Book picks similar to
Midnight Birds: Stories By Contemporary Black Women Writers by Mary Helen Washington
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Get Money Chicks
Anna J. - 2007
Best friends since day one, these Get Money Chicks always had a thing for the hottest gear, luxurious lifestyles, and the ballers who made it all possible. All of this changes for Mina when a tragedy makes her open her eyes to the way she's living. Peer pressure and loyalty to her girls collide with her own morality, sending Mina into a no-win situation.Will street life and fast money keep Mina trapped in the game or will she walk away from it all? Friendships are tested and life comes at you fast in the pages of Get Money Chicks.
A Tracers Trilogy: Untraceable / Unspeakable / Unforgivable
Laura Griffin - 2011
But when one of her clients vanishes for real, Alex fears the worst and embarks on a mission to uncover the truth with the help of an elite forensics team known as the Tracers and jaded, sexy homicide cop Nathan Devereaux. As a grim picture of what really happened begins to emerge, Nathan realizes this investigation runs deeper than they could have guessed. And each step nearer the truth puts Alex in danger of being the next to disappear.UNSPEAKABLE Elaina McCord's dream of being an FBI profiler is threatened by her very first case--investigating a string of murders near a Texas beach resort. Her hunch--met with disbelief by local police--is that these are only the latest offerings from a serial killer who has been perfecting his art for years. Her only allies in a case that's turning dangerously personal are a team of forensic experts known as the Tracers and true-crime writer and irresistable playboy Troy Stockton. A killer is taunting Elaina, letting her know how ruthless he is and how close he's getting. Now it's not just her career that's in jeopardy--it's her life.UNFORGIVABLE A DNA espert, Mia Voss has made it her mission to put away vicious criminals. When her already lousy day ends with a carjacking, it seems like just the icing on top of the cake. But what what Mia thought was a random incident is followed by another sinister episode. Suddenly, she's found herself the target of a sadistic madman. And the only way to protect the people she loves most is to either deliberately destroy her reputation and risk letting a killer walk free or put her trust in Detective Ric Santos, whose turbulent past ruined his chances with Mia in the past. Only Mia can uncover the truth behind the case, but first, Ric will have to get her to entrust him with her secrets...and her life.
If He Hollers Let Him Go
Chester Himes - 1945
The novel takes place in the space of four days in the life of Bob Jones, a black man who is constantly plagued by the effects of racism. Living in a society that is drenched in race consciousness has no doubt taken a toll on the way Jones behaves, thinks, and feels, especially when, at the end of his story, he is accused of a brutal crime he did not commit. "One of the most important American writers of the twentieth century ... [a] quirky American genius..."—Walter Mosley, author of Bad Boy Brawly Brown, Devil in a Blue Dress "If He Hollers is an austere and concentrated study of black experience, set in southern California in the early forties."—Independent Publisher
Black Is the Body: Stories from My Grandmother's Time, My Mother's Time, and Mine
Emily Bernard - 2019
"I am black--and brown, too," writes Emily Bernard. "Brown is the body I was born into. Black is the body of the stories I tell."The storytelling, and the mystery of Bernard's storytelling, of getting to the truth, begins with a stabbing in a New England college town. Bernard writes how, when she was a graduate student at Yale, she walked into a coffee shop and, along with six other people, was randomly attacked by a stranger with a knife ("I remember making the decision not to let the oddness of this stranger bother me"). "I was not stabbed because I was black," she writes (the attacker was white), "but I have always viewed the violence I survived as a metaphor for the violent encounter that has generally characterized American race relations. There was no connection between us, yet we were suddenly and irreparably bound by a knife, an attachment that cost us both: him, his freedom; me, my wholeness."Bernard explores how that bizarre act of violence set her free and unleashed the storyteller in her ("The equation of writing and regeneration is fundamental to black American experience").She writes in Black Is the Body how each of the essays goes beyond a narrative of black innocence and white guilt, how each is anchored in a mystery, and how each sets out to discover a new way of telling the truth as the author has lived it. "Blackness is an art, not a science. It is a paradox: intangible and visceral; a situation and a story. It is the thread that connects these essays, but its significance as an experience emerges randomly, unpredictably . . . Race is the story of my life, and therefore black is the body of this book."And what most interests Bernard is looking at "blackness at its borders, where it meets whiteness in fear and hope, in anguish and love."
