This week on Black & Published , Nikesha speaks with Dwight Thompson , author of the novel, My Own Dear People . It’s a story about a young man reflecting on the harm he and his friends caused a young teacher while they were in high school and why even as a spectator the protagonist was still a perpetrator. In our conversation, Dwight explains how his own reflection of his boyhood informed the creation of his character. Plus, how telling the truth got his first novel labeled as "too lewd." A...
Jun 24, 2025•40 min•Season 5Ep. 24
This week on Black & Published , Nikesha speaks with Denne Michele Norris author of the novel, When the Harvest Comes . The story is one Denne has been working on for 14 years but couldn’t unlock until she freed herself first. In our conversation, Denne discusses how she worked through her issues of gender, race, and sexuality using her characters and craft. Plus, the reason she believes it’s her duty to walk readers through trauma hand in hand. And as a classically trained violist, why Denn...
Jun 17, 2025•51 min•Season 5Ep. 23
This week on Black & Published , Nikesha speaks with W.J. Lofton , author of the poetry collection, boy, maybe . The collection explores William’s difficult and at times traumatic childhood, how he survived, and how he’s living now as young, Black queer man in America. In our conversation, Williams explains the reason he says that even though he crosses many identity intersections it’s not his life that is fractured. Plus, how writing boy, maybe was a gentle escape, despite the subject matte...
Jun 10, 2025•40 min•Season 5Ep. 22
This week on Black & Published , Nikesha speaks with, Arriel Vinson , author of the YA romance novel, Under the Neon Lights . It’s a story that sets the budding love between Jaelyn and Trey against a backdrop of their shifting community landscape and Jaelyn’s fight to maintain her safe place. In our conversation, Arriel explains the reason she grounded this book in her own good memories as a way to explore the harm of encroaching whiteness. Plus, how she believes the oral storytelling tradit...
Jun 03, 2025•49 min•Season 5Ep. 21
This week on Black & Published , Nikesha speaks with Cher Terais , author of the wanderlust romance novel, Tempest in Tulum . In crafting her novels, Cher says while her settings may be exotic and lush for love, what the characters go through will always be grounded in reality. In our conversation she explains why she was never a fan of Prince Charming, the reason it took her twenty years to return to the page after she first tried to pen a novel, and how she makes her work as polished as po...
May 27, 2025•44 min•Season 5Ep. 20
This week on Black & Published , Nikesha speaks with Hana Baba the storyteller on the new podcast Folk Tales from Sudan . The first season will feature 10 stories Hana grew up hearing from her uncle, but was uncertain if she should or could step into his role behind the mic. A radio journalist by trade, Hana fell in love with voice, how it could emote, and its expressiveness at an early age though she grapples with what it means to take ownership of oral traditions. Why she’s resisting the u...
May 20, 2025•50 min•Season 5Ep. 19
This week on Black & Published , Nikesha speaks with Dolen Perkins-Valdez , about her new historical fiction novel, Happy Land . The books is based on the true story of how a group of Black people founded their own Kingdom on more than 200 acres of mountain land that straddled North and South Carolina. In writing Happy Land, Dolen is correcting the historical record about the origins of the Happy Land settlers that has stood as the final word 75 years. How she learned about this intentional ...
May 13, 2025•49 min•Season 5Ep. 18
This week on Black & Published , Nikesha speaks with Myah Ariel , author of the novel, No Ordinary Love . Myah, who is a journalist, film enthusiast, and lover of all things pop culture said she decided to try her hand at writing after spending the pandemic reconnecting with her love of reading romance novels. In our conversation she discusses how she managed to write, sell and publish two books in the four years from when she first approached the page. What intimidated her the most about no...
May 06, 2025•45 min•Season 5Ep. 17
This week on Black & Published, Nikesha speaks with Esme Addison , author of the novel An Intrigue of Witches . The historical mystery novel takes the reader on a treasure hunt with the main character to discover the hidden history of unruly women. In our conversation, Esme discusses who prophesied her writing and publishing career over her life. Plus, the difficulty she faced in securing an agent and publisher willing to take a chance on her books that don’t fit snugly into one genre. And a...
Apr 29, 2025•40 min•Season 5Ep. 16
This week on Black & Published, Nikesha speaks with Jacqueline Crooks, author of the novel, Fire Rush . It's a book that took her 16 years to bring into the world after getting a late start in writing even though it was something she knew she always wanted to do. In our conversation, Jacqueline explains why she considers her upbringing as an outsider because of her identity as a Caribbean immigrant in the UK a privilege on the page. Plus, how she brought to life the two battles women are alw...
