But for Black people in the United States and across the diaspora, it hasn't often been easy to find Black romance joyfully showcased in entertainment media. In this collection, revered authors and sparkling newcomers, librarians and academicians, and avid readers and reviewers consider the mirrors and windows into Black love as it is depicted in the novels, television shows, and films that have shaped their own stories. Whether personal reflection or cultural commentary, these essays delve into Black love now and in the past, including topics from the history of Black romance to social justice and the Black community to the meaning of desire and desirability.Exploring the multifaceted ways love is seen--and the ways it isn't--this diverse array of Black voices collectively shines a light on the power of crafting happy endings for Black lovers.Jessica Pryde is joined by Carole V. Bell, Sarah Hannah Gomez, Jasmine Guillory, Da'Shaun Harrison, Margo Hendricks, Adriana Herrera, Piper Huguley, Kosoko Jackson, Nicole M. Jackson, Beverly Jenkins, Christina C. Jones, Julie Moody-Freeman, and Allie Parker in this collection.

    These poems ask: What kind of revisions will make this a world/a story that is concerned with my people’s flourishing? How ought I pay attention, how to register perpetual bad news without letting it fatally intrude? Cameron Awkward-Rich is among the most bracing voices to emerge in recent years, a dazzling exemplar of poetry’s (and humanity’s) possibilities.

    Locke has lived over two centuries and works like a demon, both figuratively and literally. As the owner of a successful pharmaceutical company that specializes in blood research, she has changed the way she can live her life. Wanting for nothing, she has smartly compartmentalized her life so that when she needs to, she can pick up and start all over again, which happens every twenty years or so. Love is not an emotion A.J. spends much time on. Since losing the love of her life to the plague one hundred fifty years ago, she vowed to never travel down that road again. That isn't to say she doesn't have women when she wants them, she just wants them on her terms and that doesn't involve a long term commitment. A.J.'s cool veneer is peeled back when she sees the love of her life in a lesbian bar, in the same town, in the same day and time in which she lives. Is her mind playing tricks on her? If not, how did Clarissa survive the plague when she had made A.J. promise never to change her? Clarissa Graham is a university professor who has lived an obscure life teaching English literature. She has made it a point to stay off the radar and never become involved with anything that resembles her past life. Every once in a while Clarissa has an itch that needs to be scratched, so she finds an out of the way location to scratch it. She keeps her personal life separate from her professional one, and in doing so she is able to keep her secrets to herself. Suddenly, her life is turned upside down when someone tries to kill her. She finds herself in the middle of an assassination plot with no idea who wants her dead.

    Befitting someone who "speaks things into being," Christmas extracts from family history, queer lineage, and the political landscape of a racialized life to create a rich, softly defiant collection of poems. Christmas draws a circle around the things she calls "holy" the family line that cannot find its root but survived to fill the skies with radiant flesh; the body, broken and unbroken and broken and new again; the lover lost, the friend lost, and the loss itself; and the hands that hold them all with brilliant, tender care. Expansive and beautiful, these poems allow readers to swim in Jillian Christmas's mother-tongue and to dream at her shores.

    As they venture forward through their college years their lives start to take on forms of their own, providing them with new opportunities to learn just how much power they have over them.Agents of the Realm is a college years coming to age story that takes influence from a number of timeless magical girl themed stories

    On Prince Philip Playing Fields. He crossed the dew-soaked grass toward what he took to be a bundle of clothes, but then he came across a discarded shoe, and then t’ mutilated body. her name wor Wilma McCann.’Leeds, late 1975 and a body has been found on Prince Philip Playing Fields. Ricky, teenage delivery van boy for Corona pop, will be late for The Matterhorn Man. In the years that follow until his capture, the Yorkshire Ripper and Rick’s own life draw ever closer with unforeseen consequences. Set in a time in England's history of upheaval and change – both personal and social – this is a story told in an unforgettable voice.'An incredible debut novel: a coming of age tale set against the backdrop of the Yorkshire Ripper murders, ‘full of daring, authenticity and wit’ (Rachel Cusk).

    Brian’s recounting of his experiences—in all their cringe-worthy, hilarious, and heartbreaking glory—reveal a perpetual outsider awkwardly squirming to find his way in.Indiscriminate sex and escalating drug use help to soothe his hurt, young psyche, usually to uproarious and devastating effect. A no-nonsense mother and broken father play crucial roles in our misfit’s origin story. But it is Brian’s voice in the retelling that shows the true depth of vulnerability for young Black boys that is often quietly near to bursting at the seams.Cleverly framed around Gwendolyn Brooks’s poem “We Real Cool,” the iconic and loving ode to Black boyhood, Punch Me Up to the Gods is at once playful, poignant, and wholly original. Broome’s writing brims with swagger and sensitivity, bringing an exquisite and fresh voice to ongoing cultural conversations about Blackness in America.

