DAMILARE KUKU 

Damilare Kuku is a Nigerian creative artist who has worked as a radio presenter, scriptwriter, film producer, Nollywood actress, and director. She has starred in both television and movies and currently resides in Nigeria with her husband. She has written the story collection Nearly All the Men in Lagos Are Mad and her newest novel Only Big BumBum Matters Tomorrow.

Only Big Bum Bum’s Matter Tomorrow 

In Nigerian families, none of your business is private. Not even if it's about your bumbum.

Freshly out of Obafemi Awolowo University, 20-year-old Temi has a clear plan for her future: she is going to surgically enlarge her backside like all the other Nigerian women, move from Ile-Ife to Lagos, and meet a man who will love her senseless.

But when she finally finds the courage to tell her mother, older sister, and aunties, her announcement causes an uproar. As each of the other women try to cure Temi of what seems like temporary insanity, they begin to spill long-buried secrets, including the truth of Temi’s older sister’s mysterious disappearance five years earlier.

In the end, it seems like Temi might be the sanest of them all…

KARIS MCPHERSON

Karis McPherson is an American writer, photographer, curator of conversation and Founder of LIFTed UNITED, a platform to promote  and support both emerging and established writers globally. 

LIFTed UNITED welcomes authors:

FIONA WILLIAMS 

Fiona Williams holds a BSc (Hons) in Biological Sciences from the University of Westminster and an MA with Distinction in Creative Writing from Bath Spa University. Originally from South-East London, she now lives with her family on the Somerset Levels, and much of her work focuses on rural diversity and the relationships between identity and place.

The Novel is: THE HOUSE OF BROKEN BRICKS  

Tess is a Londoner whose relationship with Richard transports her from a Jamaican diaspora in the city to the English countryside, where predatory birds hover over fields, buses run twice a day, neighbors barter honey for cider, and no one looks like her.

As Tess and Richard settle in, the dramatic arrival of their fraternal twins--one who presents as black and the other as white--recasts the family dynamic, stirring up complicated feelings and questions of belonging. Tess yearns for the comforting chaos of life as it once was, instead of Max and Sonny tracking dirt through the kitchen where cooking Caribbean food becomes her sole comfort. And Richard obsesses over getting his crops planted rather than deal with the conversation he cannot bear to have.

AMA CODJOE

Ama Codjoe is a poet, winner of the Lenore Marshall Poetry Prize, and finalist for the NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Poetry, the Kate Tufts Discovery Award, and the Paterson Poetry Prize; and Blood of the Air, winner of the Drinking Gourd Chapbook Poetry Prize. In 2023, Codjoe was appointed as the second Poet-in-Residence at the Guggenheim Museum.

The Novel is: BLUEST NUDE 

Purposefully shifting between the role of artist and subject, seer and seen, Codjoe’s poems ask what the act of looking does to a person—public looking, private looking, and that most intimate, singular spectacle of looking at one’s self. 

Codjoe’s poems explore how the archetype of the artist complicates the typical expectations of be gazed upon, be silent, be selfless, reproduce. Dialoguing with and through art, Bluest Nude considers alternative ways of holding and constructing the self. From Lorna Simpson to Gwendolyn Brooks to Lynette Yiadom-Boakye, contemporary and ancestral artists populate Bluest Nude in a choreography of Codjoe’s making. Precise and halting, this finely wrought, riveting collection is marked by an acute rendering of highly charged emotional spaces. 

Purposefully shifting between the role of artist and subject, seer and seen, Codjoe’s poems ask what the act of looking does to a person—public looking, private looking, and that most intimate, singular spectacle of looking at one’s self. What does it mean to see while being seen? In poems that illuminate the tension between the possibilities of openness and and its impediments, Bluest Nude offers vulnerability as a medium to be immersed in and, ultimately, shared as a kind of “There are as many walls inside me / as there are bones at the bottom of the sea,” Codjoe writes in the masterful titular poem. “I want to be seen clearly or not at all.” “The end of the world has ended,” Codjoe’s speaker announces, “and desire is still / all I crave.” Startling and seductive in equal measure, this formally ambitious collection represents a powerful, luminous beginning.

LIFTed UNITED welcomes authors:

MPHUTHUMI NTABENI 

Mphuthumi Mpush Ntabeni contributes to various national and international publications. He's trained in built environment, reads literature, history and philosophy. He lives in Cape Town, South Africa. His historical novel, The Broken River Tent, won the University of Johannesburg Debut Prize 2019 and was Longlisted for the Sunday Times Literary Prize 2019. It is published in North America Rising Action Publishing. His second novel, The Wanderers, was published by Kwela Books (July 2021) in South Africa and was also longlisted for the Sunday Times Literary Prize 2022. The Wanderers will be published in North American late this year by The Catalyst Press. 

The Novel is: THE WANDERERS 

Ruru’s father, Phaks, joined the anti-apartheid struggle in exile before she was born but never returned, preferring to stay in Tanzania. Years later, though he has passed away, Ruru goes in search of signs of his life in his adopted country.

She finds it in his widow and his ‘pillow books’ – journals he kept, coming to terms with his mortality.

Struck by the parallels with her teenage letters to her late mother, she reads to find answers to her questions: Who was he? Why did he not return?

CHUKWUEBUKA IBEH

Chukwuebuka Ibeh is a writer from Port Harcourt, Nigeria, born in 2000. His writing has appeared in McSweeneys, New England Review of Books and Lolwe, amongst others, and he is a staff writer at Brittle Paper. He was the runner-up for the 2021 J.F. Powers Prize for Fiction, was a finalist for the Gerald Kraak Award, and was profiled as one of the “Most Promising New Voices of Nigerian Fiction” by Electric Literature. He has studied creative writing under Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Dave Eggers, and Tash Aw, and is currently an MFA student at Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri.

The Novel is: BLESSINGS 

Obiefuna has always been the black sheep of his family--sensitive where his father, Anozie, is pragmatic, a dancer where his brother, Ekene, is a natural athlete. But when Obiefuna's father witnesses an intimate moment between his teenage son and another boy, his deepest fears are confirmed, and Obiefuna is banished to boarding school.

As he navigates his new school's strict hierarchy and unpredictable violence, Obiefuna both finds and hides who he truly is. Back home, his mother, Uzoamaka, must contend with the absence of her beloved son, her husband's cryptic reasons for sending him away, and the hard truths that they've all been hiding from. As Nigeria teeters on the brink of criminalizing same-sex relationships, Obiefuna's identity becomes more dangerous than ever before, and the life he wants drifts further out of reach.

Set in post-military Nigeria and culminating in the Same Sex Marriage Prohibition Act of 2013, Blessings is an elegant and exquisitely moving story that asks how to live freely in a country that forbids one's truest self, and what it takes for love to flourish despite it all.

LIFTed UNITED welcomes authors:

REGINA BLACK 

Regina Black is a former civil litigator, current law school administrator, and lifelong romance reader who has always been passionate about the depiction of Black women in popular culture. She currently resides in the southeastern United States with her husband and daughter.

The Novel is: THE ART OF SCANDAL 

On the night of her husband Matt's fortieth birthday, Rachel Abbott receives a sexy, explicit text from her husband that she quickly realizes was meant for another woman. Divorce is inevitable, and Rachel is determined not to leave her thirteen-year marriage empty handed. Meanwhile, Matt, a rising star mayor with his eye on the White House, can't afford a messy split in the middle of his reelection campaign. They strike a deal: Rachel gets one million dollars and their lavish house in the wealthy DC suburb of Oasis Springs, as long as she keeps playing the ideal Black trophy wife until the election.

Then Rachel meets Nathan Vasquez, a very handsome, very lost twenty-six-year-old artist, and their connection makes Rachel forget about being the perfect politician's wife. As Rachel reawakens Nathan's long-dormant artistic aspirations, their attraction becomes impossible to resist. But secrets are hard to keep in a town like Oasis Springs, and Nathan has a few of his own. With the risk of scandal looming and their hearts on the line, they'll have to decide whether the possibility of losing everything is worth taking a chance on love.

