauline Kaldas,
• Vijay Lakshmi,
• Clarence Major,
• Donna Miscolta,
• Pamela Painter,
• Jane Pek,
• Brenda Peynado,
• Maurice Carlos Ruffin,
• Shannon Sanders,
• George Saunders,
• Joanna Scott,
• Anna Sequoia,
• Asako Serizawa,
• Sharyn Skeeter
• Tiphanie Yanique, and
• Ye Chun

Carrie, a business manager who always wanted to be a dancer, has two commitments today. She made a promise to her late father to move Cousin Ella, a former Paris café dancer, from her condemned Harlem apartment to a safe place. She’s also committed to catch a flight to Seattle with her husband for his new job. But Cousin Ella resists leaving the apartment where she’s had salons with Langston Hughes. She also has a mysterious gift that she wants Carrie to earn. If she does, a revelation about Carrie’s father and his cousin Langston Hughes will change her life.

Having written more than eight novels, including My Amputations and Dirty Bird Blues, alongside a dozen books of poetry, Chicago Heat and Other Stories is Clarence Major’s second work of short fiction and first book with Green Writers Press. Chicago Heat and Other Stories employs a gorgeous purity and simplicity of language in a series of masterful stories exploring human interaction. Each narrative voice comes forward all at once, individual and complete, without obstacle or complication, enabling the reader to see the characters and feel their emotions. Major does not shy away from the bitter or the harsh; we get to hear it all. Like paint on an easel he blends lyric harmony with moxie and the blunt with the beautiful. The imagery is completely accessible and generously given. Toni Morrison comes to mind. His work is like jewels.