I’m a bit of a theatre geek, and after this 2018 conversation with Chicago icon Useni Eugene Perkins, I was thrilled to get my hands on a copy of his BLACK FAIRY AND OTHER PLAYS, published by the legendary Third World Press. In the introduction he writes, “The images children associate with during their formative [ Read the full article… ]
The original conversation with Marguerite Abouet happened back in 2010 — and in French! In any language, she is as thoughtful and delightful as her work. Marguerite Abouet was born in Abidjan, Ivory Coast in 1971, and sent to study in France at the age of 12, under the care of a great uncle. She [ Read the full article… ]
When I interviewed author Jerdine Nolen in 2010, during my first year with The Brown Bookshelf, I was a bit star struck. Two of her books were in our family’s regular reading rotation (In My Momma’s Kitchen and Raising Dragons), and we had checked out several others from the library (shout outs to Harvey Potter’s [ Read the full article… ]
When Alice Faye Duncan was selected as one of our 28 Days Later honorees, her most recent book was Honey Baby Sugar Child. Since then, the award-winning author has gone on to publish: Memphis, Martin, and the Mountaintop A Song for Gwendolyn Brooks Just Like a Mama Evicted! The Struggle for the Right to Vote [ Read the full article… ]
I had the pleasure of interviewing Joyce Carol Thomas in 2011, during my second year with The Brown Bookshelf, when I still quite green and didn’t know much about the publishing industry at all. But I knew Joyce Carol Thomas wrote the most phenomenal books. I knew because I had checked out several of them [ Read the full article… ]
The Brown Bookshelf is honored to highlight Judy Allen Dodson in a Throwback/Flash Forward segment of 28 Days Later. FLASHBACK Archivist. Librarian. Historian. With the publication of her debut novel, Escape from . . . Hurricane Katrina, Judy Allen Dodson added another title to her impressive list of credentials – children’s book author. In a [ Read the full article… ]
The Brown Bookshelf is honored to highlight Kekla Magoon in a Throwback/Flash Forward segment of 28 Days Later! THROWBACK Kekla Magoon had long been a student of the Civil Rights Movement. She devoured stories about that period and believed deeply in non-violence. What would she have done back then? Kekla didn’t have to wonder. She knew: She would have [ Read the full article… ]
The Brown Bookshelf is honored to highlight Lamar Giles in a Throwback/Flash Forward segment of 28 Days Later! THROWBACK Lamar Giles grew up in a small, riverfront city in Virginia called Hopewell. It is a diverse community known for its busy ports. Like most towns in the Commonwealth of Virginia, Hopewell is highly decorated [ Read the full article… ]
