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Grandpa! Tell Us a Story Drinking from Ancient Wells the Story of the Game Black People Play/Trilogy Book One: The Game’s Soul
Grandpa! Tell Us a Story Drinking from Ancient Wells the Story of the Game Black People Play/Trilogy Book One: The Game’s Soul Orchester Benjamin Excerpt If you dig deep en...
Sometimes I Cry
Sometimes I Cry Linda Dominique Grosvenor Excerpt I have never been more anxious in my entire life than I am right now. I’m sitting at my desk with an hour or more to kill and a list of things...
Zora Neale Hurston: A Life In Letters by Carla Kaplan
Zora Neale Hurston: A Life In Letters by Carla Kaplan Zora Neale Hurston Excerpt Chapter 1 “DE TALKIN’ GAME” The Twenties (and Before) First and foremost a storyteller, with ...
Running to Fall — Chapters 1 & 2
Running to Fall — Chapters 1 & 2 Kalisha Buckhanon Excerpt ONE MARCH 2021 Right around time things started reopening, the late March thaw brought a lifeless girl up to the tail end of the Grays...
Running to Fall — Chapters 1 & 2
Running to Fall — Chapters 1 & 2 Kalisha Buckhanon Excerpt ONE MARCH 2021 Right around time things started reopening, the late March thaw brought a lifeless girl up to the tail end of the Grays...
Of One Blood
Of One Blood Pauline Hopkins Excerpt Chapter One The recitations were over for the day. It was the first week in November and it had rained about every day the entire week; now freezing temperatur...
West of Rehoboth
West of Rehoboth Alexs D. Pate Excerpt The soft summer held them all. They gently sat upon the shimmering flecks of sun hidden in the cut grass. They came together like this every Fourth of July. It ...
From Presence to Power: How to Take On the Fights That Matter—and Win
From Presence to Power: How to Take On the Fights That Matter—and Win Rashad Robinson Excerpt 1 Presence Is Not Enough Definition: Presence is about visibility, the ability to make something—a ...
Operation Sisterhood
Operation Sisterhood Olugbemisola Rhuday-Perkovich Excerpt 1 So it really was a dark and stormy night, and it figured, thought Bo. Of course it was a dark and stormy night. Of course it was. Ok...
A Thug’s Redemption
A Thug’s Redemption Yani Excerpt Shawn, Jamal and Maurice headed over to Erie Avenue to check out a basketball game in a nearby playground. Shawn was scoping out the competition to see who he would ...
I Can’t Wait on God
I Can’t Wait on God Albert French Excerpt Chapter One Pittsburgh, 1950 Summer night air was always sticky kind of air, had that stinkin mill smoke stuck all in it. Them old freight trains ...
Cowards and Angels
Cowards and Angels Aileen Muhammad Excerpt Mia (From Cowards and Angels) Death before dishonor. An embrace like no other. A fair exchange. An honored declaration that life’s sagging hypocr...
The Other Side of the Game
The Other Side of the Game Anita Doreen Diggs Excerpt CHAPTER 5 EVELYN Phil is taking me to B.B. King’s blues club in Manhattan so I’m trying to find the right pair ...
Tuff: A Novel
Tuff: A Novel Paul Beatty Excerpt Now on this, the last cool night of summer, Brooklyn was short three more niggers for Winston to hate. Although he addressed all black men as “God,” Ch...
Church Boy
Church Boy Connie Barrett Excerpt Chapter One: His mind raced as he maneuvered his way behind Charlie’s store ’ past the dumpsters, the broken crates, over the scrap heap. He had...
Table of Contents <em>Black Power, Black Lawyer: My Audacious Quest for Justice</em>
Table of Contents Black Power, Black Lawyer: My Audacious Quest for Justice Patrice Lawrence Excerpt Chapter 1 Al I’m hungry. Really hungry. I want to fill the biggest bowl with cornflakes and ...
A Life of Turmoil: The short stories of Ana Franken 08150017
A Life of Turmoil: The short stories of Ana Franken 08150017 Johanna Sparrow Excerpt Yes, Mother The turmoiled relationship of Ana Franken a Short Story “Sometimes I wish that I had all boys...
My Brown Baby
My Brown Baby Denene Millner Excerpt Chapter 1 My Escort into Motherhood I WAS A YOUNG REPORTER WHEN I MET HER—full of energy, I had a flat stomach, still 120 pounds soaking wet, still ea...
Table of Contents <em>Black Power, Black Lawyer: My Audacious Quest for Justice</em>
Table of Contents Black Power, Black Lawyer: My Audacious Quest for Justice Nkechi Taifa Excerpt Table of Contents Black Power, Black Lawyer: Memoir of Nkechi Taifa Prologue—“Judge Not” Red Ba...
