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 Toni Ann Johnson, which was live-streamed on February 15, 2026.
Toni Ann Johnson won the Flannery O’Connor Award for her linked story collection, Light Skin Gone to Waste. Selected for the prize and edited by Roxane Gay, the collection was also shortlisted for the Saroyan Prize and nominated for a 2023 NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Literary Work. Her novella, Home...
This episode features our conversation with Theresa Okokon, which was hosted live and in-person on November 1, 2025 at The LAVA Center in Greenfield, MA. Special thanks to Straw Dog Writers Guild and The LAVA Center for co-hosting this event.
Theresa Okokon is an award-winning writer, storyteller, and teacher. A Wisconsinite living in New England, she is the co-host of Stories From The Stag, which has over 23,000 sub...
This episode features our conversation with Charmaine Letitcia Wilcox, which was live-streamed on February 10, 2026.
Charmaine Leticia Wilcox is an author, independent publisher, and the creative engine behind Triangles Publishing. Based in Las Vegas, she specializes in multi-genre narratives that bridge the gap between gritty reality and vivid imagination. From the high-stakes emotional drama of the Triangles series...
This episode features our conversation with Dr. Jenn M. Jackson, which was live-streamed on January 23, 2026.
Jenn M. Jackson (they/them) is a queer, androgynous Black woman, an abolitionist, a lover of all Black people, and an Assistant Professor at Syracuse University in the Department of Political Science. Jackson’s research is in Black Politics with a focus on Black Feminist movements, racial threat and tra...
This episode features our conversation with Cedric Muhikira, which was live-streamed on January 18, 2026.
Cedric Muhikirais a self-taught writer and storyteller with roots in migration, cultural fusion, and identity. Raised on stories that bridged continents and generations, Cedric has long been fascinated by the in-between spaces of belonging. He immigrated to the United States from Rwanda in 2019, and now lives in ...
This episode features our conversation with author, actress, and activist Denise Nicholas, which was live-streamed on January 17, 2026.
Nicholas's memoir, Finding Home (Agate Bolden, 2025), chronicles her time growing up in Detroit, her trailblazing acting and writing career, her personal journey, and familial loss. With eloquence, vulnerability, and resolve, Nicholas mines her six-decade journey through TV and film ...
This episode features our conversation with Cher Terais, which was live-streamed on December 21, 2025.
Cher Terais is a bestselling Wanderlust Romance author, cultural storyteller, and the creative force behind As Written by Cher Terais. Known for crafting love stories that travel the world while centering bold, accomplished Black women, Cher’s work blends romance, culture, and emotional depth with desti...
This episode features our conversation with Emely Rumble, LICSW, which was live-streamed on December 2, 2025.
Emely Rumble, LICSW is a distinguished licensed clinical social worker, school social worker, and seasoned biblio/psychotherapist with over 15 years of professional experience. Committed to making mental health services more accessible, Emely specializes in the transformative practice of bibliotherapy.
This episode features our conversation with Jodi-Ann Burey, which was live-streamed on November 18, 2025.
Jodi-Ann Burey (she/her) is a writer and critic who works at the intersections of race, culture, and health equity. She is the author of Authentic: The Myth of Bringing Your Full Self to Work (Flatiron Books, 2025), which we discussed during this episode.
Beyond the written word, Jodi-Ann stands out as a ca...
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 fro...
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 ...
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 Pue...
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 resi...
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 ...
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 Apocaly...
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...
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 Pr...
This episode features our conversation with Shannon Luders-Manuel, which waslive-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 P...
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...
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