Black & Published

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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.

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Order Your Copy of The Seven Daughters of Dupree!

This week on Black & Published, Nikesha speaks with Damon Young, author and editor of That’s How They Get You: An Unruly Anthology of Black American Humor.

The anthology features essays and stories from 24 acclaimed Black writers whose words do work on the page but are also funny AF.

In our conversation, we discuss how humor is a vehicle to explore human vulnerabilities, the reason Damon believes Black American humor is the best humor, and the reason he’s got sex on his mind for his future projects.

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Order Your Copy of The Seven Daughters of Dupree!

This week on Black & Published, Nikesha speaks with Ebony LaDelle, editor of the YA Romance Collection: You’ve Got a Place Here too: An Anthology of Black Love Storie set at HBCUs.

The collection provides a gathering place for 11 authors to share stories of all representations of love within the HBCU ecosystem.

In our conversation, we discuss why it’s necessary to give teens the tools we all need to navigate healthy love relationships, what a platonic soul mate taught her about romantic love, and how the death of her best friend propelled her into her purpose.

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Mahogany Books

Order Your Copy of The Seven Daughters of Dupree!

This week on Black and Published, Nikesha speaks with Dorsía Smith Silva, author of the poetry collection, In Inheritance of Drowning.

The collection was born out of Dorsía’s experience of living through Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico in 2017, becoming a mother, and witnessing the racial reckoning of 2020.

In our conversation, we discuss the reason she shays she cannot write light verse, how long she had to put her creative dreams aside to secure her career, and why she believes poetry is the form that offers the most freedom.

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Order Your Copy of The Seven Daughters of Dupree!

This season on Black & Published, guests help answer the question: What does it mean to be a Black writer?

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This week on Black & Published, Nikesha celebrates the publication of her latest novel, The Seven Daughters of Dupree, with Bookstagram and Book Tok favorites, Jamise Harper (@diversespines, @spinesvines) and Edrick Scarver (@edrickreadit).

They discuss the original title of the novel that informed the whole story line, the greatest takeaway Nikesha wants readers to have when they finish the novel, and the experience of going from an indie to trad author.

Order Your Copy of The Seven Daughters of Dupree!

See Nikesha on Tour

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The Seven Daughters of Dupree Pre-Order Offer

 Nikisha Elise Williams, the host of the Black and Published podcast, is celebrating the release of her forthcoming novel, The Seven Daughters of Dupree. This historical fiction novel is about the secrets kept between mothers and daughters over the course of seven generations and is told backwards in time from 1995 to 1860.

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This week on Black & Published, Nikesha speaks with her editor, Alison Callahan who has been working as an editor for 20+ years. They discuss why their editor-author relationship was always destined to be. Plus, the deep dive Alison and her team did into Nikesha's background before making the deal. And why she feels intimidated every time she takes off her editorial hat and tries to approach the page as a potential author.

Order Your Copy of The Seven Daughters of Dupree!

See Nikesha on Tour

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This week on Black & Published, Nikesha speaks with her literary agent, Peter Steinberg. An agent since 1996, Peter explains the one thing that remains true in publishing even after all these years. Plus, the importance of rejection to an author's career, and what he thinks is the death of good fiction.

Order Your Copy of The Seven Daughters of Dupree!

See Nikesha on Tour

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This week on Black & Published, Nikesha dives into how she wrote her forthcoming novel The Seven Daughters of Dupree. From starting the book for a publishing contest just days before she gave birth, to writing and revising as her life fell apart Nikesha breaks down how her novel kept her from a break down, and the kismetic happenstance that occurred between she, her agent, and editor.

Order Your Copy of The Seven Daughters of Dupree!

See Nikesha on Tour

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Black & Published is back for season 6, but before we dive into our regularly scheduled episodes, we're having a mini series all about Nikesha's forthcoming novel The Seven Daughters of Dupree.

Over these next four weeks she'll discuss:

1. the writing process
2. how she got her agent
3. how the novel sold in a week
4. the themes already resonating with early readers.

Order Your Copy of The Seven Daughters of Dupree!

See Nikesha on Tour

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