Raisins in Milk – Chapter 1
Raisins in Milk – Chapter 1 Chauncey Ridley Excerpt Raisins in Milk – Chapter 1 Mandarin, Florida Springtime 1913 The breeze that came in from the sea was warm. It brought with it also the...
Adultery
Adultery Paulo Coelho Excerpt Every morning, when I open my eyes to the so-Âcalled “new day,” I feel like closing them again, staying in bed, and not getting up. But I can’t do t...
Unsung Heroes
Unsung Heroes Elizabeth Ross Haynes Excerpt In casting about for stories to read to a little friend, one day I drew from the Library "My Life and Times" by Frederick Douglass. I knew that t...
In the Still of the Night: Personal Safety for Women
In the Still of the Night: Personal Safety for Women Andrea Foy Excerpt Une Nuit de Paris\ “How did I get myself into this mess?” I thought. There I was, riding on the Metro out of Par...
Cayenne
Cayenne Janice Pernell Excerpt Nia eyed Michael with a mixture of defiance and loathing. The man who’d captured her heart in the past three months was now her captor, in a very literal but surr...
Let the Oppressed Go Free: Exploring Theologies of Liberation
Let the Oppressed Go Free: Exploring Theologies of Liberation Marvin Andrew McMickle Excerpt The Invisible Black Woman It seems that African American men who worked tirelessly to reverse the st...
An Approach to Style: The 21 Reminders
An Approach to Style: The 21 Reminders William Strunk Jr. and E. B. White Excerpt In the final chapter of The Elements of Style, E. B. White provides a list of guidelines to help writers develop a di...
To Find You
To Find You Cerece Rennie Murphy Excerpt Part I: In The Beginning I wait for him here, at the place where the night sky and the earth become lovers. In the tall grass of our homeland, between two k...
Polo Cowboy Chapter 1
Polo Cowboy Chapter 1 G. Neri Excerpt Preface: Mama is fuming. “Say that again.” I swallow and take a deep breath. “I ain’t goin’ back to Detroit.” Five m...
Coming Forth by Day
Coming Forth by Day Kakwasi Somadhi Excerpt Excerpt from Chapter Seven When Loretha showed up with Solly that hot July evening, the village was already crowded. Men and women with Afros as big as ...
Where to Choose: A Novel
Where to Choose: A Novel Penny Mickelbury Excerpt Chapter Four Late-morning sun shone directly down on the purple and lilac and pink and white bougainvillea; shone easily through the tops of to...
The Root of All Evil
The Root of All Evil Gibran Tariq and Gregory S. Jones Excerpt Chapter One November 1942 It was one thing to be cold, but quite another to be freezing. Not long ago, Paul Madsen, had been warm ...
Archangels of Funk
Archangels of Funk Andrea Hairston Excerpt CINNAMON HAIR ON FIRE “Who’s afraid of the future?” Cinnamon Jones sucked a deep breath and raced downhill in the dark on fast hy...
Wolf Hustle
Wolf Hustle Cin Fabré Excerpt Introduction The hustle has always been with me. Once I discovered the stock market I became infected with the delirious joy that comes from a successful speculative ...
Killens Review of Arts & Letters
Killens Review of Arts & Letters Clarence V. Reynolds Excerpt Fiction Excerpt: “Lynched” by Kim-Marie Walker When mother named me Madame Augusta Nero in 1920, she intended whites aroun...
The Future Has a Past
The Future Has a Past J. California Cooper Excerpt A Shooting Star Now, you don’t know me. And, I know that you know that nobody knows everything. But a person does have to go by whatever ...
A Thug’s Redemption 2: Jamal’s Return
A Thug’s Redemption 2: Jamal’s Return Yani Excerpt They jumped on the elevator and rode down to the garage. Neither Maurice nor Angela knew what to say to Keisha so they followed in silence. They ma...
Forbidden Fruit
Forbidden Fruit Stanley Gazemba Excerpt The air over the village that evening was pregnant with tension. A thick dark cloud loomed heavy above the grey colored thatch huts that dotted the steep green...
Chapter 3 Jonathan Fraiser
Chapter 3 Jonathan Fraiser J. A. Faulkerson Excerpt Mr. Black led me down a spiral, granite staircase surrounded by granite walls with more ornate carvings on them. When we reached the...
The Fisher King: A Novel
The Fisher King: A Novel Paule Marshall Excerpt Chapter 1 "Had the brass-face to come round me playing the Sodom and Gomorrah music!" The old woman they said was his g...
