African American Southern Fiction

In the 1950s, as a continuation of Moses, Man of the Mountain, Zora Neale Hurston penned a historical novel about one of the most infamous figures in the Bible, Herod the Great. In Hurston’s retelling, Herod is not the wicked ruler of the New Testament who is charged with the “slaughter of the innocents,” but a forerunner of Christ—a beloved king who enriched Jewish culture and brought prosperity and peace to Judea.

In this episode of Side Piece Chronicles, Tyrone Price finds himself torn between Samantha, the mother of his unborn twins, and Tammy, the woman his heart desires. However, Samantha's husband, Anthony refuses to let his wife go so easily.

Isaac is at a crossroads in his young life. Growing up in Missouri, the son of a caustic, hard-driving father, he was conditioned to suppress his artistic pursuits and physical desires, notions that didn’t align with a traditional view of masculinity. But now, in late ’80s Chicago, Isaac has finally carved out a life of his own. He is sensitive and tenderhearted and has built up the courage to seek out a community. Yet just as he begins to embrace who he is, two social catalysts—the AIDS crisis and Rodney King’s attack—collectively extinguish his hard-earned joy.

I felt like Cinderella, but instead of leaving my shoe, I took my heart and ran. ❤︎❤︎ Renee Long ❤︎❤︎ I want a man, but not one who insights trouble. So, I do the next best thing… I pretend like one night in the billionaire’s arms wasn’t enough to render me hooked. Now, because of my dumb ex, I’ve got to be stuck in a house with a man my body craves. ❤︎❤︎ Jackson Hedges ❤︎❤︎ She’s a cop, and I’m a bad boy with good intentions. She’s got scars, and I make scars into tattoos. Just when I thought I had her… I got set back by a clown who took an ...

Bad habits feel better than the pains of love and commitment to Imani. Maybe she’s just not the relationship type.Imani Jones bit off more than she could chew. After meeting Vincent, she found herself caught up in her feelings, something that she never let happen. What’s worse, the commitment-phobe in Imani led her to run for the hills when their one-night stand produced a pregnancy. After finding herself alone, again, Imani delves back into the bad habits that got her into all kinds of trouble in the first place. These habits could possible cause her to lose her daughter, Zion. Vincent...

The Lovett family was just like any other working class family trying to live the American dream, but when tragedy strikes it sends them on a new adventure to try and rebuild their lives. They move from the Windy City of Chicago Illinois, to a small town down south. Right on the Bible Belt. There, they purchase their dream home and open up a family practice. Everyone is so friendly and the Lovett's fit right in. There's just one thing... nobody stays out after the sunset. The Lovett's chalk this up to small town superstition. That is, until one of the kid's friends comes up missing! As if ...

Can you have a soul mate without a soul? After getting a fresh start, Noxie choose to focus on herself and her dreams. But MyKisha could change all that. After one night, the table turn, and she finds herself in an unwanted threesome. A threesome that could not only cause her more heartache, but potentially lead to a war. MyKisha just wants to be loved and appreciated, and she found that in Noxie. But her ex refuses to let go, and after lies are told, she may just be stuck in a situation that could make her miss out on her one chance at love. Shyne wants the power, and knows that MyKisha is...

A wedding and a murder...Star football player and NFL hopeful, Michael “Bumper” Hackett is getting married. Word’s going around that it’s a shotgun wedding, and there just might be some truth to it, seeing that the bride-to-be is showing a baby bump. But before the ceremony can even get started, the poor groom collapses from what appears to be an asthma attack. Unfortunately, things aren’t always what they seem. Romaine knew it was a bad idea to have a wedding at the funeral home, but newly elected justice of the peace and sole proprietor of the Ball Funeral Home & Crematorium, ...

When summoned to Georgetown, South Carolina, sisters Mariah Clark and Sabrina Holland both assume their ailing grandfather's health has gotten worse. Neither expects their grandmother's undeniable request—save the family restaurant. Mariah is at a crossroad in her life. After being dumped by her husband and forced to walk away from their diner that she helped rescue from bankruptcy, bitter feelings consume her. Even though the restaurant has been in the family for eighty-six years, giving her all to another struggling business isn't something she wants to do.