XIO AXELROD

Xio Axelrod is a USA Today Bestselling author of contemporary fiction and romance. Growing up in the music industry, Xio began her recording career at a young age. Her experiences bring a lyrical quality to her writing and vibrancy to her characters, offering a unique perspective that adds depth and authenticity to the worlds she creates. A completely unapologetic, badge-wearing, fic-writing fangirl, Xio actively connects with her readers through social media, fostering a dedicated and supportive community. Xio is also a passionate advocate for various causes, including human rights issues and mental health awareness, and that is reflected in her stories.

When she isn’t behind the keyboard, Xio can be found behind the mic in a studio, writing songs or performing as her fictional band, The Lillys.

The Novel is: GIRLS WITH BAD REPUTATIONS 

Once upon a time, the pressure to be the perfect daughter nearly broke Kayla Whitman. Desperate to find an outlet away from her controlling mother, she picked up a pair of drumsticks, forever altering the rhythm of her life. Since then, she's been determined to make her own way, finding her home with her bandmates even as she fights to keep her past and her present firmly separate.

Things were simple enough when the Lillys were playing local gigs at dive bars, but now they're on their first official tour--and all Kayla can see are warning signs. Desperate to escape the worry churning inside her, Kayla finds solace in quiet tour bus driver Ty Baldwin...and discovers in him a kindred spirit like no one she's ever met before.

Their connection is immediate and intense, but when increasing scrutiny from the press threatens to destroy Ty's newfound peace and Kayla's carefully guarded secrets, Kayla's forced to make an impossible choice: pursue her dream and risk destroying everyone around her? Or give in and lose the chance of ever becoming the person she's always known she could be.

LIFTed UNITED welcomes authors:

VAJRA CHANDRASEKERA

Vajra Chandrasekera, is a writer from Colombo, Sri Lanka. His debut novel The Saint of Bright Doors won the Locus, Nebula, and Crawford awards, and was a New York Times Notable Book of 2023. His short fiction, poetry, and nonfiction has appeared in Analog, West Branch, and The Los Angeles Times, among others. He has worked as an editor for Strange Horizons and Afterlives: The Year’s Best Death Stories, and as a judge for the Dream Foundry Writing Contest and the Salam Award. He is online at vajra.me and probably on whatever social media still exists at the time you’re reading this.

The Novel is: Rakesfall 

Some stories take more than one lifetime to tell. There are wrongs that echo through the ages, friendships that outpace the claws of death, loves that leave their mark on civilization, and promises that nothing can break. This is one such story.

Annelid and Leveret met as children in the middle of the Sri Lankan civil war. They found each other in a torn-up nation, peering through propaganda to grasp a deeper truth. And in a demon-haunted wood, another act of violence linked them and propelled their souls on a journey throughout the ages. No world can hold them, no life can bind them, and they'll never leave each other behind.

Tracing two souls through endless lifetimes, Rakesfall is a virtuosic exploration of what stories can be. As Annelid and Leveret reincarnate ever deeper into the future, they will chase the edge of human possibility, in a dark science fiction epic unlike anything you've read before.

DK NNURO

DK Nnuro is a Ghanaian-born writer and a graduate of Johns Hopkins University and the Writers’ Workshop at the University of Iowa (UI). He is currently curator of special projects at the Stanley Museum of Art at UI and adjunct assistant professor in the English Department there. His debut novel, What Napoleon Could Not Do (2023), was one of Barack Obama’s Summer Reading List picks and the winner of the Great Lakes Colleges Association (GLCA) New Writers Award in Fiction. The book was also shortlisted for the VCU Cabell First Novel Prize and The New American Voices Award.

The Novel is: WHAT NAPOLEON COULD NOT DO 

America is seen through the eyes and ambitions of three characters with ties to Africa in this gripping novel. When siblings Jacob and Belinda Nti were growing up in Ghana, their goal was simple: to move to America. For them, the United States was both an opportunity and a struggle, a goal and an obstacle. Jacob, an awkward computer programmer who still lives with his father, wants a visa so he can move to Virginia to live with his wife--a request that the U.S. government has repeatedly denied. He envies his sister, Belinda, who achieved, as their father put it, "what Napoleon could not do" she went to college and law school in the United States and even managed to marry Wilder, a wealthy Black businessman from Texas. Wilder's view of America differs markedly from his wife's, as he's spent his life railing against the racism and marginalization that are part of life for every African American living here.

For these three, their desires and ambitions highlight the promise and the disappointment that life in a new country offers. How each character comes to understand this and how each learns from both their dashed hopes and their fulfilled dreams lie at the heart of what makes What Napoleon Could Not Do such a compelling, insightful read.

LIFTed UNITED welcomes authors:

REMICA L. BINGHAM-RISHER

Remica L. Bingham-Risher, a native of Phoenix, Arizona, is an alumna of Old Dominion University and Bennington College. She is a Cave Canem fellow and Affrilachian Poet. Among other journals, her work has been published in the New York Times, the Writer’s Chronicle, New Letters, Callaloo and Essence. She is the author of Conversion (Lotus, 2006) winner of the Naomi Long Madgett Poetry Award, What We Ask of Flesh (Etruscan, 2013) shortlisted for the Hurston/Wright Award and Starlight & Error (Diode, 2017) winner of the Diode Editions Book Award. Her first book of prose, Soul Culture: Black Poets, Books and Questions that Grew Me Up, was published by Beacon Press in 2022. Her next book of poems, Room Swept Home, was published by Wesleyan in February 2024. She is currently the Director of Quality Enhancement Plan Initiatives at Old Dominion University and resides in Norfolk, VA with her husband and children.

The Novel is: Room Swept Home 

Room Swept Home serves as a gloriously rendered magnifying glass into all that is held in the line between the private and public, the investigative and generative, the self and those who came before us. In a strange twist of kismet, two of Bingham-Risher's ancestors intersect in Petersburg, Virginia, forty years before she herself is born: her paternal great-great-great grandmother, Minnie Lee Fowlkes, is interviewed for the Works Progress Administration Slave Narratives in Petersburg in 1937, and her maternal grandmother, Mary Knight, is sent to Petersburg in 1941, diagnosed with "water on the brain"--postpartum depression being an ongoing mystery--nine days after birthing her first child. 

Marrying meticulous archival research with Womanist scholarship and her hallmark lyrical precision, Bingham-Risher's latest collection treads the murky waters of race, lineage, faith, mental health, women's rights, and the violent reckoning that inhabits the discrepancy between lived versus textbook history, asking: What do we inherit when trauma is at the core of our fractured living?

KIM COLEMAN FOOTE

Kim Coleman Foote grew up in New Jersey, where she started writing at the age of seven(ish). Her work elevates marginalized stories, with a focus on African American history, slavery, relationships between Africa and its diaspora, and intersections of race, gender, and class. Currently in progress is Salt Water Sister, a novel about Ghana and the trans-Atlantic slave trade, which weaves the stories of three young women in the eighteenth century and present day. Kim was named a finalist for the Carol Shields Prize for Fiction, NAACP Image Award, and Audie Award, and long-listed for the Center for Fiction First Novel Prize.

The Novel is: COLEMAN HILL 

In 1916, during the early days of the Great Migration, Celia Coleman and Lucy Grimes flee the racism and poverty of their homes in the post-Civil War South for the "Promised Land" of Vauxhall, New Jersey. But the North possesses its own challenges and bigotries that will shape the fates of the women and their families over the next seventy years. Told through the voices of nine family members--their perspectives at once harmonious and contradictory--Coleman Hill is a penetrating multigenerational debut.

Within ten years of arriving in Vauxhall, both Celia and Lucy's husbands are dead, and they turn to one another for support in raising their children far from home. Lucy's gentleness sets Celia at ease, and Celia lends Lucy her fire when her friend wants to cower. Encouraged by their mothers' friendship, their children's lives become enmeshed as well. As the children grow into adolescence, two are caught in an impulsive act of impropriety, and Celia and Lucy find themselves at irreconcilable odds over who's to blame. The ensuing fallout has dire consequences that reverberate through the next two generations of their families.

LIFTed UNITED welcomes authors:

JUSTINE PUCELLA WINANS

Justine Pucella Winans (they/she) is a queer and nonbinary writer who lives in Los Angeles with their husband and incredible Halloween-colored cats. When not writing queer, creepy, and funny fiction for kids and teens, they can be found training Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, reading (a lot of) manga and webcomics, and actively avoiding real life scary situations.