Apr 22, 2025•45 min•Season 5Ep. 15
This week on Black & Published, Nikesha speaks with Jill Tew , author of the YA dystopian romance novel, The Dividing Sky . It's a book Jill says she hopes disrupts old norms for her young audience In our conversation, Jill explains how she fell into the productivity trap in corporate America and the two major life changes that brought her back to the page. Plus, how rejection of her first novel prepared her to write her second and how the YA sci-fi space helped her redefine what’s most valu...
Apr 15, 2025•49 min•Season 5Ep. 14
This week on Black & Published, Nikesha speaks with Olufunke Grace Bankole , author of The Edge of Water. The book began as a short story and Olufunke has been working to bring it to fruition as a novel for the last twenty years. In our conversation she discusses, how she received the gift of patience from an industry insider that relieved the pressure of publishing. Plus, how her love of social justice and her career as a lawyer put her on the path to becoming a writer. And, how her story o...
Apr 08, 2025•58 min•Season 5Ep. 13
This week on Black & Published, Nikesha speaks with Jodi M. Savage , author of the essay collection, Death of a Jaybird: Essays on Mothers and Daughters and the Things They Leave Behind . It’s a collection that reckons with Jodi’s grief before and after the deaths of her mother and grandmother and how she found comfort in the space a blank page provided. In our conversation, she discusses how she processed her life in real time and turned it into a book. Why she believes forgiveness and grie...
Apr 01, 2025•48 min•Season 5Ep. 12
This week, Nikesha speaks with Donna Hill, the newly named executive director of The Center for Black Literature at Medgar Evers College, right in the heart of Brooklyn. Today, as in Thursday March 27, 2025, kicks off the center’s signature event, the National Black Writer’s Conference. This year is their two-day biennial symposium highlighting middle grade and young adult fiction. Tickets are free for seniors and for anyone else the cost is $30 or less. Mentioned in this episode: Rate & Rev...
Mar 27, 2025•28 min
This week on Black & Published , Nikesha speaks with Aaliyah Bilal, author of the short-story collection Temple Folk . The collection is made up of ten short stories about Black Americans who identify as Muslim and who were at one time members of the Nation of Islam. In our conversation, Aaliyah explains why "normalcy" is the main message she wants readers to take away from her collection. Plus, the reason she believes borrowing details from her personal life is beneath the craft of fiction....
Mar 25, 2025•46 min•Season 5Ep. 11
This week on Black & Published , Nikesha speaks with Jamila Minnicks, author of the novel, Moonrise Over New Jessup . It's a book written about a small, Black, Alabama enclave in the 1950s facing pressure to integrate despite resistance from the town’s male leaders and the women who make their work possible. A native of Alabama, Jamila says she sees her writing as an extension of her work as an advocate. The reason she believes her novel is a way to jumpstart the conversation on what communi...
Mar 18, 2025•49 min•Season 5Ep. 10
This week on Black & Published , Nikesha speaks with Laysha Ward author of the leadership book, Lead Like You Mean It: Lessons on Integrity and Purpose from the C-Suite. Laysha spent more than 30 years in corporate America, most of that time at Target. Our conversation took place before Target announced their roll back of DEI initiatives but we still discuss how her background as a Black girl from rural Indiana helped her find gold in her roots to unlock her superpowers. Why she believes it’...
Mar 11, 2025•46 min•Season 5Ep. 9
This week on Black & Published , Nikesha speaks with Bernice L. McFadden, the author of several award winning historical fiction novels. She’s out today with her memoir, First Born Girls, a book that weaves the story of her road to publication with her debut novel Sugar, with the story of the women in her family and what they endured. In honoring her family through the pages of First Born Girls, Bernice coined a new word. In our conversation, she explains how she came to call her departed lo...
Mar 04, 2025•46 min•Season 5Ep. 8
This week on Black & Published , Nikesha speaks with National Book Award Finalist and Corretta Scott King Award Winner, Amber McBride , about her latest novel, Onyx and Beyond . The novel tells the story of 12-year-old Onyx who’s growing up in the DMV area in the tulmutuous times of the late 60s and early 70s. There’s assassinations and moon landings happening in the world, while at home Onyx’s mother is slowly succumbing to early onset dementia. And Onyx, a dreamer and lover of magic believ...
Feb 25, 2025•48 min•Season 5Ep. 7
This week on Black & Published , Nikesha speaks with author and MacArthur genius Jason Reynolds about his YA romance novel, Twenty-four Seconds from Now: A Love Story . The novel explores the budding relationship between Neon and Aria. High school seniors who’ve been together for two years and are both ready to take their relationship to the next level of love and intimacy. In our conversation, Jason explains how writing this novel is part of his constant quest to challenge his craft and ded...