Gracie Hollaman finally decides to follow the voices in her head. She leaves behind her family for the small African-American town of Rockrun to join Mama Toot and Mattie. Together, the three will learn to shed their pasts to begin life anew.

Award-winning author Wanda Morris returns with a powerful, haunting thriller following a lawyer who after the mysterious disappearance of a local landowner and the death of his sister just months before, uncovers a conspiracy that dates back to Reconstruction and persists in half the United States today.

Summer 1995: Ten-year-old Joan, her mother, and her younger sister flee her father’s explosive temper and seek refuge at her mother’s ancestral home in Memphis. This is not the first time violence has altered the course of the family’s trajectory. Half a century earlier, Joan’s grandfather built this majestic house in the historic Black neighborhood of Douglass—only to be lynched days after becoming the first Black detective in the city. Joan tries to settle into her new life, but family secrets cast a longer shadow than any of them expected.

Young Adam, who has been raised in Harlem by his white father, George, and Black mother, Thelma, goes back to his parents' home state of Alabama to participate in the voting rights campaign, only to be brutalized in the Bloody Sunday melee. He is still recovering from this when he is struck a heavy emotional blow, learning for the first time—and in the cruelest way imaginable—of a family secret that sends him spiraling and plunging further into danger. To save him, and any hope for their relationship, Thelma is drawn back, for the first time in twenty years, to the South.

Returning to the city that inspired his first prize-winning book, Lost in the City, Jones has filled this new collection with people who call Washington, D.C., home. Yet it is not the city's power brokers that most concern him but rather its ordinary citizens.

It’s a hot and sticky Sunday in Lafayette, Louisiana, and Glory has settled into her usual after-church routine, meeting gamblers at the local coffee shop, where she works as a small-time bookie. Sitting at her corner table, Glory hears that her best friend—a nun beloved by the community—has been found dead in her apartment. When the police declare the mysterious death a suicide, Glory is convinced that there must be more to the story and, with her reluctant daughter in tow, launches a shadow investigation in a town of oil tycoons, church gossips, and a rumored voodoo priestess.

So begins award-winning poet DéLana R. A. Dameron’s debut novel, Redwood Court. The baby of the family, Mika Tabor spends much of her time in the care of loved ones, listening to their stories and witnessing their struggles. On Redwood Court, the cul-de-sac in the all-Black working-class suburb of Columbia, South Carolina, where her grandparents live, Mika learns important lessons from the people who raise her.

A young black woman, Jamila Mosely, is killed, but slain even worse by media coverage that refuses to let her be an innocent victim. Per usual, they air her most questionable photo, and hint at sketchy associations to portray her as a victim to her own devices. Detective Sawyer takes it personal. Sawyer becomes obsessed with uncovering the truth and restoring dignity to the name of a young lady not much older than her daughter Star. And yet there is still the unresolved issues with Chosen, Travis, Duke, and even her struggling marriage to contend; Sawyer has a full plate. Under the ...

Bear it or perish yourself. Those are the words Helen Jean hears that fateful night in her cousin’s outhouse that change the trajectory of her life. Spanning decades, Perish tracks the choices Helen Jean—the matriarch of the Turner family—makes and the way those choices have rippled across generations, from her children to her grandchildren and beyond. This family’s “reunion” unearths long-kept secrets and forces each member to ask themselves important questions about who is deserving of forgiveness and who bears the cross of blame.

Casey Black needs an escape. When her picture-perfect vow renewal ceremony ends in her being left at the altar, the former model turned social media influencer has new fame--the kind she never wanted. An embarrassing viral video has cost her millions of followers, and her seven-year marriage is over. With her personal and business lives in shambles, Casey runs from New York City to South Carolina's Lowcountry hoping to find long-lost family. Family who can give her more answers about her past than her controlling mom-slash-manager has ever been willing to share.

Eric "Pharaoh" Wright is an up-and-coming producer and hip hop artist in the City of Birmingham. As his star begins to rise, he finds it harder and harder to find love. Groupies are good for one thing, and the women that he takes interest in can't deal with his schedule. Accepting his fate of being alone, he throws himself into his dream. Until he meets Gold Harris, a dope chick with a heart that matches her name. They hit it off instantly. Her not being impressed by his fame makes her that much more appealing. She accepts him as is and doesn't trip when he's not available because she's ...