The Novel is: ONE KILLER PROBLEM 

When Gianna “Gigi” Ricci lands in detention again, she doesn’t expect the glorified study hall to be her alibi. But when she and her friends receive a mysterious email directing them to her favorite teacher, Mr. Ford's, room, they find him lying in a pool of blood. But calling the math teacher’s death an accident doesn’t add up, and Gigi needs all the help she can get to find the truth. Luckily, she’s friends with her high school’s Mystery Club, and so with her best friend, Sean, and longtime crush, Mari, Gigi sets out to solve a murder.

But it turns out that murderers are extremely unwilling to be caught, and the deeper Gigi gets into this mystery, the more dangerous things become. Between fending off a murderer, continual flare-ups of her IBS, and her archnemesis turning flirtatious, making it out of junior year is going to be one killer problem.

With a wry, hilarious voice and a main character who is the walking definition of a disaster bi, this book is an ode to cozy mysteries, queer found families, and fighting for the people you love, no matter what.

JILL TEW

Jill Tew was destined for speculative fiction nerddom from childhood. She grew up watching Farscape, Hercules, and The 10th Kingdom, and always had the latest copy of Animorphs tucked in her backpack. Now she writes the kinds of stories she loved as a kid, with characters she wanted to see more of— Black heroes asking big questions, saving the world, and occasionally falling in love along the way. A recovering business school graduate, Jill enjoys belting showtunes and baking in her spare time. She lives in Atlanta with her family.

The Novel is: THE DIVIDING SKY 

In 2460, eighteen-year-old Liv Newman dreams of a future beyond her lower-class life in the Metro. As a Proxy, she uses the neurochip in her brain to sell memories to wealthy clients. Maybe a few illegally, but money equals freedom. So when a customer offers her a ludicrous sum to go on an assignment in no-man’s-land, Liv accepts. Now she just has to survive.

Rookie Forceman Adrian Rao believes in order over all. After discovering that a renegade Proxy’s shady dealings are messing with citizens’ brain chemistry, he vows to extinguish the threat. But when he tracks Liv down, there’s one problem: her memories are gone. Can Adrian bring himself to condemn her for crimes she doesn’t remember?

As Liv and Adrian navigate the world beyond the Metro and their growing feelings for one another, they grapple with who they are, who they could be, and whether another way of living is possible.

LIFTed UNITED welcomes authors:

NICK BROOKS

Nick Brooks is an award-winning author and filmmaker from Washington, DC. In 2022 he published his first middle grade novel, NOTHING INTERESTING EVER HAPPENS TO ETHAN FAIRMONT, the first book in a three book series. His first YA novel, PROMISE BOYS debuted January 2023 and has already been deemed a much-anticipated read of 2023 by Buzzfeed, Seventeen and Forbes. It was also a 2023 Boston Globe–Horn Book award honoree.

Truly a multi-hyphenate, Nick is also a rapper known by the moniker, Ben Kenobe, and has composed music for films such as NETFLIX's, THEY CLONED TYRONE, and HBO's, THE CYPHER. 

The Novel is: PROMISE BOYS 

The prestigious Urban Promise Prep school might look pristine on the outside, but deadly secrets lurk within. When the principal ends up murdered on school premises and the cops come sniffing around, a trio of students—J.B., Ramón, and Trey—emerge as the prime suspects. They had the means, they had the motive . . . and they may have had the murder weapon. But with all three maintaining their innocence, they must band together to track down the real killer before they are arrested. Or is the true culprit hiding among them?

Find out who killed Principal Moore in Nick Brooks's murder mystery, Promise Boys—The Hate U Give meets One of Us Is Lying.

HUGH “H.D.” HUNTER

Hugh “H. D.” Hunter is a storyteller, teaching artist, and community organizer from Atlanta, Georgia. He’s the author of two self-published books, the Futureland trilogy, and Something Like Right, as well as the winner of several indie book awards for multicultural fiction. Hugh is committed to stories about Black kids and their many expansive worlds.

The Novel is: SOMETHING LIKE RIGHT 

Zay’s ma always said his mouth would get him in trouble. Sure enough, it got him into his first and only fight in his junior year of high school. Expelled from his district, Zay’s only hope for redemption is to transfer to Broadlawn Alternative School and complete the year.

Zay isn’t thrilled about the disgusting school lunch and classroom trailers at Broadlawn, and boarding with his aunt Mel and her live-in boyfriend isn’t the greatest. But he’d rather be there than in the city dealing with his estranged father, his overbearing mother, and the fallout from his fight. Besides, Broadlawn has Feven, the beautiful new student Zay is starting to get to know—and fall for.

Still, first love is rarely a fairy tale, and as Zay’s time in Broadlawn comes to an end, he learns that shaping yourself within a new place is a lot harder than letting it shape you.

A tender contemplation of first love, broken families, and healing generational trauma by an incredible voice in young adult fiction.

Welcome to LIFTed UNITED Authors NANA EKUA BREW-HAMMOND and JAHA NAILAH AVERY.

JNANA EKUA BREW-HAMMOND

Nana Ekua Brew-Hammond is the author of the children’s picture book Blue: A History of the Color as Deep as the Sea and as Wide as the Sky, illustrated by Caldecott Honor Artist Daniel Minter; and the young adult novel Powder Necklace. Her short fiction for adults has been included in the anthologies Accra Noir, Africa39, New Daughters of Africa, Everyday People, and Woman's Work. Learn more at nanabrewhammond.com.

The Novel is: MY PARENTS MARRIAGE

Determined to avoid the pain and instability of her parents’ turbulent, confusing marriage, Kokui marries a man far different from her loving, philandering, self-made father—and tries to be a different kind of wife from her mother.

But when Kokui and her husband leave Ghana to make a new life for themselves in America, she finds history repeating itself. Her marriage failing, she is called home to Ghana when her father dies. Back in her childhood home, which feels both familiar and discomforting, she comes to realize that to exorcize the ghosts of her parents’ marriage she must confront them to enable her healing.

Tender and illuminating, warm and bittersweet My Parents’ Marriage is a compelling story of family, community, class, and self-identity from an author with deep empathy and a generous heart.

JAHA NAILAH AVERY

Jaha Nailah Avery is a lawyer, scholar, and reporter whose family has roots in North Carolina stretching back over 300 years. Jaha is an African American woman and proud Southerner. Hailing from Asheville, North Carolina, she received her law degree from The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where she studied constitutional and civil rights law. She spent several years in the startup tech space before embarking on her professional writing career, and her work can be found in The New York Times, Rolling Stone, and Architectural Digest. She is a member of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc. and a Diamond Life member of the NAACP. Her aim is to always document, celebrate, and preserve the stories of Black people, communities, and history.

The Novel is: THOSE WHO SAW THE SUN: AFRICAN AMERICAN ORAL HISTORIES FROM THE JIM CROW SOUTH

Those Who Saw the Sun is a collection of oral histories told by Black people who grew up in the South during the time of Jim Crow. Avery captures key perspectives on cultural moments by centering the voices of those who lived them. This book preserves the Black voice and lifts the wisdom they offer.

Join us in welcoming Authors LOLA AKINMADE ÅKERSTRöM and LISA ALLEN-AGOSTINI to the LIFTed UNITED Book Panels.

LOLA AKINMADE ÅKERSTRöM

Lọlá Ákínmádé was born in Nigeria. Educated in the United States and is now based in Sweden. When she is not writing books, she is an award winning photographer.

The Novel is: EVERYTHING IS NOT ENOUGH

Focusing on the lives of three Black women as they fight their own personal struggles in one of the most egalitarian societies, Sweden.

Powerful marketing executive Kemi Adeyemi has finally found the man she needs, but Tobias Wikström thinks she’s the most selfish woman he has ever met for asking him to give up his life in Sweden and move to the US for her own comfort. Will Kemi be forced to stay if she wants to keep him while chipping away at her hard-earned career? As things begin to sour and challenge her relationship with Tobias, someone else moves back into the picture.

Looking into divorce in Sweden isn’t what former model-turned-flight attendant Brittany-Rae von Lundin anticipated. Only jointly owned assets are split evenly between couples. Brittany gave up her career and came with nothing into Jonny’s kingdom. Having had a child with him, her greatest fear for Maya includes being cut off from the resources she’s become accustomed to. With a man obsessed with a ghost, trying to get away isn’t going to be easy. And the deeper she digs into his past, the darker the secrets she unravels.

