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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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In celebration of Juneteenth, we revisit our conversations with fiction authors featured during Season Four to reflect on approaches to creating worlds for our characters and what informs this work.

Included in this bonus episode are:

David Jackson Ambrose (S4 E17) writes on the intersections of race, sexuality and generational trauma. During our conversation, which took place during National Mental Health Awareness Month, we had a chance to talk about David’s three books, State of the Nation, A Blind Eye, and Unlawful DISorder.

Kerika Fields (S4 E5) ​​is a Brooklyn, New York-based writer and photographer whose work has been published and exhibited widely. We talked about her novella, With Your Bad Self, a coming-of-age love story set in an economically challenged Brooklyn on the precipice of WWII where 'Love Conquers All' may not be true this time.

Donna Hemans (S4 E10) is the author of three novels, River Woman, Tea by the Sea, and The House of Plain Truth. She lives in Maryland, and is also the owner of DC Writers Room, a co-working studio for writers based in Washington, D.C. Central to our conversation was Donna’s recently released novel, The House of Plain Truth , a lyrical, lush, evocative story about a fractured Jamaican family and a daughter determined to reclaim her home.

Chana Shinegba's (S4 E13) her debut novel, Dancer in the Bullpen blends elements of autobiographical fiction with magical realism. The novel speaks to those who, like Chana, have grappled with their sense of uniqueness and emerged empowered to embrace their true selves. Dancer in the Bullpen is scheduled for release on June 21, 2024.

Aina Hunter (S4 E3) is an artist based in Western Massachusetts with a background in journalism, Food Studies and Japanese. We talked about her debut novel (science fiction), Charlotte and the Chickenman: the Inevitable Nigrescence of Charlotte-Noa Tibbit.

T.H. Moore (S4 E9) is a Southwest Philadelphia native who relocated to Camden, New Jersey at the age of ten. Blending his experience living and working abroad combined with imagination helped formulate the basis of, and inspired him to write his first novel, The End Justifies the Means. His forthcoming memoir, Ghetto Bastard, scheduled for release in July of 2024.

Angie Chatman (S4 E12) is a writer, storyteller and 2020 Pushcart Prize nominee having written short stories and essays for a variety of publications and platforms including Insider Personal Finance, Brevity, TaintTaintTaint Magazine, and The Rumpus. Born and raised on Chicago's South Side, Angie now lives in the Dorchester neighborhood of Boston with her family.

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