Showing results by publisher "-emdashery books-" in African American

Only days ago, I had everything. A man I wanted to marry. A prestigious fellowship for graduate school. A perfect new apartment. I’m a psychology student. I should have known she was hiding something from the start… Now I’m shivering under a foil blanket wondering how my life became a nightmare. And when the paramedics check me over, it’s not concern I see on their faces. It’s fear. They think I did this. They think I killed her…

Isaac is at a crossroads in his young life. Growing up in Missouri, the son of a caustic, hard-driving father, he was conditioned to suppress his artistic pursuits and physical desires, notions that didn’t align with a traditional view of masculinity. But now, in late ’80s Chicago, Isaac has finally carved out a life of his own. He is sensitive and tenderhearted and has built up the courage to seek out a community. Yet just as he begins to embrace who he is, two social catalysts—the AIDS crisis and Rodney King’s attack—collectively extinguish his hard-earned joy.

It’s bring-your-wife-to-school day at the adults-only BDSM class and today Shelley’s going to get treated to something I could never give her. Carlos is on hand to deliver his big, black package as I watch from the sidelines and the class takes notes on cuckold erotica. It’s such a humiliating turn-on that I just know that the first time won’t be our last time—especially given how much Shelley is enjoying herself!

Zavion never knew what love was. His mother abandoned him at two, leaving him in the hands of his father, to deal with situations no child should ever have to face. Forced to grow up sooner than he should've, Zavion's heart became cold and his emotions void. Now, he's an owner of a popular tattoo shop and he's still battling scars from his childhood. Unable to deal with his past trauma or allow himself to open up to anyone, Zavion throws himself headfirst into his work and uses women as objects rather than partners...until he meets Samara.

In the mid-1800s, Saint, an enigmatic and powerful conjure woman, always flanked by a silent companion, travels the South annihilating plantations and liberating the enslaved by means of purposeful violence and powerful magic. She founds a town for those she has freed–and for them alone. They name the town Ours. Surrounded by an impenetrable magical border raised by Saint's powers, Ours is invisible to the outer world and sits blissfully away from prying eyes and violent hands. Saint's mission is to kill slavery–to scourge its damage from the minds of her charges and to keep them safe forever.

Brenton Brown is 16 years old. A mixed race youth, Brenton has lived in a children's home all his life. Being reunited with his mother is the best thing that has happened to Brenton. But a strange series of events soon push him to the edge...

Secrets are revealed in more ways than one. The truth always has a way of revealing itself. What happens when everyone is hiding something from the other? When relationships and bonds are tested in more ways than one. Will these relationships end before they could fully start?

“We need to talk.” There’s only one reason a woman says that three months after a one-night stand. She’s pregnant, and she plans on keeping the baby. Porter can handle that—he’s always planned on being a father, and doing better at the job than his own dad ever did. Sure, he's always envisioned the wife then kids, but he's used to fixing things that are broken.

Three Black women building new lives in Stockholm become linked in unexpected ways to the same influential white man. Told through the perspectives of each of the three women, In Every Mirror She's Black is a timely, richly nuanced novel that touches on important social issues of racism, classism, fetishization, and tokenism, and what it means to be a Black woman navigating a white-dominated society.

Almost a decade ago, Willie Revel gave up her burgeoning journalism career in New York to help run her father’s struggling construction company in Philadelphia. An ambitious single mother, Willie has reluctantly put family first without being able to forget who she might have become. Now, as the president of the United States prepares to pass the Forgiveness Act, a bill that would allow Black families to claim reparations if they can prove they are the descendants of slaves, Willie delves deeper into her family’s history, while also trying to keep the family from going into bankruptcy.

Hayden is enjoying a much-needed girls’ trip in Vegas. While basking in the comforts of the plush suites at HAYDAR Resort & Casino, they eat exceptionally well, tour the town safely, and role-play—for fun only. On the last night, the group of ladies dress as sex workers. Separated from the group, Hayden is mistaken for a real prostitute by a brooding, remarkably handsome man. Playing along, Hayden sets her price to attend a dinner function with him. Her conduct at the event earns her a "john" for the night.