Bone to Pick: Of Forgiveness, Reconciliation, Reparation, and Revenge
Bone to Pick: Of Forgiveness, Reconciliation, Reparation, and Revenge Ellis Cose Excerpt To forgive the truly horrible is to kiss the robe of God, to emulate no less a figure than the dying Jesus Chr...
The Water Dancer
The Water Dancer Ta-Nehisi Coates Excerpt And I could only have seen her there on the stone bridge, a dancer wreathed in ghostly blue, because that was the way they would have taken her back when I w...
Preface
Preface Kekla Magoon Excerpt Preface: When people talk about the Black Panthers, sometimes they speak in hushed tones, as if history itself could overhear. As if the Panthers are a secret no one s...
Introduction: The Isley Brothers’ 3+3
Introduction: The Isley Brothers’ 3+3 Darrell M. McNeill Excerpt Introduction The Isley Brothers Are America’s Most Tenured Rock and Roll Group: Deal with it. All you are ever told in this ...
Foreword Justice for Marcus Garvey
Foreword Justice for Marcus Garvey Julius Garvey Excerpt Foreword Excerpt by Ta-Nehisi Coates “I grew up in a household where Malcolm X was Jesus, and I guess that would make Garvey God. Gar...
Chapter One
Chapter One Catherine Joy White Excerpt Silence This thread of gold that ties me to my mother, my grandmother, and the women who came before looks a lot like the color purple. Like the purple hibi...
Haint Blue
Haint Blue Katherine Dempsey Excerpt Go On Girl! Book Club’s 2021 Unpublished Writers Award Winner Haint BlueChapter One March 2021 “My brain reeled as I saw the mighty walls rus...
Chaser: A Novel
Chaser: A Novel Miasha Excerpt Kenny, Stop, Pleeeease! Kennnnyyy!” I cried for my life. It wasn’t even about the baby anymore because I was sure it was dead. There was no ...
Not My Will
Not My Will Khara Campbell Excerpt Prologue “Virtue, your man dogged you and you gonna let him get away with that mess? If I was you, I would be busting some holes in his tires and smashing ou...
Zone One: A Novel
Zone One: A Novel Colson Whitehead Excerpt A 2012 Hurston/Wright Legacy Award Nominated Book He always wanted to live in New York. His Uncle Lloyd lived downtown on Lafayette, and in the long s...
Like Sweet Buttermilk
Like Sweet Buttermilk S.F. Powell Excerpt …Viv entered their sitting room, where she lay down to think, pulling the afghan strewn across the loveseat around her. More thinking, however, didn...
Obscure Boundaries
Obscure Boundaries S.F. Powell Excerpt …“You know he’ll be out by the time she gets home.” Todd dropped his head for a minute then looked up. “Wanna watch Medea&rsquo...
Diamonds and Pearl
Diamonds and Pearl K’wan Excerpt CHAPTER 1 New Orleans, L.A.: Sept. 2005 “It looks bad out there, man.” Larry said staring out the rain slicked window of the second floor bedroom. I...
In My ‘Hood
In My ‘Hood Endy Excerpt The loud banging on the door startled Desiree “Rae-Rae” Johnson from her deep sleep. She sat up on the mattress that graced the dirty hardwood floor. Wiping th...
The Angry Ones
The Angry Ones John A. Williams Excerpt You remember a lot of things about a trip across America. You remember the sandstone rocks reared above red and brown plains, the twisted, fiercely shaped arro...
Murder At Cape Three Points
Murder At Cape Three Points Kwei Quartey Excerpt PROLOGUE Cape Three Points, the southernmost tip of Ghana, is beautiful and wild. Verdant forest covers the three finger-like peninsulas th...
Provenance: A Novel
Provenance: A Novel Donna Drew Sawyer Excerpt Prologue Park Place, Virginia - Fall 1909 “Hank, run!” was the last thing he heard Junior say. Deputies struggled to hold and handcuff ...
Shoe’s on the Otha’ Foot
Shoe’s on the Otha’ Foot Hunter Hayes Excerpt Chapter 1 "I REMINISCE" Precisely four forty-seven p.m., and the damn beat-beat of my heart is racing to catch up with the tick-...
Brothers, Lust, and Love: Thoughts on Manhood, Sex, and Romance
Brothers, Lust, and Love: Thoughts on Manhood, Sex, and Romance William July II Excerpt SBF Seeking Mr. Right. Must be 6’3", 215, have a mustache, degree in law or medicine from Ivy Leagu...
