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This week on Black & Published, Nikesha speaks with Ashton Lattimore, author of the novel, Runner.

The novel explores prohibition era life on Martha’s Vineyard and the burgeoning cultural force that became the Harlem Renaissance between two women who will do anything to achieve their dreams, including risking their own lives.

In our conversation, Ashton discusses why she enjoys exploring the full tapestry of the Black experience through highlighting class differences and the role respectability plays in keeping the main characters tethered to what they don’t want.

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This week on Black & Published, Nikesha speaks with Amy DuBois Barnett, author of the novel, If I Ruled the World. It’s a story Amy began during her tenure in corporate media, specifically working as an editor at several major magazines including ESSENCE, EBONY and as the Editor-in-Chief of Honey.

Living the dream of becoming a novelist is something Amy’s wanted to do since she enrolled in an MFA program in her twenties. In our conversation she discusses, her circuitous route into magazine publishing, that ultimately brought her back to fiction. Why she believes it’s important for women to take themselves on small adventures. And what she believes is the true cost of ambition.

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This week on Black & Published, Nikesha takes you to the American Writers Festival, held June 7, in Chicago where she did a live recording of the podcast with the authors Jabari Asim, Deborah D. Douglas, and Lonnae O’Neal.

In their conversation they discuss, the importance of narrative repair, publishing in the current socio-political climate, and how they avoid being pigeonholed to write what they want.

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This week on Black & Published, Nikesha speaks with Victoria Christopher Murray and Marie Benedict, the authors of the historical fiction novel, A Pair of Aces.

In our conversations they discuss why they see their partnership as a mission with a message. The hard conversations about race, class, and feminism, they have with each other that get transported to the page. And why they want readers to remember you don’t have to be friends to be allies.

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This week on Black & Published, Nikesha speaks with Regina Black, author of the country romance novel, August Lane. The book recontexutalizes the narrative around who can be a country star as well as expands the perspective of who lives a country, read: rural, life.

In our conversation, Regina explains how fanfiction and live journal became her MFA workshop and Beyoncé's Cowboy Carter provided a launch pad for her to discuss her life and what it really means to be both Black and Country.

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This week on Black & Published, Nikesha speaks with Kristina Forest, author of the romance novel The Summer Girlfriend.

In our conversation, Kristina discusses an enraging trip to the bookstore that sparked the idea for the novel, the plotting tools she uses to create meaningful stakes, and why she wanted to put her heroine definitively in her "soft girl era."

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This week on Black & Published, Nikesha speaks with Toni Ann Johnson author of the new short story collection, But Where's Home. The collection dives even further into the world she’s built with previous publications of a middle class Black family, in a majority white enclave in upstate New York.

In our conversation, Toni Ann explains why she keeps returning to auto fiction as her chosen form instead of memoir or an autobiography. Plus, how she learned to decolonize her own mind and why she says it’s difficult to set a boundary with abusive parents.

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This week on Black & Published, Nikesha speaks with Lisa Smith, author of the novel, Jamaica Road. It’s a coming of age story that spans 12 years in the lives of Connie and Daphne, who wrestle with their identity as British and Jamaican at a time of great racial unrest in the UK.

In our conversation, Lisa explains why she decided to write a novel during maternity leave and how she finished it after chemo. Plus, the real life do over that she gave herself through the characters in her novel.

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This week on Black & Published, Nikesha speaks with Ashley Jordan, the author of the romance novel, Once Upon a Time in Dollywood.

In our conversation, Ashley explains how going to grad school helped her finish her novel, plus the zombie apocalypse television show that sparked Ashley’s writing career.

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This week on Black & Published, Nikesha speaks with Gwendolyn Wallace and Tonya Engel, the author and illustrator of the new picture book, Dancing with Water. It's a story about a young queer child and their love for their grandfather who is a water diviner.

In our conversation, Gwendolyn explains why she believes stories are truly born at the intersection of science and the humanities. Plus, how Tonya and Gwen see children’s literature as a way to preserve Black traditions.

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