African American Anthology

Side-splittingly funny, spine-chillingly spooky, this companion to a Newbery Honor - winning anthology The Dark Thirty is filled with bad characters who know exactly how to charm. From the author's note that takes us back to McKissack's own childhood when she would listen to stories told on her front porch...to the captivating introductions to each tale, in which the storyteller introduces himself and sets the stage for what follows...to the 10 entertaining tales themselves, here is a worthy successor to McKissack's The Dark Thirty.

Even the saved struggle when navigating their way through love. This much could definitely be said for the Fold family's youngest child and only son, Chadwick. Looking for love was never on Chad's list of things to do, until he held Taya in his arms on a dance floor and watched God laugh at his plans. She was beautiful in a way that caught his eyes and his heart. Foreign feelings that wouldn't fade had him questioning his sanity.

Henry Dumas' fiction is a masterful synthesis of myth and religion, culture and nature, mask and identity. From the Deep South to the simmering streets of Harlem, his characters embark on surreal and mythic quests armed only with wit, words, and wisdom. Championed by Toni Morrison, Walter Mosley, and Quincy Troupe, Dumas' books have long been out of print. All of his short fiction is collected here, for the first time, and includes several previously unpublished stories.

The heralded Queen of Hip-Hop Lit presents an addictive collection of celebrated urban authors with their fingers on the pulse of the streets. Street lit’s finest female voices—Keisha Starr, Tysha, LaKesa Cox, and Monique S. Hall—deliver searing stories about women who make hard sacrifices to stay on top of their hustle and seize the power, money, and fame they can’t live without.

The nine tales in Give My Love to the Savages illuminate the multifaceted Black experience, exploring the thorny intersections of race, identity, and Black life through an extraordinary cast of characters. From the absurd to the starkly realistic, these stories take aim at the ironies and contradictions of the American racial experience. Chris Stuck traverses the dividing lines, and attempts to create meaning from them in unique and unusual ways.

"Stay Scheming": Karlie Houston is broke, betrayed - and running from a bounty on her head. Turns out the real owners of the payday loan office she ripped off weren't cool with her idea of employment bennies. "Who Can You Trust?": Struggling bank teller Porsha has no time for Cinderella fantasies. She's working overtime to keep her tragedy-struck family off the streets. But her new boyfriend, Game, is smart, seductive - and sure-thing successful. So why not work his rock-solid plan to steal from her bank?

Spanning the early 1900s up to modern times, the connected stories here trace the intersecting lives of travelers, expatriates, and local folks in ways that shock, illuminate, and reveal. From the American photographer who finds her world disturbed by new forms of love and lust, to a charismatic priest confronted by the earthly perks of fame and stardom, the diverse mix of characters are united by the universal search for love and understanding - a challenge on an island simmering with issues of politics, power, and race.

In this first ever short story collection, New York Times bestselling author Francis Ray takes us on five steamy, sexy adventures. From a timid, dowdy duckling who turns into a confident, sexy swan which sends her into the arms of a handsome artist; to a bridesmaid’s explosive encounter with the best man; to an unproven actress who is being wooed to the stage by a handsome Broadway director.

A striking mosaic of prose, poetry, and dramatic dialogue, Jean Toomer’s Cane has come to be considered a masterpiece of the Harlem Renaissance. Structured as a series of vignettes ripe with longing, passion, violence, and revenge, the haunting novel gives a powerful voice to the interior lives of African Americans in the rural South and urban North. Championed for its unsparing honesty and psychological insight by such luminaries as Langston Hughes, Richard Wright, Alice Walker, and Maya Angelou, Cane shines as a beacon to generations of African-American writers.

Vega’s rocky introduction to the music industry leaves her second-guessing the decision she’s made to follow her dreams and her first love from New York to Los Angeles. Borne’s alarming distance has caused her eyes and interest to wander onto someone new, someone bittersweet...Leigh Knight.

Charles thought he had it all - until a devastating betrayal and the shattering loss of his family drove him to living on the streets. Beatrice is the first person who's truly cared about him in a long time. Little by little, he's finding reasons to care about rebuilding his life. Drawn to Charles and the temptation of a second chance, Beatrice is faced with the hardest of decisions. But his insight, secrets - and the reminder of a profound past encounter - will give her unexpected inspiration, gratitude, and the strength she needs to find her way - perhaps in time for Christmas.

Ancient folklore and modern myth come together in these stories by author Craig Laurance Gidney. Here are found the struggles of a medieval Japanese monk seduced by a mischievous fairy, and a young slave who finds mystery deep within the briar patch of an antebellum plantation. Gidney offers a gay teen obsessed with his patron saint, Lena Horne, and, in the title story, an ailing tourist seeks escape at a distant shore but never reckons on encountering an African sea god. Rich, poetic, dark and disturbing, these are distinctive tales not soon forgotten.

Tales of the Out & the Gone reflects the astounding evolution of America's most provocative literary anti-hero. The first section of the audiobook, War Stories, offers six stories enmeshed in the vola-tile politics of the 1970s and 1980s. The second section, Tales of the Out & the Gone, reveals Amiri Baraka's increasing literary adventurousness, combining an unpredictable language play with a passion for abstraction and psychological exploration.

Poet Jean Toomer’s short-story and poetry collection.

Originally published in 1964, this collection of 16 stories includes three linked sets of stories about the Carey, Bedlow, and Dunford families. They represent the earliest work of William Melvin Kelley and provided a rich source of stories and characters who were to fill out his later novels. Spanning generations from the Deep South during Reconstruction to New York City in the 1960s, these insightful stories depict African American families - their struggles, their heartbreak, and their love.

These 13 stories by the author of The Invisible Man "approach the elegance of Chekhov" ( The Washington Post) and provide "early explorations of [Ellison's] lifelong fascination with the 'complex fate' and 'beautiful absurdity' of American identity" (John Callahan).

Many people seem to think bisexual women have a magical ability to have their cake and eat it, too. Best Bisexual Women's Erotica offers a salacious glimpse into the sex lives of bisexual women as they really are-passionate, sexy, romantic. From the first captivating moment, you'll find yourself deeply involved with the characters in these stories - and so turned on you'll need some privacy just to finish each story.

Best Black Women's Erotica 2 showcases the hottest, most arousing and surprising erotic literature by African American women writers. Representing a wide range of styles and voices, these 20 stories offer a steamy assortment of fiction from popular authors, including C.C. Carter, T'Ashia Asante, Dorothy Randal Gray, Carol Smith Passariello, Kiini Ibura Salaam, Shawn F. Rhea, Opal Palmer Adisa, R. Erica Doyle, Tara Betts, and Tracy Price-Thompson among others.

With heart-stopping stories by Zane, Tananarive Due and Steven Barnes, Joy M. Copeland, Robert Fleming, Terence Taylor, Francine Lewis, Brandon Massey, and 12 other established or up-and-coming writers, Dark Dreams is a must-have contemporary anthology for fans of the supernatural.

In Kenya, when a young American man falls in love with the sophisticated daughter of an African chief, their marriage is strong. But tradition will soon put their union to the supreme test. Gripping and soulful, A Woman's Worth is a tale of cultural divisions, emotional wounds, and a love that struggles to transcend them.