Black Writers Read

Black Writers Read

Black Writers Read showcases, celebrates, and honors the words, work, and traditions of Black writers from across the country, across genres, across experiences, and across the African Diaspora. This podcast series is produced and hosted by performance poet, playwright, events curator, and educator Nicole M. Young-Martin. Find us on Instagram: @blackwritersread. Find Nicole on Instagram: @coco_penexplore.

Episodes

November 28, 2025 59 mins

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This episode features our conversation with Damon Moore, which was live-streamed on October 17, 2025 as a part of our National Black Poetry Day marathon. We talked about his debut poetry collection, Anthems for an American Apocalypse Volume One: Poems for Recitation and Resuscitation

Bridging psychology and prophecy, Damon Moore crafts mythic verse that prods you into awakening. Anthems of the American Apocalypse Vol...

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This episode features our conversation with self-help author, the Honorable Tiffany D. Tilley, which was live-streamed on October 14, 2025. 

Tiffany D. Tilley is an author, leader, advocate, and luminary from Detroit with a multi-faceted background that often intersects across education, communications, government, real estate development, community and economic development, and nonprofit leadership. A dedicated public...

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This episode features our conversation with Dr. Shonda Buchanan, which was live-streamed on September 14, 2025. We talked about her recent poetry collection, The Lost Songs of Nina Simone and her debut memoir, Black Indian.

Kalamazoo, Michigan native Dr. Shonda Buchanan is a three-time Pushcart Prize and Best of the Net nominee, Oxfam Ambassador and a PEN Emerging Voices Fellow and PEN America Mentor. An Associate Prof...

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This episode features our conversation with Shannon Luders-Manuel, which was live-streamed on September 7, 2025. We welcomed Shannon back to the virtual platform to talk about her debut memoir, The One Who Loves You

Shannon Luders-Manuel is the author of the memoir, The One Who Loves You: A Memoir of Growing Up Biracial in a Black and White World, published by Lawrence Hill Books, an imprint of Chicago Review Press w...

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September 3, 2025 3 mins

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Black Writers Read has reached its sixth season! Check out this trailer to get a sneak peek of the upcoming season.

Conversations here on Black Writers Read question our own subjectivities as creatives, justify our choices as writers, acknowledge our growths, chiseling through barriers so that others behind us don’t face the same challenges and of course, remaining hopeful in our constantly shifting world - one that co...

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This episode features our conversation with Arriel Vinson, which was live-streamed on May 24, 2025. We chatted about her debut young adult (YA) novel in verse, Under the Neon Lights (G.P. Putnam's Sons Books for Young Readers, June 3. 2025).

Arriel Vinson is a Reese's Book Club LitUp Fellow and Midwesterner who writes about being young, Black, and in search of freedom. She earned her MFA in Fiction from Sarah...

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This episode features our conversation with Laura Pegram, founding editor of The Kweli Journal, to chat about Sing the Truth: The Kweli Journal Short Story Collection, an anthology published in celebration of their 15th anniversary, which was live-streamed on May 17, 2025. 

Hailed as “The Paris Review of BIPOC literature,” The Kweli Journal has been a launching pad for many of today’s most celebrated writers. Kweli—“tr...

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June 12, 2025 83 mins

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This episode features our conversation with Eden Royce (Southern Gothic.), which was live-streamed on May 3, 2025. 

Eden Royce is a writer from Charleston, South Carolina now living in Southeast England. She is a Shirley Jackson Award finalist and a Bram Stoker Award nominee for her adult short fiction, which has appeared in various print and online magazines. Her debut middle-grade novel, ROOT MAGIC is a Walter Award ...

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June 2, 2025 72 mins

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This episode features our conversation with Essie Chambers, which was live-streamed on April 22, 2025. 

Essie Chambers is an award-winning author and producer. Her debut novel, Swift Rivera Today Show “Read with Jenna” Book Club pick—won the 2024 Barnes & Noble Discover Prize and was named a best book of the year by The Washington Post, NPR, The Boston Globe, Elle, and others. It was also longlisted for the Andrew...

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This episode features our conversation with Brother’s Keeper Poetry Theater Ensemble, which was live-streamed on April 12, 2025. 