After fleeing her home through a client to seek a new life in Sweden, Yasmiin finds love in the arms of Yagiz Çelik while carving out her own small corner. But as someone from her past forces Yasmiin to become a caretaker before she’s ready, she now must confront and move beyond her teenage history, while following her dreams of becoming a makeup artist.

LISA ALLEN-AGOSTINI

Lisa Allen-Agostini Lisa Allen-Agostini is a writer, editor and stand-up comedian from Trinidad and Tobago. Lisa writes in a variety of genres and voices, but is probably best known in her homeland for her weekly column, written in Trinidad Creole, in the Guardian. In 2009 she founded The Allen Prize for Young Writers, an NGO registered in Trinidad & Tobago as a not-for-profit company and in 2019 she started the partnership FemComTT with Louris Lee-Sing.

The Novel is: The Bread the Devil Knead

Alethea Lopez is about to turn 40. Fashionable, feisty and fiercely independent, she manages a boutique in Port of Spain, but behind closed doors she’s covering up bruises from her abusive partner and seeking solace in an affair with her boss. When she witnesses a woman murdered by a jealous lover, the reality of her own future comes a little too close to home.

Bringing us her truth in an arresting, unsparing Trinidadian voice, Alethea unravels memories repressed since childhood and begins to understand the person she has become.

Her next step is to decide the woman she wants to be.

This is an engrossing and atmospheric novel with a strong feminist message at the heart of its page-turning plot. It explores an abusive love-affair with searing honesty, and skilfully tackles the issue of gender violence and racism against the lush and heady backdrop of the national festival, and the music that feeds it. It’s impossible not to root for Alethea – she is an unforgettable heroine, trapped in ways she is only just beginning to understand but shining with strength, resolve and, ultimately, self-determination.

LIFTed UNITED welcomes authors:

ISHI ROBINSON

Ishi Robinson was born and raised in Kingston, Jamaica. A Canadian citizen, she has lived in Bern, Toronto, Rome, London and now lives in Berlin with her Czech husband. Her first published work was a short story in Jamaica’s national newspaper when she was eleven years old. At seventeen, she sent a letter to her father from Switzerland that he thought was so funny he sent it to the other national newspaper, which snagged her a weekly column on teenage life in Kingston. She also previously wrote a weekly column on life as an expat in Rome for a now defunct online magazine. She got back into fiction writing in Berlin, from where she has published short stories in several online publications and one anthology. SWEETNESS IN THE SKIN is her first novel.

The Novel is: SWEETNESS IN THE SKIN

Pumkin Patterson is a thirteen-year-old girl living in a tiny two-room house in Kingston, Jamaica, with her grandmother (who wants to improve the family’s social standing), her Aunt Sophie (who dreams of a new life in Paris for her and Pumkin), and her mother Paulette (who’s rarely home).

When Sophie is offered the chance to move to France for work, she seizes the opportunity, and promises to send for her niece in one year’s time. All Pumkin has to do is pass her French entrance exam so she can attend school there. But when Pumkin’s grandmother dies, she’s left alone with her volatile mother, and as soon as her estranged father turns up—as lazy and conniving as ever—the household’s fortunes take a turn for the worse.

Pumkin must somehow find a way to raise the money for her French exam, so she can free herself from her household and reunite with her beloved aunt in France. In a moment of ingenuity, she turns her passion for baking into a true business. Making batches of sweet potato pudding, coconut drops and chocolate cakes, Pumkin develops a booming trade—but when her school and her mother find out what she’s up to, everything she’s worked so hard for may slip through her fingers. . . 

DE’SHAWN CHARLES WINSLOW

De'Shawn Charles Winslow is the author of In West Mills, a Center for Fiction First Novel Prize winner, an American Book Award recipient, a Willie Morris Award for Southern Fiction winner, and a Los Angeles Times Book Award, Lambda Literary Award, and Publishing Triangle Award finalist. He was born and raised in Elizabeth City, North Carolina, and graduated from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop.

The Novel is: DECENT PEOPLE

In the still-segregated town of West Mills, North Carolina, in 1976, Marian, Marva, and Lazarus Harmon-three enigmatic siblings-are found shot to death in their home. The people of West Mills- on both sides of the canal that serves as the town's color line-are in a frenzy of finger-pointing, gossip, and wonder. The crime is the first reported murder in the area in decades, but the white authorities don't seem to have any interest in solving the case.

Fortunately, one person is determined to do more than talk. Miss Josephine Wright has just moved back to West Mills from New York City to retire and marry a childhood sweetheart, Olympus "Lymp" Seymore. 

LIFTed UNITED welcomes authors:

MK ASANTE 

MK Asante is a best-selling author, award-winning filmmaker, recording artist, and distinguished professor who the Los Angeles Times calls “One of America’s best storytellers.” Asante has lectured at Harvard, Yale, Stanford, as well as hundreds of other universities. He has toured in over 50 countries and was awarded the Key to the City of Dallas, Texas. He is featured in A Changing America, a permanent video exhibit at the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture. He is currently a tenured professor of Cinematic Arts and Sciences at Morgan State University where he is the recipient of the Distinguished Achievement Award.

The Novel is: Nephew: A Memoir in 4-Part Harmony

Nephew introduces us to two men, strangers to each other, whose similarities are astonishing. Both have red hot tempers, both struggle with opioid addiction, and most profoundly, both are lyrical geniuses whose raps are raw, powerful, and autobiographical. Yet neither had ever heard the other’s lyrics. As he tells his family’s story, MK draws vivid portraits of both Nasir and Uzi through their songs—lyrics that become the touchstone of their relationship. When father and son eventually meet, they confront each other and share a dialogue through their lyrics.

An explosive, innovative memoir of family, faith, poetry, secrets, love, race, poverty, redemption, addiction, Philadelphia, hip-hop, jail, purpose, mental health, and violence. Nephew is fast-paced, intimate, lyrical, educational, and inspirational. It is the epic, painful, poetic, and miraculous redemptive story of a new generation—a new style of memoir for a new decade, the rhythmic story of a family in love, struggle, and verse.

P. DJELI CLARK

P. Djéli Clark is the award winning and Hugo, Nebula, Sturgeon, and World Fantasy nominated author of the novels Abeni’s Song and A Master of Djinn, and the novellas Ring Shout, The Black God’s Drums and The Haunting of Tram Car 015. When not writing speculative fiction, P. Djèlí Clark works as an academic historian whose research spans comparative slavery and emancipation in the Atlantic World. You can find him on Twitter at @pdjeliclark and his blog The Disgruntled Haradrim.

The Novel is: The Dead Cat Tail Assassins

Eveen the Eviscerator is skilled, discreet, professional, and here for your most pressing needs in the ancient city of Tal Abisi. Her guild is strong, her blades are sharp, and her rules are simple. Those sworn to the Matron of Assassins—resurrected, deadly, wiped of their memories—have only three unbreakable vows.

First, the contract must be just. That’s above Eveen’s pay grade.

Second, even the most powerful assassin may only kill the contracted. Eveen’s a professional. She’s never missed her mark.
The third and the simplest: once you accept a job, you must carry it out. And if you stray? A final death would be a mercy. When the Festival of the Clockwork King turns the city upside down, Eveen’s newest mission brings her face-to-face with a past she isn’t supposed to remember and a vow she can’t forget.

LIFTed UNITED welcomes authors:

VANESSA WALTERS 

Author, Screenwriter, Playwright, Creative Writing Tutor, Literary Activist. Vanessa Walters was born and raised in London and has a background in international journalism and playwriting and is a Tin House resident and a Millay Colony resident. She is the author of two previous YA books and The Nigerwife. She currently lives in Brooklyn.

The Novel is: The Lagos Wife: A Novel

Nicole Oruwari has the perfect life: a handsome husband, a palatial house in the heart of Lagos, and a glamorous group of friends. She left gloomy London and a troubled family past behind for sunny Lagos, becoming part of the Nigerwives—a community of foreign women married to Nigerian men.