    When a Domme loves a Domme who is her former submissive and cheated with her best friend, all of the usual fun with handcuffs turns into something darker. Graciela struggles to control her attraction to the headstrong, beautiful woman who broke her heart ten years ago. She offers temporary shelter to a fellow human in crisis, nothing more. But when Trinity buckles under Graciela’s righteous anger and begs for forgiveness, Graciela’s resolve wavers. Can she ever trust again? Does Trinity deserve a second chance, or is this yet another manipulation? ------------------ The Lesbian Review's Top Ten winner for cover art and best book beginnings! "Mistress on her Knees by AnastasiaVitsky begins with a delightful list of Top 10 Reasons Why Dommes Shouldn’t Date Each Other. It is told from the perspective of both main characters, Trinity and Graciela. This is an amusing and unusual beginning to a book about spanking and dom/submissive relationships. It had me so intrigued that I happily kept reading and discovered, in this book, an unusually well done study of the delicate balance and relationships that are involved in the S&M world." --The Lesbian Review "Mistress on Her Knees is an intense experience. The writing is tight and masterful--the author has absolute command of her craft and the storytelling is impeccable." --Jeanne D "Fast paced and back and forth between past and present, Ms. Vitsky creates characters that are strong and resilient with a powerful sense of emotion and in that, she develops a BDSM relationship focused on the healing experience of submission." --Little's Books "The characters are so very easy to love and care about. There are times you just wanted to scream in frustration at Trinity and times I was ready to cry for both Trinity and Graciela… The love Graciela still holds for Trinity is so strong and yet fragile… Trinity’s need for Graciela runs soul deep… These people are so real in their imperfections,thoughts and actions. They will take you on an emotional roller coaster ride and leave you feeling winded and eventually content." --Prism Book Alliance -------------------- Look also for Mistress, Please (Mistress Series, #2) and Mistress's Release (Mistress Series, Book 3)!

    After a bewildering encounter at a local festival, Nima finds herself suddenly immersed in the drag scene on the other side of town.Macho drag kings, magical queens, new love interests, and surprising allies propel Nima both painfully and hilariously closer to a self she never knew she could be—one that can confidently express and accept love. But she’ll have to learn to accept lost love to get there.

    The collection contains stories about kelpies, selkies, and the Loch Ness Monster, alongside perhaps lesser-known mythical people and creatures, such as wulvers, Ghillie Dhu, and the Cat Sìth. These poems immerse readers in an enriching, diverse and enchanting vision of contemporary life. The poems in this collection are fun, surprising, and full of a magical mix of myth and contemporary LGBT themes – it is a perfect read for children who are learning more about themselves, other people, and the world around them. Wain is fully illustrated, and suitable for readers of all ages-https://theemmapress.glopal.com/en-US...

    Desperate to save her, Maren hatches a plan to steal one of the emperor’s coveted dragons and storm the Aurati stronghold. If Maren is to have any hope of succeeding, she must become an apprentice to the Aromatory—the emperor’s mysterious dragon trainer. But Maren is unprepared for the dangerous secrets she uncovers: rumors of a lost prince, a brewing rebellion, and a prophecy that threatens to shatter the empire itself. Not to mention the strange dreams she’s been having about a beast deep underground… With time running out, can Maren survive long enough to rescue Kaia from impending death? Or could it be that Maren is destined for something greater than she could have ever imagined?

    Until, that is, her friend Adele introduces her to Adele’s mistress Jeanne—art collector, heiress, and experienced dominant. Nothing in Laura’s reading prepares her for the powerful reaction she has to Jeanne or how completely she is captivated by this sensual new world. With Jeanne’s first command, Laura’s life changes forever.But even the most commanding mistress can’t always control a willful submissive, and Adele’s jealousy challenges Jeanne’s dominance and Laura’s place in their world. What Jeanne and Laura learn about themselves on their erotic journey will either drive them apart or change the very nature of their lives.

    When the constant berating of her family and the reminders of her failures finally weigh too heavily on her shoulders, she moves away from her unhappy past to start life anew. Allison takes a position with Whitton, Incorporated, a large construction and property development company in Jacksonville, Florida. She moves away from her childhood home, hoping to jump-start her career and improve her life. M.J. Whitton, the newly-installed president of her ailing father's company, is intelligent, controlling, hot-tempered, and devastatingly beautiful. An admitted flirt and womanizer, M.J. runs her company as she runs her personal life – with ruthless domination, no strings or emotions attached. When Allison joins the staff, M.J. doesn't quite know what to think of her nor is Allison sure how to handle the mercurial president. Brought together by professional circumstance, the two women wind up working closely together and forge an uneasy alliance. But personalities and desires clash repeatedly as one crisis after another is thrown into their path, and their professional and personal relationship quickly sours. After several agonizing months, Allison must make a decision. Is M.J. worth the struggle? Should she stay at Whitton, Inc.? Which way will the tides turn?

    Fiction is matched in excitement by graphic novel excerpts and personal essays. Certain to become a literary touchstone for a new generation of writers and readers, Baby Remember My Name speaks to the broad range of queer girl experiences in work that is brave, irreverent, funny, sensitive, and hot.

     R. Eric Thomas didn't know he was different until the world told him so. Everywhere he went—whether it was his rich, mostly white, suburban high school, his conservative black church, or his Ivy League college in a big city—he found himself on the outside looking in.In essays by turns hysterical and heartfelt, Eric redefines what it means to be an "other" through the lens of his own life experience. He explores the two worlds of his childhood: the barren urban landscape where his parents' house was an anomalous bright spot, and the verdant school they sent him to in white suburbia. He writes about struggling to reconcile his Christian identity with his sexuality, about the exhaustion of code-switching in college, accidentally getting famous on the internet (for the wrong reason), and the surreal experience of covering the 2016 election as well as the seismic change that came thereafter.Ultimately, Eric seeks the answer to the ever more relevant question: Is the future worth it? Why do we bother when everything seems to be getting worse? As the world continues to shift in unpredictable ways, Eric finds the answers to these questions by re-envisioning what "normal" means, and in the powerful alchemy that occurs when you at last place yourself at the center of your own story.For fans of Samantha Irby, Michael Arceneaux, and David Sedaris, Here for It will resonate deeply and joyfully with everyone who has ever felt pushed to the margins, struggled with self-acceptance, or wished to shine more brightly in a dark world. Stay here for it—the future may surprise you.