Since 2013, Brother’s Keeper Poetry Theater Ensemble has been a beacon of hope and transformation, weaving together words, emotions, and stories to create powerful theatrical performances that resonate deeply with their audiences. The group blends elements of poetry, spoken word, theatre and...

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This episode features our conversation with Nzima Hutchings (poetry. prose.), the 2023-2025 Poet Laureate for Enfield, Connecticut, which was livestreamed on April 7, 2025 to kick-off National Poetry Month.

An award-winning author, editor, educator, and workshop facilitator, Nzima Hutchings has worked with various organizations including Trinity Health of New England, Saint Francis Hospital Family Advocacy Ce...

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April 17, 2025 93 mins

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This episode features our conversation with contemporary romance author, Reese Ryan, which was live-streamed on March 23, 2025.

Award-winning author Reese Ryan writes sexy, emotional, “grown folks” romantic fiction. Her characters find love while navigating career crises and family drama. The two-time recipient of the Donna Hill Breakout Author Award is an advocate for the romance genre and diversity in fiction. Reese’...

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April 10, 2025 57 mins

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This episode features our conversation with nonfiction, business, and Christian Self-Help author, LaTanya Orr, which was live-streamed on March 15, 2025.

Brand strategist, certified life coach and visual storyteller, LaTanya Orr, strategically equips entrepreneurs, corporate executives and ministry leaders with award-winning concepts that showcase their brand brilliance with intention and maximum impact. With over two ...

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March 27, 2025 84 mins

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This episode features our conversation with Dr. Donna J. Nicol, which was live-streamed on March 8, 2025, the day nationally recognized as International Women’s Day. We talked about her book, Black Woman on Board: Claudia Hampton, the California State University, and the Fight to Save Affirmative Action (University of Rochester Press, 2024).


Black Woman on Board: Claudia Hampton, the California State University, a...

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This episode features our conversation with Victoria Christopher Murray, which was live-streamed on March 1, 2025. 

Victoria Christopher Murray is a New York Times bestselling author of more than thirty novels, including The Personal Librarian, a Good Morning America book club pick, and The First Ladies, Target’s 2023 Book of the Year, both of which she coauthored with Marie Benedict. She is a NAACP Image Award Winner ...

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February 28, 2025 68 mins

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This episode features our conversation with Roya Marsh, which was live-streamed on February 3, 2025. 

Bronx, New York native, Roya Marsh is a poet, performer, educator and activist. She is the author of dayliGht, a finalist for the Lambda Literary Award in Lesbian Poetry and SAVINGS TIME (MCDXFSG). Roya works feverishly toward Queer liberation and dismantling white supremacy. She is the co-founder of the Bronx Poet Lau...

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February 21, 2025 63 mins

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This episode features our conversation with Justin Haynes, which was live-streamed on January 18, 2025. 

Justin Haynes is a fiction writer originally from the Caribbean.  His work has been supported by various residencies and fellowships, including from the Fine Arts Work Center and the Tin House Summer Workshop. His writing has been published in various literary magazines and journals, including Caribbean Quarterly an...

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February 13, 2025 98 mins

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This episode features our conversation with T’challa Williams, which was live-streamed on January 11, 2025. 

Through love, marriage, motherhood and loss, T’challa Williams' voice has matured and narrated her experiences in a way that produced seven collections of poetry over the last five years. In addition to poetry, she shares her most intimate life experiences in anthologies. The most recent contribution with A...

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January 30, 2025 67 mins

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This episode features our conversation with Jennifer Janell (spicy women's fiction.), which was live-streamed on December 21, 2024. 

Jennifer Janell is a new women's fiction author who lives in San Antonio, Texas. She has a passion for writing spicy stories that resonate with readers, explore relationships, and offer an escape from everyday life. Her love for writing about flawed characters inspired her first...

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January 23, 2025 48 mins

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This episode features our conversation with Crystal Senter-Brown, which was live-streamed on December 14, 2024. 

Crystal Senter-Brown's life's purpose can be summed up in one sentence: Empowering Women and Children. And Crystal lives her purpose every single day, whether it is by publishing books that teach children the importance of being kind to others, leading writing workshops in the community, ...

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