But when Nicole disappears without a trace after a boat trip, the cracks in her alleged perfect life start to show. As the investigation turns up nothing but dead ends, her auntie Claudine decides to take matters into her own hands. Armed with only a cell phone and a plane ticket to Nigeria, she digs into her niece’s life and uncovers a hidden side filled with dark secrets, isolation, and even violence. But the more she discovers about Nicole, the more Claudine’s own buried history threatens to come to light.

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AIWANOSE ODAFEN

Born in Lagos, Nigeria, Aiwanose Odafen is an MFA fiction student at the Iowa Writer's Workshop. She has contributed to published non-fiction works and participated in Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s Purple Hibiscus Trust Writing Workshop. She was longlisted for the 2020 Commonwealth Writers Short Story Prize. She holds an MBA from the Said Business School, University of Oxford.

The Novel is: WE WERE GIRLS ONCE

Ego, Zina and Eriife were always destined to be best friends, ever since their grandmothers sat next to each other on a dusty bus to Lagos in the late 1940s, forging a bond that would last generations. But over half a century later, Nigeria is a new and modern country. As the three young women navigate the incessant strikes and political turmoil that surrounds them, their connection is shattered by a terrible assault. In the aftermath, nothing will remain the same as life takes them down separate paths.

LIFTed UNITED welcomes authors:

MELANIA LUISA MARTE

Melania Luisa Marte is a Dominican-American writer, poet, and musician from New York. Her viral poem “Afro-Latina” was featured by Instagram on their IGTV for National Poetry Month and has garnered over nine million views. Her work has also been featured by Ain’t I Latina?, AfroPunk, The Root, Teen Vogue, Telemundo, Remezcla, PopSugar, Refinery29, and elsewhere. She currently lives with her partner and child between the Dominican Republic and Texas.

The Novel is: PLANTAINS AND OUR BECOMING

“We, children of plátanos, always gotta learn to play in everyone else’s backyard and somehow feel at home.”

Poet and musician Melania Luisa Marte opens PLANTAINS AND OUR BECOMING by pointing out that  Afro-Latina is not a word recognized by the dictionary. But the dictionary is far from a record of the truth. What does it mean, then, to tend to your own words and your own record—to build upon the legacies of your ancestors?

 In this imaginative, blistering poetry collection, Marte looks at the identities and histories of the Dominican Republic and Haiti to celebrate and center the Black diasporic experience. Through the exploration of themes like self-love, nationalism, displacement, generational trauma, and ancestral knowledge, this collection uproots stereotypes while creating a new joyous vision for Black identity and personhood.

 Moving from New York to Texas to the Dominican Republic and to Haiti, this collection looks at the legacies of colonialism and racism but never shies away from highlighting the beauty—and joy—that comes from celebrating who you are and where you come from.

JENNIFER MARITZA MCCAULEY

Jennifer Maritza McCauley is a writer, poet, and university professor. She has been awarded fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts in prose, Kimbilio, CantoMundo and the Sundress Academy for the Arts. She holds an MFA from Florida International University and a PhD in creative writing and literature from the University of Missouri. She has received awards from the Independent Publisher Book Awards, Academy of American Poets and Best of the Net and she has received a Pushcart Prize Special Mention, was a finalist for the Prairie Schooner Book Prize in fiction and longlisted for the Aspen Words Prize and the Reading the West Book Awards.

The Novel is: WHEN TRYING TO RETURN HOME: STORIES

A young woman is torn between overwhelming love for her mother and the need to break free from her damaging influence during a desperate and disastrous attempt to rescue her brother from foster care. A man, his wife, and his mistress each confront the borders separating love and hate, obligation and longing, on the eve of a flight to San Juan. A college student grapples with the space between chivalry and machismo in a tense encounter involving a nun. 

And in 1930s Louisiana, a woman attempting to find a place to call her own chances upon an old friend at a bar and must reckon with her troubled past.

Forming a web of desires and consequences that span generations, McCauley’s Black American and Afro–Puerto Rican characters remind us that these voices have always been here, occupying the very center of American life—even if we haven’t always been willing to listen. (From the publisher) (Counterpoint Press)

CINDY RX HE

Cindy R. X. He was born and raised in multicultural Singapore. She has always enjoyed losing herself in the pages of a book, and started reading Stephen King at a much earlier age than she should have. Her favorite works are by Shirley Jackson, Kelly Link, Alex Finlay, Catriona Ward, Gillian Flynn, Courtney Summers,  and Stephen Graham Jones.

She currently resides in the French Alps with her husband, children, and rescue cat. She skis in the winter, gets dragged on hikes in the summer, and hoards books all year round. Her pet peeve is people who borrow but don’t return books.

The Novel is: PERFECT LITTLE MONSTERS

Someone has murdered the queen bee of Sierton High School. All the dead girl’s friends are suspects. And each one has a reason for wanting her dead.

Ella Moore was the most popular girl in school…and also the most hated. When she’s murdered at her own party, there are too many suspects to count. And too many people who think she deserved it. The police’s prime suspect is the new girl, Dawn Foster. Dawn was the last to hand Ella a drink on the night she died. Plus, all of Ella’s friends with a motive for wanting Ella dead are more than willing to throw Dawn under the bus, if it means keeping the heat off themselves.

But Dawn refuses to go down without a fight. She’s determined to clear her name. As she delves deeper into the past, she discovers that Ella and her friends had major enemies, and someone is out for revenge. Dawn must uncover the truth before the police arrest the wrong suspect… and before the next person dies.

TRACY BADUA

Tracy Badua is an award-winning Filipino American author of books about young people with sunny hearts in a sometimes stormy world. According to her grandmother, Tracy inherited this love of the written word from her great-grandfather, a school teacher in the Philippines. To Tracy, this means writing is in her blood, and she continues this family tradition by telling stories with her own spin in an accessible, heartfelt way.

By day, she is an attorney who works in national housing policy and programs, and by night, she squeezes in writing, family time, and bites of her secret stash of candy. School and work brought her from California to Washington, DC, and back, and she now lives in San Diego, California, with her family.

The Novel is: WE’RE NEVER GETTING HOME 

Jana Rubio and her best friend, Maddy Parsons, have an epic senior year finale queued up: catching their favorite band at the Orchards, an outdoor music festival a two-hour drive away. When a blowup over Maddy’s time-sucking boyfriend exposes a rift that may have already been growing between them, Jana calls off their joint trip and gets a lift to the festival from her church friend Nathan…only to realize Maddy and her boyfriend are along for the ride, too.

All Jana wants is to enjoy the concert and get home as soon as possible. But then Nathan loses his car keys crowd-surfing, and it’s up to Jana and Maddy to find them. As they navigate stolen phones and missing friends, scale Ferris wheels and crash parties, the two of them are forced to reckon with the biggest obstacle of all: repairing their friendship.

Will Jana and Maddy find their way home—and also back to each other?

LIFTed UNITED welcome's Authors CHIOMA OKEREKE and ABI ISHOLA-AYODEJ Book Panel! Join us for a fascinating discussion with these two talented writers as they share insights into their latest works.

CHIOMA OKEREKE

Okereke was born in Benin City, Nigeria. A poet and short story writer who performed internationally, Okereke had her early work published in Bum Rush, The Page and Callaloo literary magazine. She was shortlisted for the Undiscovered Authors Competition in 2006, as well as for the Daily Telegraph's Write a Novel in a Year Competition 2007.

Her Novel is: Waterbaby

She's the Pearl of Makoko and the world is her oyster. In Makoko, the floating slum off mainland Lagos, Nigeria, nineteen-year-old Baby yearns for an existence where she can escape the future her father has planned for her. With opportunities scarce, Baby jumps at the chance to join a newly launched drone-mapping project, aimed at broadening the visibility of her community.

Then a video of her at work goes viral and Baby finds herself with options she could never have imagined - including the possibility of leaving her birthplace to represent Makoko on the world stage. But will life beyond the lagoon be everything she's dreamed of? Or has everything she wants been in front of her all along?

ABI ISHOLA-AYODEJ

ABI ISHOLA-AYODEJI first worked as a journalist, there, Abi showcased her talent across a diverse range of platforms, including ELLE.com, PBS, Ebony.com, CUNY TV, and more. Her 18-year-long career has seen her cover extraordinary people, communities, and events from New York City to Paris and from Nigeria to Ghana. In 2017, Essence Magazine named her among its Woke 100 Women for launching Beyond Classically Beautiful, an acclaimed photo story and media platform celebrating women of color who defy traditional beauty standards.