Every family has its secrets. Every love story has its troubles. Everyone struggles with their self-esteem. Lena Joi Timmons is an ambitious and beautiful African American Psychiatrist who seemingly has it all. She comes from a successful and loving family, is well-educated, and is seemingly satisfied with her personal and professional status. However, behind the outward "picture perfect" persona is a woman who is broken and battered. Her childhood wounds never healed. A college romance nearly ripped her apart.

Bulkhead Confessions is raw, hilarious, and quietly devastating—told with the kind of sharp, honest voice that sounds like your funniest homeboy whispering secrets in the dark. Set inside the tight, messy quarters of Navy life, this novel dives headfirst into temptation, loyalty, heartbreak, and the chaos of trying to stay grounded while everything around you floats. The author, Al Bazz, writes with a razor-edged wit and a storyteller’s soul—mixing inner monologues that read like stand-up comedy with quiet moments that hit like therapy.

Ashes in the Wind is an emotionally gripping and thought-provoking story of love, loss, and unexpected connections. Andre Watts, a trauma-informed therapist and proud advocate for Black queer mental health, is thrust into a virtual therapy relationship with Sam Andersen, a blue-collar Midwesterner struggling to cope with his brother’s untimely death. What begins as a professional dynamic evolves into a journey that challenges both men to confront their deepest vulnerabilities, buried truths, and the lines they never thought they’d cross.

1974. Lottie Turner is already infamous. Running a wheel of schemes and scams, she’s willing to work for what she wants in…creative ways. But no business is more lucrative than desperate families looking to adopt a child—and there’s only one way to procure children quickly. And the only way to take what’s owed you is to cross the line no one else is willing to cross.

Ailsa Connery has waited three long years to finally escape her enslavement at Stirling Castle and reunite with her clan. But her carefully laid plans are completely destroyed by the arrival of the infamous Highland warrior known as Dubh Mahoun, the Black Devil . . . who has plans of his own. Kallum MacNeill's fearsome reputation has long allowed him to keep hidden his secret double life of freeing enslaved captives across the land. It's only when he kidnaps a servant lass—quite by accident—that he finds himself facing a wee predicament.

1979. Topper and Sanya flee to Miami as political violence consumes their native Kingston. But they soon learn that the welcome in America will be far from warm. Trelawny, their youngest son, comes of age in a society which regards him with suspicion, greeting him with the puzzled question ‘What are you?’ Their eldest son Delano’s longing for a better future for his own children is equalled only by his recklessness in trying to secure it. As both brothers navigate the obstacles littered in their path they find themselves increasingly pitted against one another.

These piercing, surprising poems look to familial history, rituals of faith, and the natural world to explore how the intersecting cultures of Blackness and queerness relate to each other. As the collection evolves, the listener is challenged and empowered to seek expansiveness in spaces that have not previously been excavated, reckon with the complexities of interpersonal relationships, and explore memory as a catalyst for self-determination.

The dust may have just settled in the failed war of conquest between the Holy Vaalbaran Empire and the Ominirish Republic, but the last Emperor’s surrender means little to a lowly scribe like Enitan. All she wants is to quit her day job and expand her fledgling tea business. But when her lover is assassinated and her sibling is abducted by Imperial soldiers, Enitan abandons her idyllic plans and weaves her tea tray up through the heart of the Vaalbaran capital.

Through candid interviews with Maya Angelou, Toni Cade Bambara, Gwendolyn Brooks, Alexis De Veaux, Nikki Giovanni, Kristin Hunter, Gayl Jones, Audre Lorde, Toni Morrison, Sonia Sanchez, Ntozake Shange, Alice Walker, Margret Walker, and Sherley Anne Williams, the book highlights the practices and critical linkages between the work and lived experiences of Black women writers whose work laid the foundation for many who have come after.