Morning Drive to Midnight
Morning Drive to Midnight Renee Prewitt Killingsworth Excerpt After working together awhile, Adrienne and Selena developed a bond that transcended simple friendship. Adrienne used to say they clicke...
Life, Love & Loneliness
Life, Love & Loneliness Crystal Lacey Winslow Excerpt CHAPTER 3 - LYRIC DEVANEY At 11:00 am sharp, Richard’s black Mercedes- Benz arrived. His driver got out and opened the door and Richard ...
Topaz
Topaz Beverly Jenkins Excerpt Chicago May 1884 Under the cover of the darkness, Katherine Love stood with her back pressed closely against the outside wall of the warehouse, hoping she couldn&r...
A Letter for My Mother
A Letter for My Mother Nina Foxx Excerpt Nina Foxx’s Letter: A Letter to My Once Mother-in-Law Charlenne, The doctors say that it won’t be long now. Your son just called and told m...
Black Man’s Version to Exhale
Black Man’s Version to Exhale Akie F. Davis Excerpt Introduction We know all too well of the frustrating encounters that many Black women have had when dealing with Black men. However, little h...
A Long Way from Home
A Long Way from Home Connie Briscoe Excerpt Chapter One Clara sat up on the edge of her pallet and rubbed her eyes with her fists. She could tell it was awfully late by the wa...
Consequences
Consequences Martha Kennerson Excerpt Prologue Don’t pass out. Do not pass out. Kristine didn’t want to be that girl—the one who gets so tanked that she loses consciousness....
Mass Deception
Mass Deception Hallema Excerpt Chill bumps appear out of nowhere when I think about that particular period of my life. The memory still haunts me to this day. I’d just arrived bac...
Not All Dogs
Not All Dogs C. Kelly Robinson Excerpt Prologue Chapter One: Choirboy Chapter Two: Smooth Operator Chapter Three: Sinister Minister Chapter Four: Bootstrapper Prologue (top) Sheryl Gibs...
Passing By Samaria
Passing By Samaria Sharon Ewell Foster Excerpt With just a second’s pause, Alena stepped into the strange green world. Entranced, she walked further in amongst the trees. She did not look bac...
My Love, My Love: or The Peasant Girl
My Love, My Love: or The Peasant Girl Rosa Guy Excerpt Chapter One On that island where rivers run deep, where the sea sparkling in the sun earns it the name Jewel of the Antilles, the tops of t...
Remembering Margo: A Triumphant Life, A Tragic Death, And Life’s Greatest Deception
Remembering Margo: A Triumphant Life, A Tragic Death, And Life’s Greatest Deception Donzella Michele Malone Excerpt PREFACE It was a cool and ra...
The Man Who Cried I Am
The Man Who Cried I Am John A. Williams Excerpt FOREWORD by Graham Hodges The publication of John A. Williams’ fourth novel, The Man Who Cried I Am, in October, 1967, caused cr...
The Color of Water: A Black Man’s Tribute to His White Mother
The Color of Water: A Black Man’s Tribute to His White Mother James McBride Excerpt CHAPTER ONE Dead I’m dead. You want to talk about my family and here I been dead to them for fifty y...
Journey To Justice
Journey To Justice Johnnie Cochran Excerpt WHY I WANTED TO BE A LAWYER I have often been asked why I wanted to be a lawyer. One of the most important things that happened to me during ...
You Are Free: Stories
You Are Free: Stories Danzy Senna Excerpt What’s the Matter with Helga and Dave? When I married Hewitt, I didn’t realize — among other things — that I would become a member...
The Secret Lives of the Four Wives
The Secret Lives of the Four Wives Lola Shoneyin Excerpt Chapter One – Polygamist I didn’t just happen upon this room; I dreamed of the pale green walls before I arrived. Now the built...
Standing at the Scratch Line
Standing at the Scratch Line Guy Johnson Excerpt LeRoi picked up the rifle that was leaning against a root with its stock in the water. He checked the barrel carefully for obstructions, then mounted ...
All I Want For Christmas
All I Want For Christmas Joyce A. Brown, Princess F.L. Gooden, Terri Ann Johnson, Sonia Johnston, Patricia Woodside, Cryssy Dee, Candy Jackson, and others Excerpt An excerpt from Terri Ann Johnson&rs...
Show Me No Mercy
Show Me No Mercy Anita L. Roseboro Excerpt Casey ran from the bedroom and rushed out the door without anything more than a comforter wrapped around her body to ward off the freezing temperatures. She...
