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
This episode features our conversation with Michael D. Whitney, which was live-streamed on November 9, 2025.
Michael D. Whitney is the author of Annetta's Michael: Living Life After Death Changes Everything. He is a new author on a path to share his profound individual and unrefined journey with the world. Michael's passion and deep love for creative writing evolved from an early adolescent age of 11, writing ...
This episode features our conversation with Sherese Francis (poetry.), which was live-streamed on November 2, 2025.
Sherese Francis (she/they) describes themselves as an AlkyMist of the I-Magination, finding expression through poetry, interdisciplinary arts (collage, book and paper arts, sound and performance art, text art), workshop facilitation, editing, and literary curation. Their work takes inspiration from their A...
This episode features our conversation with Naomi Rivers.
Naomi Rivers writes lesbian romance and women’s fiction. Naomi Rivers is a wife writing team who believes in romance, fairy tales, and happily ever after. Their first novel, THIS: A Simple, Complex Love Story, was written over twenty years to maintain their connection during multiple deployments. They are both retired U.S. military veterans and reside wit...
This episode features our conversation with Dorsía Smith Silva, which was live-streamed on October 19, 2025. We chatted about her debut poetry collection, In Inheritance of Drowning (CavanKerry Press, 2024).
In this striking debut, Dorsía Smith Silva explores the devastating effects of Hurricane María in Puerto Rico, highlighting the natural world, the lasting impact of hurricanes, and the marginalization of Puerto Rican...
This episode features our conversation with Tiriq Rashad, which was live-streamed on October 17, 2025 as a part of our National Black Poetry Day marathon. We chatted about his recently released spoken word album, Kiss My Art.
Tiriq Rashad, a proud native of “Atlantic-Ville” (Atlantic City and Pleasantville), blends his social work background with a gift for storytelling to create work rooted in resilience, authenticity, ...
This episode features our conversation with Synnika Alek-Chizoba Lofton, which was live-streamed on October 17, 2025 as a part of our National Black Poetry Day marathon.
Synnika Alek-Chizoba Lofton is an award-winning poet, educator, Pushcart Prize nominee, and publisher. Lofton is the author of more than thirty-five collections of poetry and more than one-hundred and seventy spoken word albums. His poems have appeared i...
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 Volume...
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 se...
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 Profess...
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 whic...
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 conti...
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 La...
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—“truth...
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 Hon...
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 River—a 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 Ca...
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 mu...
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 Cente...
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’s b...
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 dec...
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, and ...
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