Showing results by publisher "Audible Studios" in African American

Ananda is on her way to the top. A frail heart and mistrust of men once took her soul to the bottom. Her sassy personality is how she forges her way through life and remains in control. Until she meets the man most women's dreams are made of. Ananda can't believe she'll finally get a happily ever after - until a tawdry secret reveal splits her world in two and forces her to realize that dreams are for children, and she is a grown woman now.

“The poet is endemic with life itself,” Will Alexander once said, and in this searing pas de trois, Refractive Africa: Ballet of the Forgotten, he has exemplified this vital candescence with a transpersonal amplification worthy of the Cambrian explosion. “This being the ballet of the forgotten,” he writes as diasporic witness, “of refracted boundary points as venom.” The volume’s opening poem pays homage to the innovative Nigerian-Yoruban author Amos Tutuola; it ends with an encomium to the modernist Malagasy poet Jean-Joseph Rabearivelo.

It's been years since their parents were murdered. Twin sisters Shia and Leigh are trying to readjust to life while caring for their baby sister, Remi. With the exception of Leigh's angry, dramatic mood swings every now and then, everything seems to be going great. That is until Demetri, a mysterious stranger, enters their midst and falls right in the path of the newly single Shia. After dating Trent for so long, she is looking for a man to treat her like a queen, and Demetri is heaven sent...until inexplicable things begin to happen.

Cleis Press's Best Lesbian Erotica and Best Women's Erotica series top bestseller lists, raising and exceeding the standards and expectations of readers of erotic fiction with each new edition. Now the African-American women's erotica market will discover the same level of literate, provocative sex writing in this debut collection of a new series. Best Black Women's Erotica showcases the hottest, most arousing, and most surprising erotic literature by African-American women writers.

No one could have predicted even two years ago that an African American would take the oath of office as president of the United States in January of 2009. For many, the occasion marks the climax to the civil rights movement and the fulfillment of Martin Luther King, Jr.'s dream that Americans could be judged on the content of their character and not the color of their skin. This collection, with about 400 letters from Americans of all walks of life, is being created to stand as a symbol of this exciting moment in history.

In Bodyminds Reimagined Sami Schalk traces how Black women's speculative fiction complicates the understanding of bodyminds - the intertwinement of the mental and the physical - in the context of race, gender, and (dis)ability. Bridging Black feminist theory with disability studies, Schalk demonstrates that this genre's political potential lies in the authors' creation of bodyminds that transcend reality's limitations.

Jada and Dolla were the ideal couple. Through thick and thin, Jada was a ride-or-die companion for her street hustla, Dolla. She fought everyone and everything off - foes, obstacles, and side chicks. Jada was a straight shooter and a force to be reckoned with. She loved her man, family, and crew with all of her might...and then her world came tumbling down. Being the typical man, Dolla ruined their relationship with one unprotected act. Now, Dolla is a single father of twins, and Jada is alone, after nearly 10 years of faithfully standing by Dolla’s side.

Once I was released from prison, I thought that all of the heartache was over. I was back with my family, and I assumed that the nightmare had come to an end. Little did I know, the nightmare had actually just begun. Everybody around me was keeping secrets that would send me right back to a dark place, a place way worse than the prison that I had just emerged from. This time of my life was supposed to be my "happily ever after the bullshit." In fact, I was so happy that I didn't see the deceit that was happening right under my nose.

Brilliant but troubled historian John Washington returns to his hometown of Chaneysville, Pennsylvania—just north of the Mason-Dixon Line—to learn more about the death of his father. Washington discovers that his father was researching a mystery of his own: why 13 escaped slaves reached freedom in Chaneysville only to die there, for reasons forgotten or never known at all.

