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In this bonus episode, I’ll be sharing my thoughts on the book, Queenie (2019) by Candice Carty-Williams and its streaming television series adaptation.

The novel Queenie, published in 2019. is about the life and loves of its lead character, Queenie Jenkins. A 25-year-old British-Jamaican woman living in the UK, we follow her journey through a year from hell. Queenie Jenkins is a 25-year-old Jamaican British woman living in London, straddling two cultures and slotting neatly into neither. She works at a national newspaper, where she’s constantly forced to compare herself to her white middle class peers. After a messy break up from her long-term white boyfriend, Queenie seeks comfort in all the wrong places…including several hazardous men who do a good job of occupying brain space and a bad job of affirming self-worth.

The television adaptation of the book was released in early June 2024 and is available to stream on Hulu, Disney+ and Star+.

For those of you who are new to this platform and my work, I’ve always been extremely interested in spectatorship and what draws us to the things we watch, read, and consume. Over the next few weeks, I’ll be posting bonus episodes where I talk about some of the books written by Black women that I’ve read recently that have been adapted for film and television. I really appreciate these types of formats as it makes work accessible to various audiences as some folx prefer to read while others prefer to watch a narrative interpretation of the thing.

Check out the trailer for the series, Queenie.

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I've been so excited to share insight on a project I've been working on for the past few months. Serving as editor on this project, I wanted to give the Black Writers Read community a preview of the anthology, Heavy is the Crown, which is scheduled for release in August of 2024. It is now available for pre-order.

Produced under the auspices of A Queen’s Narrative, Heavy is the Crown features essays and creative writing contributed by twenty-two women, femme-identified, and trans folx from across the country. Topics explored in this book include experiences with addiction, recovery, sexual assault, toxic workplaces, journeys as mothers and caregivers, pregnancy, immigration, identity, identities, domestic violence, generational trauma, incarceration, suicide, suicide ideation, and mental health. Authors explored their healing journeys and life lessons learned while offering advice for others who are going through something that might be similar.

In this episode, you'll hear from eight women who contributed their stories to the anthology in a mix of brief interviews and readings of excerpts from poems and creative nonfiction included in the anthology: T’challa Williams, Laverne Ben-Mansel, Yaya Gloria Agosto, Nzima Hutchings, Regine Jackson, Queenpen, Gri Saex and Barbara McClane.

Based in Western Massachusetts, A Queen's Narrative is a BIPOC women-led empowerment company whose mission is to define narrative power and use narrative storytelling to empower women and girls to become their best version. Using various platforms like blogs, newsletters, anthologies, events, and youth development programming help them in achieving the vision of amplifying the voices of women and girls for the rest of the world to hear. A Queen's Narrative is especially committed to providing free thematic youth development workshops that strengthen youth skills in public speaking, teamwork, leadership, and creative expression.

Special thanks to Samantha Hamilton, co-founder of A Queen’s Narrative and a contributor to the anthology, every person involved in A Queen’s Narrative and to each of the twenty-two women who have contributed their stories to Heavy is the Crown.

To learn more about A Queen’s Narrative, please visit aqueensnarrative.com.

For those of you who are local to Western Massachusetts, please join us in person on Sunday, August 18 at 11 a.m. for Brunch over Books, the official launch celebration of Heavy is the Crown. Tickets are available by visiting aqueensnarrative.com. By joining us for the event, you’ll be able to meet some of the authors and hear more about the process of creating this anthology. Print versions of the book will be available after this book launch event.

Pre-order your copy of Heavy is the Crown TODAY by visiting: https://aqueensnarrative.com/heavy-is-the-crown.

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This bonus episode features excerpts from five interviews from Season Four - those that we had with authors who write memoir. Over the summer, we will be revisiting conversations that cover the nuisances of genre, form, and style - offering mini masterclasses filled with advice and insight from some of our guests. This retrospective offers insight on source material, exploring the effects of traumatic experiences, self-reflecting on formative moments in life, and honoring the past. Memoir, which is considered creative nonfiction, offers writers a space to tackle difficult situations with grace and humility - also a chance to implore the mechanics of fiction to expand upon memory and circumstances.

Included on this bonus episode are:

Nada Samih-Rotondo (Writers Across the Margins, S4 E7) is a multi-genre Palestinian American writer, educator, and mother. Her writing has appeared in Masters Review, Gulf Stream Literary Magazine, and Squat Birth Journal. Our conversation featured her debut memoir, ALL WATER HAS PERFECT MEMORY, which blends folklore and history taking readers through the author's ancestral origins-and explores generations of silence and eventually, connection.

Minda Honey's (S4 E6) essays on politics and relationships have appeared in the Los Angeles Review of Books, the Washington Post, the Guardian, the Oxford American, Teen Vogue, and Longreads. Her debut memoir, THE HEARTBREAK YEARS (Little A, October 2023), is a hilarious and intimate portrait of a Black woman finding who she is and who she wants to be, one bad date at a time.

K E Garland (S4 E8) uses personal essays and memoir to de-marginalize women's experiences with an intent to highlight and humanize contemporary issues. She has published essays with Midnight & Indigo, Raising Mothers, and For Harriet. We chatted about her debut memoir, IN SEARCH OF A SALVE: MEMOIR OF A SEX ADDICT.

Wakisha "Kisha" Stewart 's (S4 E18) SONATA FOR A DAMAGED HEART recounts the complicated professional and emotional journey that Kisha takes from heart failure to being selected in 2022 by the American Heart Association as one of twelve spokeswomen advocating for women’s heart health in its national education campaign, Reclaim Your Rhythm.

Lisa Braxton (S4 E19) is the author of the award-winning DANCING BETWEEN THE RAINDROPS: A DAUGHTER'S REFLECTION ON LOVE AND LOSS. This memoir in essays is a powerful meditation on grief, a deeply personal mosaic of a daughter’s remembrances of beautiful, challenging and heartbreaking moments of life with her family. It speaks to anyone who has lost a loved one and is trying to navigate the world without them while coming to terms with complicated emotions.

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