The BreakBeat Poets, Vol. 3: Halal If You Hear Me
Fatimah Asghar - 2019
We also live in a world of rigid gender roles and gender violence, where women, gender non-conforming and trans people are victims of violence, and have their gender expressions, freedoms, and desires policed. There’s pressure from both Muslims and non-Muslims to fit into severe stereotypes of Muslim identity and the ways in which it is acceptable to be Muslim.The BreakBeat Poets Vol. 3: Halal If You Hear Me is a celebration of intersectional identity that dispels the notion that there is one correct way to be a Muslim, particularly for women, gender non-conforming, and trans people. In holding space for multiple intersecting identities, the anthology celebrates and protects those identities.Halal If You Hear Me features poems by Safia Elhillo, Fatimah Asghar, Warsan Shire, Tarfia Faizullah, Angel Nafis, Beyza Ozer, and many others.
The Best American Poetry 2009
David Wagoner - 2009
With engaging notes from the poets, Wagoner's superb introductory essay, series editor David Lehman's astute foreword about the current state of poetry and criticism, and cover art from the beloved poet John Ashbery, The Best American Poetry 2009 is a memorable and delightful addition to a series dedicated to showcasing the work of poets at their best.
Scars
Brian Andrews - 2020
Discover the story of Dempsey's first encounter with Mahmood Bin Jabbar (the villain in WAR SHADOWS) and learn how Dempsey got his iconic serpentine scar.With SCARS, Andrews & Wilson are launching the first installment in a new series of novellas called TIER ONE ORIGINS. Each short features a different Tier One character during a pivotal event in their past before joining Task Force Ember.
A Bright New Boise
Samuel D. Hunter - 2011
Hunter's A Bright New Boise is a earnest comedy about the meager profits of modern faith. In the bleak, corporate break room of a craft store in Idaho, someone is summoning The Rapture. Will, who has fled his rural hometown after a scandal at his Evangelical church, comes to the Hobby Lobby, not only f
Gumbo A Celebration of African American Writers
Edwidge Danticat - 2002
Not since Terry McMillan's Breaking Ice have so many African-American writers been brought together in one volume. A stellar collection of works from more than fifty hot names in fiction, Gumbo represents remarkable synergy. Edited by bestselling luminaries Marita Golden and E. Lynn Harris, this collection spans new and previously published tales of love and luck, inspiration and violation, hip new worlds and hallowed heritage from voices such as: Edwidge Danticat , Eric Jerome Dickey, Kenji Jasper, John Edgar Wideman, Terry McMillan, David Anthony Durham, Bertice Berry, and many, many more. Also featuring original stories by Golden and Harris themselves, Gumbo heralds the debut of the Hurston / Wright Legacy Awards for Published Black Writers (scheduled for October 2002), and all advances and royalties from the book will support the Hurston/ Wright Foundation. Combining authors with a variety of flavorful writing, Gumbo will have readers clamoring for second helpings.
21 Essential American Short Stories
Leslie M. Pockell - 2011
Henry’s “The Gift of the Magi,” William Faulkner’s “A Rose for Emily,” Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper,” and James Thurber’s “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty,” have been long regarded as literary classics, while others, such as Frank Stockton’s “The Lady or the Tiger?” and Ellis Parker Butler’s “Pigs Is Pigs,” are lesser known but well worth discovering.The carefully selected stories, each preceded by an illuminating headnote, powerfully illustrate the varied richness of our national literature and history. This beautifully packaged volume, containing the unforgettable classic short stories that evoke our shared American tradition and national identity, makes the perfect gift for the short story aficionado and novice alike.