The First
The First Kipjo K. Ewers Excerpt CHAPTER 1 Monday 11:30 PM, Mountain View Unit in Gatesville, Texas, prisoner 28301:014 stared at her prison door as if she was watching a movie. She barely touched h...
The Unmaking Of The Black Man
The Unmaking Of The Black Man Gibran Tariq and Gregory S. Jones Excerpt THE OTHER END OF THE STICK The social revolution for the control of the black image had a profound impact on the sistas as w...
In West Mills
In West Mills De’Shawn Charles Winslow Excerpt Part One In October of ’41, Azalea Centre’s man told her that he was sick and tired of West Mills and of the love affair she was having w...
Greed: A Seven Deadly Sins Novel
Greed: A Seven Deadly Sins Novel Victoria Christopher Murray Excerpt Chapter 1 “Just got paid…it’s Friday night.” I tapped the button on my steering wheel, silencing the bo...
Chapters <a href="#1">1</a> & <a href="#12">12</a>: The Fund by Kevin P. Chavous
Chapters 1 & 12: The Fund by Kevin P. Chavous Kevin P. Chavous Excerpt Chapter 1 𝒥ackson Lowery was in trouble. The man was coming at him again. Jackson was much taller, but the shorter man w...
Chapters <a href="#1">1</a> & <a href="#12">12</a>: The Fund by Kevin P. Chavous
Chapters 1 & 12: The Fund by Kevin P. Chavous Kevin P. Chavous Excerpt Chapter 1 𝒥ackson Lowery was in trouble. The man was coming at him again. Jackson was much taller, but the shorter man w...
Death in the City
Death in the City Keith Kareem Williams Excerpt “Where I’m from, if you get shot you don’t tell. If you survive the bullets, you find the shooter yourself and get your revenge. ...
Unbossed: How Black Girls Are Leading the Way
Unbossed: How Black Girls Are Leading the Way Helon Habila and Kadija Sesay Excerpt Chapter 1 When she was just five years old, Ssanyu Lukoma fell in love with a book called Rosa, an inspiring chi...
The Davenports (Chapter One)
The Davenports (Chapter One) Krystal Marquis Excerpt Chapter 1 Olivia Olivia Elise Davenport pulled a bolt of vibrant yellow silk from the display and held it to her dark complexion. She was dr...
One Blood
One Blood Denene Millner Excerpt 1 The blood never much bothered Grace. Maw Maw Rubelle got her used to it early on, when she was little ol’, way before she let her only granddaughter, her a...
Stamped from the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America
Stamped from the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America Ibram X. Kendi Excerpt PART I Cotton Mather CHAPTER 1 Human Hierarchy THEY WEATHERED BRUTAL WINTERS, suffered...
American Wings
American Wings Sherri L. Smith and Elizabeth Wein Excerpt PROLOGUE A Dream Takes Flight Omaha, Nebraska, 1919 It was going to cost three dollars to ride—about $50 in 2023, but the wo...
The Savion Sequence
The Savion Sequence D. Amari Jackson Excerpt PROLOGUE “How could this be?” marveled the wide-eyed Nubian, removing the protective mask covering his nose and mouth so his partner could ...
The Savion Sequence
The Savion Sequence D. Amari Jackson Excerpt PROLOGUE “How could this be?” marveled the wide-eyed Nubian, removing the protective mask covering his nose and mouth so his partner could ...
Done in the Dark
Done in the Dark Tamara Morgan Excerpt Though she knew she should take comfort that Mama Ella was going to ‘a better place,’ despite her grandmother’s efforts Karina’s faith i...
Done in the Dark
Done in the Dark Tamara Morgan Excerpt Chapter 1 Though she knew she should take comfort that Mama Ella was going to ‘a better place,’ despite her grandmother’s efforts Karina&rsqu...
A leap of Faith
A leap of Faith Anita L. Helm Excerpt PREFACE For some time now, I have wanted to write a story about my life—I’m still living, so this is my capture of my first half. I hope the stories...
The Payback
The Payback Kashana Cauley Excerpt Chapter One In the handful of minutes before our store opened, the sales day was pregnant with potential cash. Soon my boss Richard would open our front door, th...
Almost by Design: A Novel
Almost by Design: A Novel Jenny Erlingsson Excerpt Chapter 1 These shoes would be the death of her. Or at least cause the demise of a few toes. Kenya Stewart sighed, admiring the way the heels refle...
Always Outnumbered, Always Outgunned
Always Outnumbered, Always Outgunned Walter Mosley Excerpt CHAPTER ONE CRIMSON SHADOW {1.} "What you doin' there, boy?" It was six a.m. Socrates Fortlow had come out to the al...