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 Books

Mentioned in this episode:

Rate & Review

Thanks 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 Books

Mentioned in this episode:

Rate & Review

Thanks 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 Books

Mentioned in this episode:

Rate & Review

Thanks 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 Books

Mentioned in this episode:

Rate & Review

Thanks 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 Camonghne Felix, author of Let The Poets Govern: A Declaration of Freedom.

It’s a treatise on the inherent harm of political power and an entreaty for people to seek collective and communal good from a praxis of poetics.

In our conversation, Camonghne explains why the erasure poems she included in the text are the best option to show people a new narrative of democracy. Plus, the reason she advocates for anarchy.

Mahogany Books

Mentioned in this episode:

Rate & Review

Thanks 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 Books

Mentioned in this episode:

Rate & Review

Thanks 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 Books

Mentioned in this episode:

Rate & Review

Thanks 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 Books

Mentioned in this episode:

Mahogany Books

Rate & Review

Thanks 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