You saw something you shouldn't have
Brandon Faircloth - 2018
To be entertained. Then you find yourself in a school where a group of friends have brought something terrible to life. You meet a family whose extraordinary luck comes at a horrific price. You write a letter to yourself and get a reply that leads to death and madness. As you journey through these shrouded lands, you look back and can't make out where you started. Because once you're traveling through the darkness, the only way out is through. Read the collection of novellas and short stories that is being called "genius", "amazing", and "scary AF". But be prepared. You won't be the same when you come out the other side.
Prize Stories 2001: The O. Henry Awards
Larry Dark - 2001
Henry, throughout its history this annual collection has consistently offered a remarkable sampling of contemporary short stories. Each year, stories are chosen from large and small literary magazines, and a panel of distinguished writers is enlisted to award top prizes. The result is a superb collection of seventeen inventive, full-bodied stories representing the very best in American and Canadian fiction. And in celebration of this distinguished literary form, Prize Stories 2001 a Special Award for Continuing Achievement is presented to Alice Munro.FIRST PRIZEMARY SWANThe DeepSECOND PRIZEDAN CHAONBig MeTHIRD PRIZEALICE MUNROFloating BridgeFRED G. LEEBRONThat WinterT.CORAGHESSAN BOYLEThe Love of My LifeJOYCE CAROL OATESThe Girl with the Blackened EyeDAVID SCHICKLERThe SmokerANTONYA NELSONFemale TroubleELIZABETH GRAVERThe Mourning DoorPICKNEY BENEDICTZog-19: A Scientific RomanceRON CARLSONAt the Jim BridgerLOUISE EDRICHRevival RoadWILLIAM GAYThe PaperhangerDALE PECKBlissMURAD KALAMBow DownGEORGE SAUNDERSPastoraliaANDREA BARRETTServants of the Map
The View From Here
Brian Keith Jackson - 1997
Evoking a world of casual prejudice and commonplace poverty, Jackson tells the haunting story of Anna Anderson Thomas, whose life in the rural South has edged slowly toward loneliness. Married in her youth to her beloved J.T., she has devoted her days to raising their five boys, all while stepping softly around her husband’s vast silences. But now, with their sixth child on the way—a girl this time, she is sure—Anna faces a challenge that threatens to destroy the family she’s fought so hard to preserve. Pulsing with raw emotional power and earthy humor, and narrated in part by the omniscient voice of Anna’s unborn child, The View from Here builds to a conclusion that both shocks and heals—and lays bare the universal truths that bind all families.
Black No More
George S. Schuyler - 1931
Schuyler's satiric romp. Black No More is the story of Max Disher, a dapper black rogue of an insurance man who, through a scientific transformation process, becomes Matthew Fisher, a white man. Matt dreams up a scam that allows him to become the leader of the Knights of Nordica, a white supremacist group, as well as to marry the white woman who rejected him when he was black. Black No More is a hysterical exploration of race and all its self-serving definitions. If you can't beat them, turn into them.Ishmael Reed, one of today's top black satirists and the author of Mumbo Jumbo and Japanese by Spring, provides a spirited Introduction.The fertile artistic period now known as the Harlem Renaissance (1920- 1930) gave birth to many of the world-renowned masters of black literature and is the model for today's renaissance of black writers.
Soulcatcher and Other Stories
Charles R. Johnson - 2001
For blacks and whites alike, the experience has left us with a conflicted and contradictory history. Now, famed novelist Charles Johnson, whose Middle Passage won the National Book Award, presents a dozen tales of the effects and experience of slavery, each based on historical fact, and each about those Africans who arrived on our shores in shackles. From Martha Washington's management of her slaves, bequeathed to her at the death of the first president, to a boy chained in the bowels of a ship plying the infamous passage from Africa to the South laden with human cargo, from a lynching in Indiana to a hunter of escaped slaves searching the Boston market for his quarry, from an early Quaker meeting exploring resettlement in Africa to the day after Emancipation-the voices, terrors, and savagery of slavery come vividly and unforgettably to life. These stories, told by a master storyteller, transcend history even as they present it, and retell the mythic proportions of a historical period with astounding realism and beauty, power, and emotion.