Her Novel is: Patience Is a Subtle Thief

Patience Adewale, the eldest daughter of Chief Kolade Adewale, has been waiting for confirmation that she is loved, that there is a place where she truly belongs. Patience wants to know why her father and uncle banished her mother from their compound years ago—and whether her mother is even alive. Determined to discover the truth, Patience embarks on a desperate search to find her mother.

LIFTed UNITED welcomes authors:

HANAKO FOOTMAN

Hanako Footman  is a British-Japanese actress and writer. Footman's debut novel Mongrel was longlisted for the 2021 Mo Siewcharran Prize and was published in February 2024 under Footnote Press.

The Novel is: MONGREL

Mei loses her Japanese mother at age six. Growing up in suburban Surrey, she yearns to fit in, suppressing not only her heritage but her growing desire for her best friend Fran.

Yuki leaves the Japanese countryside to pursue her dream of becoming a concert violinist in London. Far from home and in an unfamiliar city, she finds herself caught up in the charms of her older teacher.

Haruka attempts to navigate Tokyo's nightlife and all of its many vices, working as a hostess in the city's sex district. She grieves a mother who hid so many secrets from her, until finally one of those secrets comes to light . . .

Shifting between three intertwining narratives, Mongrel reveals a tangled web of desire, isolation, belonging and ultimately, hope.

NEELY TUBATI ALEXANDER

Neely Tubati Alexander is originally from the Seattle area and resides in Arizona with her husband and children. Her debut novel, Love Buzz, won the Zibby Award for Best Beach Read and was hailed by Good Morning America as "the perfect escapist read . . . absolutely delightful," and Booklist declared her "an exciting new romance writer."

The Novel is: IN A NOT SO PERFECT WORLD

Sloane Cooper is up for her dream job as a designer for a top video game company. During the interview, though, she somehow promises the all-male panel that she’ll remain single and fully dedicated to the work. It’s actually fine—after her last boyfriend cheated on her, she vowed to focus on her career anyway. Enter Charlie, aka Hot Neighbor Guy, a near-stranger who shocks her with the offer of an all-inclusive trip to a Turks and Caicos resort.

The catch? Charlie originally planned the trip with his ex, and asks Sloane to pose as his new girlfriend to make his old flame come running back. Against her better judgment, Sloane says yes; she can use the time away to develop a game design that will dazzle the Catapult team and get her a job offer. Despite sparks flying in paradise, the trip can’t lead to more. As their connection deepens, Sloane is reminded that she can’t fall for Charlie and get knocked off her professional path. Besides, he’s trying to win back his true love. Can Sloane figure out a way to move past heartbreak, land the job of her dreams, and avoid catching feelings? The zombie apocalypse would be easier to solve—at least she’s prepared for that.

LIFTed UNITED welcomes authors:

JAMISON SHEA

Jamison Shea (they/them) is a dark fantasy and horror author, flautist, and linguist hailing from Buffalo, NY and now dwelling in the dark forests of Finland. When they’re not writing, they’re drinking milk tea or searching for eldritch horrors in uncanny places. I Feed Her to the Beast and the Beast is Me is their debut novel.

The Novel is: I feed her to the beast and the beast is me

Laure Mesny is a perfectionist with an axe to grind. Despite being constantly overlooked in the elite and cutthroat world of the Parisian ballet, she will do anything to prove that a Black girl can take center stage. To level the playing field, Laure ventures deep into the depths of the Catacombs and strikes a deal with a pulsating river of blood.

The primordial power Laure gains promises influence and adoration, everything she’s dreamed of and worked toward. With retribution on her mind, she surpasses her bitter and privileged peers, leaving broken bodies behind her on her climb to stardom.

But even as undeniable as she is, Laure is not the only monster around. And her vicious desires make her a perfect target for slaughter. 

ZIBU SITHOLE

Zibu Sithole is a South African and debut writer. 

The Novel is: I Do ... Don't I? 

I Do ... Don't I? is the much-anticipated sequel to the popular novel The Thing with Zola. It continues the sparkling and tender love story of free-spirited Zola and charismatic Mbali, traversing the vibrant landscapes of Kigali and Johannesburg as they navigate a long-distance relationship and the question of commitment. Will they say I do?

The cast is complete with the interweaving of the vivacious Okuhle on her heart-stirring journey to marriage, the audacious Thobile rebelling against societal norms, and the stoic Ongama navigating upheavals in her married life.

Personal desires collide with expectations, painting a unique picture of the nuances of love, dreams, and the trials of responsibilities and relationshipping. The result is a whirlwind of emotions, laughter, poignant revelations and the quest for a fairytale ending.

I Do … Don't I? is guaranteed to sweep you off your feet.

LIFTed UNITED welcomes Authors MOSES OSE UTOMI and TOBI OGUNDIRAN

MOSES OSE UTOMI

Moses Ose Utomi wrote his first book when he was 5. It was a book about warrior bunnies from Mars, and the only copy is owned by his mother.

Since then, he has gone on to write many more, slightly better stories. He primarily writes fantasy "but with the plot and pacing of a psychological thriller" and his fiction often grows out of the West African culture and mythology he was raised in as a Nigerian American. He holds a Master of Fine Arts degree in fiction writing as well as a Certificate in Book Publishing, and he has written short fiction in various publications.

His Novel is: The Truth of the Aleke Book #2

The Aleke is cruel. The Aleke is clever. The Aleke is coming.

500 years after the events of The Lies of the Ajungo, the City of Truth stands as the last remaining free city of the Forever Desert. A bastion of freedom and peace, the city has successfully weathered near-constant attacks from the Cult of Tutu, who have besieged it for three centuries, attempting to destroy its warriors and subjugate its people.

Seventeen-year-old Osi is a Junior Peacekeeper in the City. When the mysterious leader of the Cult, known only as the Aleke, commits a massacre in the capitol and steals the sacred God's Eyes, Osi steps forward to valiantly defend his home. For his bravery he is tasked with a tremendous responsibility—destroy the Cult of Tutu, bring back the God's Eyes, and discover the truth of the Aleke.

TOBI OGUNDIRAN

Tobi Ogundiran is the Ignyte award-winning author. He has been nominated for the Shirley Jackson, British Science Fiction Association and Nommo award. He's called many places home, including Lagos, Russia, and now Oxford, Mississippi. Find him at tobiogundiran.com and @tobi_thedreamer on Twitter.

His Novel is: In the Shadow of the Fall 

A cosmic war reignites and the fate of the orisha lies in the hands of an untried acolyte.

Ashâke is an acolyte in the temple of Ifa, yearning for the day she is made a priest and sent out into the world to serve the orisha. But of all the acolytes, she is the only one the orisha refuse to speak to. For years she has watched from the sidelines as peer after peer passes her by and ascends to full priesthood.

Desperate, Ashâke attempts to summon and trap an orisha—any orisha. Instead, she experiences a vision so terrible it draws the attention of a powerful enemy sect and thrusts Ashâke into the center of a centuries-old war that will shatter the very foundations of her world.

LIFTED UNITED welcomes Authors TOMI OYEMAKINDE and ROGBA PAYNE, LIFTed UNITED Book Panel

TOMI OYEMAKINDE

Tomi Oyemakinde grew up in London, before being uprooted at the age of 6 to head across the North Sea to the Netherlands. He is committed to crafting stories centered on Black protagonists thriving across genres, audiences & worlds. When Tomi is not busy writing, he can be found daydreaming about his future dog (namely a Rottweiler named Pan) and geeking out over all things anime. The Changing Man is his debut novel.

The Novel is: WE ARE HUNTED

When 17-year-old Femi Fatona and his older brother are forced to accompany their dad to an island resort, Femi is not looking forward to it. Femi is thrilled to find that the island is bursting with new and spectacular species of plants and animals. But he soon realizes that sometimes pretty exteriors hide ugly truths—truths that are begging to come to light.

But those truths come with a price. And, when the island is thrown into chaos from animals suddenly becoming feral, what was meant to be a peaceful bonding experience quickly becomes the stuff of nightmares. Femi will have to put aside tension with his family and work with other guests, in order to escape the animals, the island, and his own guilt at the part he may have played in all of it.