Feb 18, 2025•54 min•Season 5Ep. 6
This week on Black & Published , Nikesha speaks with return guest, Victoria Christopher Murray about her latest novel, Harlem Rhapsody . The novel tells the story of Jesse Redmon Faucet. A complex and ambitious woman who moved to New York to be nearer to her lover W.E.B. DuBois, and also to run his magazine, The Crisis . Between the scandal she had to keep quiet and an opportunity she didn’t want to squander, Victoria details how Jesse Redmon Faucet birthed what we now know as the Harlem Ren...
Feb 11, 2025•50 min•Season 5Ep. 5
This week on Black & Published , Nikesha speaks with New York Times and USA Today Bestselling author, Shanora Williams , about her new romance novel, Beautiful Broken Love. The novel is the second chance love story of Davina Klein-Roberts and Deke Bishop. Reeling from tragedy and trying to rebuild her life, Davina is not prepared for Deke, the NBA star, with his own dark secrets, who takes a sudden interest in her, and won’t take “no” for an answer. Shanora is an author who cut her career in...
Feb 04, 2025•43 min•Season 5Ep. 4
This week on Black & Published, Nikesha speaks with Tara Roberts , author of the memoir, Written in the Waters: A Memoir of History, Home, and Belonging . It’s an epic story of Tara fulfilling her childhood desire of becoming a writer commingled with her active decision to embrace a past she’d always run from. A storyteller, adventurer, and traveler, Tara is now an explorer in residence at National Geographic where she continues the work she’s done since 2016 as a scuba diver working with gr...
Jan 28, 2025•47 min•Season 5Ep. 3
This week on Black & Published , Nikesha speaks with Iris Mwanza , author of the novel The Lion’s Den . It’s a thriller featuring a young lawyer fighting for justice in the case of a queer teen, that has her going up against every oppressive system in Zambia from the President and police to her priest and the doctrine of the Catholic Church. Iris is Zambian-American. She started her career as an attorney, but currently serves as the Deputy Director of the Women in Leadership team at the Bill...
Jan 20, 2025•50 min•Season 5Ep. 2
This week on Black & Published , Nikesha speaks with Palestinian-American poets, Fady Joudah and Lena Khalaf Tuffaha. Fady is a physician, in addition to being a poet. His latest collection [ . . . ] chronicles the beginning of the genocide in Palestine in late 2023 and was a finalist for the 2024 National Book Award in poetry. Lena is a poet, essayist and translator. She's also the co-founder of the Institute for Middle East understanding. Her latest poetry collection, Something About Livin...
Jan 20, 2025•56 min•Season 5Ep. 1
This season on Black & Published . . . It’s time to get real about what writing can do. Whether we write about love or compassion, broken systems or the parallels between the past and the present; writing is active! It is both a portal and an archive. And while publishing is a business, the work on the page is still pure. This season the journeys continue with: Jodi M. Savage, Amber McBride, Jason Reynolds, Iris Mwanza, Tara Roberts, Aaliyah Bilal, Jamila Minnicks, Shanora Williams and many,...
Jan 14, 2025•4 min
In this bonus episode of Black & Published, Nikesha is sharing her story about becoming a writer and finding her way in the publishing industry. From exploring and utilizing both traditional and independent avenues, Nikesha discusses when she knew she was a writer, the 7-year-long journey of publishing her debut novel, Four Women, founding her company, NEW Reads Publications, and how she has kept going despite lots of rejection to publish four more novels, a poetry collection, and four other...
Oct 23, 2024•49 min
This week on Black and Published , Nikesha speaks with Minda Honey , author of the memoir, The Heartbreak Years . A retrospective for the twenty-somethings who are ready to stop leaping into the lives of the men they like and instead choose themselves and a life they love. The book is born out of Minda's series of essays for Longreads on dating politics. Her writing has also been featured in the Los Angeles Review of Books, the Washington Post, the Guardian, the Oxford American and Teen Vogue. I...
Oct 16, 2024•47 min
This week on Black and Published, Nikesha speaks with jarrett hill and Tre'vell Anderson , the authors of, Historically Black Phrases: From "I Ain't One of Your Little Friends" to "Who All Gon Be There? " Tre'vell and jarrett both have backgrounds in journalism and they are the hosts of the award-winning podcast FANTI . Their book chronicles the living language of Black people and how we bend a phrase to entertain, uplift, or sometimes to hurt and harm. In our conversation, they discuss how they...
Oct 09, 2024•49 min
On this episode of Black & Published, Nikesha speaks with Honorée Fannone Jeffers , author of the epic novel, The Love Songs of W.E.B. DuBois . Honorée is also the author of five critically acclaimed books of poetry, including the award-winning collection, The Age of Phillis , based on the life and times of Phillis Wheatley Peters.
Oct 02, 2024•46 min