Apparently, I had been naive the entire time that I was with King. Who knew that he had been keeping such a secret from me? Just my luck, as I hid from him to gather my thoughts and deal with the pain, yet another crushing blow to my happiness was revealed. I then realized that I could no longer live for King; it was time to live for Kennedy. Little did I know, Jada was suffering the same heartbreak that I was. Dolla had torn her heart into two. My girl was miserable, but she didn’t run as I did; she was trying her best to inflict the same pain on Dolla as he had on her.

Simone Campbell is the epitome of crazy and the ultimate villain. Take a look back into her high school and college days, when she was causing just as much turmoil and chaos. This story's ending is only the beginning of Secrets of a Side Bitch 4, and the dots will connect even more for key players in Simone's vindictive games of love.

Eddie is arrogant, quite vain, and slick at the mouth - or simply confident, discerning, and unafraid to speak his mind, if you ask him. Astrid is annoyingly perky, unpolished, and a little delusional about Eddie’s attraction to her - or, according to her, energetic, authentic, and absolutely spot-on about the driving factor of a certain local tattoo artist’s “hatred” of her. Undeniable attraction. They may think they’re opposite but have more in common than they think.

Fallon is the definition of a woman with her “ish” together. Flourishing business, a home of her own in a new city, a relationship on the verge of marriage, and the opportunity to create a life that looks exactly as she wants it. She’s ready, and willing, to embark on a new adventure. She just didn’t expect to have to do it on her own. Business is great, but the home? A total mess. The relationship? Dead in the water. The “new adventure”? Looking more like a disaster. Until Sean.

In haunted poems glinting with laughter, Saeed Jones explores the public and private betrayals of life as we know it. With verve, wit, and elegant craft, Jones strips away American artifice in order to reveal the intimate grief of a mourning son and the collective grief bearing down on all of us.

Two years after leaving the neighborhood to pursue an opportunity she couldn't pass up, Sydnee Scott is back. She's smart, sassy, and maybe a little bit spoiled, but she's ready to reclaim her place in her family, and in the family business.... Or not. That spot is currently filled by Harlan Ramsey, head manager. He came to Stacks - the man, and the restaurant named after him - looking for connection, and he got it, in the form of a surrogate family.

Living under Reese Madaris' roof makes LaKenna James the envy of every woman in town. But Reese's offer of a place to stay is strictly platonic - just until Kenna's new condo is completed. He has no idea that his best friend has been attracted to him since college, and Kenna plans to keep it that way. Ever since his cousin Blade got married, Reese has become Houston's most eligible bachelor - and a magnet for gold diggers.

Prelude to Bruise is a song from a tightrope, balancing ecstatic existence and the chaos that always threatens to engulf a life on the margins. How do we reckon our past without being ravaged by it? How do we use people, their bodies, to express ourselves? Danger is everywhere in these poems, but never overwhelms them; the poet is always an anchor on the other side. And his story carries us relentlessly along.

After a childhood spent moving from army base to army base, independent-minded Nettie Brooms is determined to secure a stable life - and never become involved with a military man. Then she meets incredibly handsome and charming Ashton Sinclair, a dedicated colonel in the U.S. Marines who's intent on capturing her heart - no matter what it takes. Now Nettie's wondering how a man she swore she would avoid could so easily test her resolve by igniting an irresistible passion she can't walk away from.

Jahzara, Honey, and Tomeka are best friends 'til the end. The three of them would die for each other and have always had each other's back. They each desperately wanted better lives and were willing to work extra hard in order to attain it. Relationship issues in their personal lives bring the girls closer together than ever before - especially when Jahzara brings a business proposal to the table. Betrayal, lies, jealousy, and murder is only the beginning of what they have to overcome.

Jean "Stevie" Stevenson lives in Chicago's South Side, a neighborhood that acutely feels the social changes of the 1960s. Curious and witty, bold but naïve, Stevie ponders questions such as what makes good hair and which skin shade is better in light of "black is beautiful". Amid the War on Poverty; the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr.; race riots; and the Black Power movement, Stevie grows into a socially aware young adult with a burgeoning sexuality and pride in her identity.