ROGBA PAYNE

Rogba Payne was born in London and the first of three, Rogba was raised across both London and Lagos, Nigeria. He is a descendant of John Augustus Otunba-Payne; the noted lawyer, writer and murdered prince of the Ijebu-Ode royal family. Rogba studied law in England before returning to Nigeria, where he started his own law firm and writes speculative fiction that examines issues of power, prejudice and spirituality.

The Novel is: THE DANCE OF SHADOWS

Rumi and his family are Odu, stricken with poverty and disparaged by the other tribes. When ruthless agents of the Palmaine – the colonising nation that dominates the continent of Basmine – threaten to destroy the village market, Rumi takes it upon himself to liberate his family. Taking a place in the prestigious Golden Room, where earnings from his music offer a chance at freedom, he shoulders his pride and resentment in a bid to make it to the top.

On what should be Rumi’s greatest night at the Golden Room, his life is turned upside down. A terrifying individual known as the Priest of Vultures attacks Rumi and his family. Before her death, Rumi’s mother, Adunola, solicits the help of a dying god and saves Rumi, setting him on the path to become a Shadowwielder: warriors with the ability to use their shadow as a weapon. But Rumi’s need for vengeance may be more important to him than the future of his people…

LIFTed UNITED welcomes Authors CHIOMA OKEREKE & KIYEMIS, LIFTed UNITED Book Panel

CHIOMA OKEREKE

Okereke was born in Benin City, Nigeria. A poet and short story writer who performed internationally, Okereke had her early work published in Bum Rush, The Page and Callaloo literary magazine. She was shortlisted for the Undiscovered Authors Competition in 2006, as well as for the Daily Telegraph's Write a Novel in a Year Competition 2007.

Her Novel is: Waterbaby

She's the Pearl of Makoko and the world is her oyster. In Makoko, the floating slum off mainland Lagos, Nigeria, nineteen-year-old Baby yearns for an existence where she can escape the future her father has planned for her. With opportunities scarce, Baby jumps at the chance to join a newly launched drone-mapping project, aimed at broadening the visibility of her community.

Then a video of her at work goes viral and Baby finds herself with options she could never have imagined - including the possibility of leaving her birthplace to represent Makoko on the world stage. But will life beyond the lagoon be everything she's dreamed of? Or has everything she wants been in front of her all along?

KIYEMIS

Kiyemis is a poet and lecturer. The name she uses is a pseudonym, combining the first name of her mother with that of her grandmother. In 2012, while at university she began to contribute to Twitter and two years later launched her popular blog Les Bavardages de Kiyémis (Chat by Kiyémis). She currently resides in France.

Her Novel is: Et, refleurir (And, bloom again)

A first novel that pays tribute to the unreasonable dreams, the courage of a heroine leaving Cameroon to fulfill herself in France. Born in the Cameroonian village of Nyokon, Andoun is surrounded by the sound of hoes turning over the soil of groundnut crops. But his dreams are bigger than this life in the fields. Inspired by the story of her grandmother, the poet Kiyémis pays tribute to the unreasonable dreams, the recklessness, the ability to be reborn of those who choose to follow their destiny off the beaten track.

LIFTed UNITED welcomes Authors SOFIA LAPUENTE & JARROD SHUSTERMAN and EMILY WIBBERLEY & AUSTIN SIEGEMUND-BROKA, LIFTed UNITED Book Panel

SOFIA LAPUENTE & JARROD SHUSTERMAN

Sofía Lapuente is an author, screenwriter, and avid world traveler who immigrated from Spain to the United States to realize her dream of storytelling. Since then, she has received a master’s degree in fine arts at UCLA, worked as a producer and casting director on an Emmy nominated show, and received coauthor credits in Gleanings, the fourth installment of the bestselling Arc of a Scythe trilogy, with her partner, Jarrod. Their upcoming novel is a fun thriller called RETRO.

Jarrod Shusterman is the New York Times bestselling coauthor of DRY, ROXY & RETRO. He writes screenplays and YA fiction with his partner Sofía. They have a passion for storytelling across many mediums, with love and multiculturalism as an ethos, and enjoy traveling the world and learning new languages. Together, the couple writes and produces film and television under their production company Dos Lobos Entertainment, and they both teach a course on Creative Writing at UCLA.

They're Novel is: Retro

What starts off as a light-hearted competition to live without modern technology for a year turns into a fight for survival.

To save her struggling family, Luna enters a competition offering reward money to anyone who can successfully live without modern technology for a year. But when this social experiment turns sinister and her classmates start disappearing, her family’s livelihood might not be the only thing she’s in danger of losing.

EMILY WIBBERLEY & AUSTIN SIEGEMUND-BROKA

Emily Wibberley and Austin Siegemund-Broka met and fell in love in high school. Austin went on to graduate from Harvard, while Emily graduated from Princeton. Together, they are the authors of The Roughest Draft and Do I Know You?, as well as several novels about romance for teens. Now married, they live in Los Angeles, where they continue to take daily inspiration from their own love story.

They’re Novel is: Heiress Takes All  

The Inheritance Games meets Ocean's 11 in this thrilling YA adventure about a teenager determined to pull off the perfect heist in the midst of her father’s wedding. Seventeen-year-old Olivia Owens isn't thrilled that her dad's getting remarried...again. She's especially not thrilled that he cheated on her mom, kicked them out of their Rhode Island home, and cut Olivia out of her rightful inheritance. But this former heiress has a plan for revenge. 

Authors K. ANCRUM and BRITTNY N. WILLIAMS, LIFTed UNITED Book Panel

K. ANCRUM

Kayla Ancrum is the author of award-winning thrillers, notably The Wicker King and most recently Lethal Lit: Murder of Crows. K. is a Chicago native passionate about diversity and representation in young adult fiction. She currently writes most of her work in the lush gardens of the Art Institute of Chicago. 

The Novel is: Icarus

Icarus Gallagher is a thief. He steals priceless art and replaces it with his father’s impeccable forgeries. For years, one man—the wealthy Mr. Black—has been their target in revenge for his role in the death of Icarus’s mother. To keep their secret, Icarus adheres to his own strict rules to keep people, and feelings, at bay: Don’t let anyone close. Don’t let anyone touch you. And, above all, don’t get caught.

Until one night, he does. Not by Mr. Black but by his mysterious son, Helios, now living under house arrest in the Black mansion. Instead of turning Icarus in, Helios bargains for something even more dangerous—a friendship that breaks every single one of Icarus’s rules.

BRITTNY N. WILLIAMS

Brittany N. Williams is a SAG-AFTRA & AEA actress, writer, singer, director, and author. She holds a BFA in Musical Theatre from Howard University and an MA in Classical Acting. Brittany has performed across three continents—including a year spent as a principal vocalist at Hong Kong Disneyland—and her writing has been featured on BlackNerdProblems.com, Tor.com, in The Indypendent, The Gambit, Fireside Magazine, and in the Star Wars anthology From a Certain Point of View: The Empire Strikes Back.

The Novel is: Saint-Seducting Gold. 

There’s danger in the court of James I.

Magical metal-worker Joan Sands must reforge the Pact between humanity and the Fae to stop the looming war. As violence erupts across London and the murderous spymaster Robert Cecil closes in, the Fae queen Titanea coerces Joan into joining the royal court while holding her godfather prisoner in the infamous Tower of London.

Now Joan will have to survive deadly machinations both magical and mortal all while balancing the magnetic pull of her two loves—Rose and Nick—before the world as she knows it is destroyed forever.

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Authors YASMIN ANGOE and TERRY BENTON-WALKER, LIFTed UNITED Book Panel

YASMIN ANGOE

Yasmin Angoe is first-generation Ghanaian American and, in 2020, received the Eleanor Taylor Bland Award for Emerging Writers of Color from Sisters in Crime.Yasmin is a former English teacher and lives in South Carolina with her husband Vincent and their four children. The Nena Knight series has been optioned for a TV series by Ink Factory and Fifth Season and is currently in development. 

His Novel is: Not What She Seems

She left home as the local pariah, but when a family tragedy brings her back, she must confront her tortured past-and a new danger in town that no one seems to understand but her. Jac hasn’t been there since the beloved chief of police fell to his death―and all the whispers said she was to blame. That chief was Jac’s father.

