Happy Pride Month! Stephanie and Lauren chat about recent and current reads, publishing trends, the challenges of a writer's life, summer and fall workshops, and more!

[Non-fiction, Essay, Memoir]

Nicole Shawan Junior was bred in the bass-heavy beat and scratch of Brooklyn, where the cool of beautiful inner-city life barely survived cripplings caused by crack cocaine. She is a black, Queer and poverty-born counter-storyteller, felon, and former police prosecutor. Stephanie and Lauren chat with Nicole about her recent writing, non-fiction workshops, and forthcoming memoir.

[Fiction, Horror, Short Stories]

Kivel Carson is an emerging writer concerned with social justice, Black liberation, and representation through art and storytelling, particularly in the genres of literary fiction and Afrofuturism. In this episode, she chats about "Night Has No Eyes," a sharp zombie story in Black From the Future: A Collection of Black Speculative Writing.

[Fiction, Steampunk, Short Stories]

La Toya Hankins returns to Lez Talk Books Radio to dish about her new steampunk story, featured in Black From the Future: A Collection of Black Speculative Writing.

You can find more of her short works in Lez Talk: A Collection of Black Lesbian Short Fiction and at JMS Books. LaToya also penned the novels SBF Seeking… and K-RHO: The Sweet Taste of Sisterhood.

[Short Stories, Creative Non-fiction, Journalism]

Almah has been published in various anthologies, including the revised edition of does your mama know?: Black Lesbian Coming Out Stories. Her journalism has garnered a National Ethnic Media Award from New America Media and recognition on Utne Reader’s “Great Writing” blog. In this episode, Almah chats about her latest short story, found in Black From the Future: A Collection of Black Speculative Writing.

[Short Stories, Novel, Creative Writing]

M Shelly Conner uses her experiences as a dapperqueer Black woman to produce multi-genre works that examine intersections of race, gender, and sexuality. Her collection of writing spans multiple media and a range of publications, including "Black From the Future: A Collection of Speculative Fiction."

As a whole, Shelly's writing makes queer interventions in a tradition of storytelling about Black life and families from Jim Crow South to south side Chicago.

[Short Stories]

Penny Micklelbury is a pioneering newspaper, radio, and television journalist, and an award-winning writer of stage plays. She is the recipient of the Audre Lorde Estate Grant and was a resident writer at the Hedgebrook Women Writers Retreat.

Her new collection of stories, God’s Will and Other Lies, joins her catalog of eleven published mystery novels in three successful series: The Mimi Patterson/Gianna Maglione Mysteries (two-time Lambda Literary Award finalists); the Carole Ann Gibson Mysteries (winner of a Gold Pen Award by the Black Writers Alliance); and the Phil Rodriquez Mysteries; and the novel of historical fiction, Belle City.

[Serendipity, Writing Retreat, Submissions, Writing Community]

Lauren and Stephanie share updates about the 2nd annual writing retreat (Black Women Writing in the South), Serendipity, Sinister Wisdom, and more.

[Poetry, Activism, Writing Community]

JP co-edited issue #107 of Sinister Wisdom, titled “Black Lesbians—We Are the Revolution” to lift up the voices of African-American lesbians for all to hear, see, and know.

Her debut poetry collection SAY/MIRROR was a 2016 Lambda Literary finalist. She is also the author of bury your love poems here (Belladonna*). JP was a 2017 Split this Rock Freedom Plow Award for Poetry & Activism finalist and is featured in the 2017 Lesbian Poet Trading Card Series from Headmistress Press. She was the recipient of a 2016 Lambda Literary Judith A. Markowitz Emerging Writer Award and has received fellowships and grants from Cave Canem, VONA, Lambda, Astraea, and Brooklyn Arts Council. JP curates Women Writers in Bloom Poetry Salon, a NY-based forum offering women writers a monthly venue to collaborate. Her poetry and essays have appeared or are forthcoming in Apogee Journal, The Feminist Wire, Split this Rock, Muzzle Magazine, and The Best American Poetry Blog. She holds a BA from Barnard College and an MFA in Creative Writing from The City College of New York.

[Art: Installation/Performance, Poetry]

“Black Lesbians” contributor Indira Allegra dives into her art, process, and journey.

Indira works with tension as creative material through sculpture and performance. She has been honored with the Jackson Literary Award, Lambda Literary Fellowship and Windgate Craft Fellowship. Her work has been featured on BBC Radio 4 and Surface Design Magazine. Allegra’s writing has been widely anthologized, and her commissions include works for SFMOMA, de Young Museum, The Wattis Institute, City of Oakland, SFJAZZ Poetry Festival and the National Queer Arts Festival. Indira is a KQED ‘Woman to Watch’ and 2018 Art + Process + Ideas Visiting Artist at Mills College.