TERRY BENTON-WALKER

Terry Benton-Walker is a writer who grew up in rural GA and holds a Bachelor's degree in Industrial Engineering from Georgia Tech and a Master's in Business Administration from Georgia State. He lives in Atlanta with his husband and son. When he’s not writing, he can be found gaming, eating ice cream, or both.

His Novel is: Blood Justice 

Gods meddle and magic will betray you, but this time justice will reign. 

Thirty years ago, a young woman was murdered, a family was lynched, and New Orleans saw the greatest magical massacre in its history. In the days that followed, a throne was stolen from a queen. On the anniversary of these brutal events, Clement and Cristina Trudeau—the sixteen-year-old twin heirs find out their sick mother isn’t sick—she’s cursed. And they’re next!

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Authors:

PHILLIP B. WILLIAMS

Phillip B. Williams is an author from the United States. He is the winner of the 2017 Kate Tufts Discovery Award and a 2017 Lambda Literary award. He is also the recipient of a 2020 creative writing grant from the National Endowment for the Arts, a 2017 Whiting Award, and a 2013 Ruth Lilly Fellowship. He serves as a faculty member at Bennington College and Randolph College low-res MFA.

His Novel is: OURS

Introduces us to an enigmatic woman named Saint, a fearsome conjuror who, in the 1830s, annihilates plantations all over Arkansas to rescue the people enslaved there. She brings those she has freed to a haven of her own creation: a town just north of St. Louis, magically concealed from outsiders, named Ours.

WOLE TALABI

WOLE TALABI is an engineer, writer, and editor from Nigeria. at Clarion West Writers Workshop online and earned her BA at Cornell University. He has been a finalist for the Hugo, Nebula, and Locus awards, as well as the Caine Prize for African Writing and he has won the Nommo award for African speculative fiction and the Sidewise award for Alternate History. He currently lives and works in Australia.

His Novel is: Shigidi and the Brass Head of Obalufon

A mythic tale of disgruntled gods, revenge, and a heist across two worlds, Shigidi is a disgruntled and demotivated nightmare god in the Orisha spirit company, reluctantly answering prayers of his few remaining believers to maintain his existence long enough to find his next drink. When he meets Nneoma, a sort-of succubus with a long and secretive past, everything changes.

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Meet the Authors:

SHUBNUM KHAN

Shubnum Khan is a South African author and artist. She has a degree in Media Studies and a Master's in English from the University of KwaZulu-Natal. She is a writing fellow at OMI’s Ledig House in New York, the Swatch Art Peace Hotel in Shanghai and she is an Octavia Butler Fellow at Jack Jones Literary Arts. She was shortlisted for the Miles Moreland Writing Scholarship for African Writers and selected as a Mellon Fellow at Stellenbosch University in 2019.

Her Novel: The Djinn Waits a Hundred Years

'This sweeping, gorgeously atmospheric novel about a ruined mansion by the sea, the djinn that haunts it, and a curious girl who unearths the tragedy that happened there a hundred years previous.

YVETTE LISA NDLOVU

Yvette Lisa Ndlovu is a Zimbabwean sarungano (storyteller). She is pursuing her MFA at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst where she teaches in the Writing Program. She has taught at Clarion West Writers Workshop online and earned her BA at Cornell University. Her work has been supported by fellowships from the Tin House Workshop, Bread Loaf Writers Workshop, and the New York State Summer Writers Institute.

Her Novel is: Drinking from Graveyard Wells

"Even in death, who has ownership over Black women's bodies?" Questions like this lurk between the lines of this stunning collection of stories that engage with African women's histories, both personal and generational.

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LIFTed UNITED welcomes authors NIKKI PAYNE and ANGELA MONTOYA.

THE AUTHORS

NIKKI PAYNE - Her Book is: Sex, Lies and Sensibility.

ANGELA MONTOYA - Her Book is: Sinner's Isle (debut)

LIFTed UNITED welcomes authors RAE GIANA RASHAD and ERIN ADAMS.

THE AUTHORS

Erin E. Adams is a first-generation Haitian American writer and theatre artist. She received her BA with honors in literary arts from Brown University, her MFA in acting from The Old Globe and University of San Diego Shiley Graduate Theatre Program and her MFA in dramatic writing from NYU Tisch School of the Arts. An award-winning playwright and actor, Adams has called New York City home for the last decade. Jackal is her first novel.

Her Book is: One of You.

Rae Giana Rashad is the author of The Blueprint. She holds an M.Ed in Curriculum and Instruction from the University of Texas at Arlington. Born and raised in Texas with roots in Louisiana, her writing is infused with southern influences and Black history. She lives in the Dallas area with her husband and three children.

Her Book is: The Blueprint (debut)

LIFTed UNITED welcomes 30+ Authors to THE LIFTed BOOK FESTIVAL.

THE AUTHORS

Diane Marie Brown* - Black Candle Women, Rachel Howzell Hall* - What Never Happened, Krystal Marquis - The Davenports, Liselle Sambury - Tender Beasts, Charlene Carr - Hold My Girl, Lauren Blackwood - Wildblood, Melody Simpson - Writing in Color, Shirlene Obubi - Between Friends and Lovers, Jumata Emill - Wander in the Dark, Shawnee Gibbs* - Ghost Roast, Rhasheed Newson* - My Government Means to Kill Me, Riss Neilson - A Love Like the Sun, Julian Winters - As You Walk On By, Kai Harris - What the Fireflies Knew, Lakita Wilson - Sparkle, Brittany Williams - That Self-Same Metal, P.D Clark - The Dead Cat Tail Assassins, Kelis Rowe - Finding Jupiter, Brianna Peppins - Briarcliff Prep, Sophomore Year, Sarah Raughley - The Lady of Rapture, Kimberly Lemming - That Time I Got Drunk and Saved a Demon, James Ramos - Daniel, Deconstructed, Alechia Dow - A Song of Salvation, Olugbemisola Rhuday-Perkovich - Operation Sisterhood, C.M. Lockhart - We Are the Dying Gods, Farrah Rochon - The Hookup Plan, Sarah Dass - It Waits in the Forest, Ty Allan Jackson - Danny Dollar, LaDarrion Williams* - Blood at the Root, Myah Hollis* - Not About a Boy, Shelly Page* - Night of the Living Queers, Arias Williams* - Knucklehead Fred, Karis McPherson* - Midnight Dreem: Mo and The Moonsies, Rimma Onoseta* - How You Grow Wings, Sherri Smith* - American Wings, Jonterri Gadson - This is The Honey, Charnaie Gordon - Etta Extraordinaire, Jessica Lewis - Monstrous *in-person

LIFTed Book Festival weekend, February 24 - 25, 2024 is a groundbreaking event launched by LIFTed UNITED, a literary community organization founded this year to promote greater support for librarians, teachers, writers, readers and authors in Southern California and beyond. The LIFTed Book Festival was born and quickly evolved into a dynamic call to action that will unite more than 30 wonderfully talented authors graciously sharing their stories.

LIFTed’s mission states that Literacy Influences Future Talent and EDucation (LIFTed) to inspire and reshape the narrative while amplifying unique voices of the past, present and future. With this simple truth, LIFTed aims to harness the extraordinary purpose of literature to bridge gaps, explore culture, and inspire change. 

LIFTed UNITED Celebrates Black History Month with its Inaugural Book Festival, themed: Building Bridges, Stronger Together

LIFTed Book Festival will be held at the enthralling Octavia’s Bookshelf, an independent bookstore highlighting BIPOC authors in Pasadena on Feb 24, 2024, from 12pm-3pm for in-store, author panels, book signings, and Q&A. Then on Sunday book sales will be supported by the compelling powerhouse that is Reparations Club, another independent bookstore that centers black and brown authors on February 25, 2024, from 11am-3pm for the second day of virtual events hosted on LIFTed UNITED’s Crowdcast platform with more than 20 authors confirmed to participate. Both establishments are black-owned and women-owned bookstores that are purveyors of knowledge and imagination where visitors and viewers can purchase their books in advance or on the day of the festival.

Panel #1, 11am

Panel #2, 12pm

Panel #3, 1pm

Panel #4, 2pm