Black Zephyr Publishing

My grandma and my aunt.

👍🏾 ♻️

To Jamyla Bolden of Ferguson, Missouri Naomi Shihab Nye 1 Fifty years before you did your homework in Ferguson 2 we did our homework in Ferguson, thinking life was fair. 3 If we didn't do our homework we might get a U— Unsatisfactory. 4 Your dad says you didn't even get to see the rest of the world yet. 5 I've seen too much of the world and don't know 6 how to absorb this-a girl shot through a wall—U! U! U! 7 I'd give you some of my years if I could-you should not 8 have died that night-there was absolutely no reason 9 for you to die. I'd like to be standing in a sprinkler with you, 10 the way we used to do, kids before air conditioning, 11 safe with our friends in the drenching of cool, 12 safe with our shrieks and summer shorts and happy hair, 13 where can we go without thinking of you now? 14 Did you know there was a time Ferguson was all a farm? 15 It fed St. Louis...giant meadows of corn, sweet potatoes, 16 laden blackberry bushes, perfect tomatoes in crates, 17 and everything was shovels and hoes, and each life, 18 even the little tendril of a vine, mattered, 19 and you did your homework and got an S for Satisfactory, 20 Super, instead of the S of Sorrow now stamped on our hands. Lines 14-18 highlighted

The first times I read this poem, I paid little attention to the description of Ferguson. The last few years; I’ve been thinking about planting seeds and what grows when you do. Ferguson is a space that cultivates life & growth, & also death + violence.

It’s the juxtaposition, man.

#PoemADayJuly

When I teach this poem, it’s always really visceral, the juxtaposition between innocence, rural ease, and carefree life and death and destruction. My students talk about how they feel like they’re always once second away from the end of their childhood.

#PoemADayJuly

We just recorded our ⁨@WritingWhileBlackPodcast⁩ chat w/author @eddiedeewrites.bsky.social / theaffinitysaga.com

Can't wait to listen when it goes live.

If you are not subscribe to the #WritingWhileBlack podcast on here or on Spotify, you missing out. Go on and get to listening! 😁

#blackbooks

DARVO, Gaslighting, and the Queer Silence: How "Nina’s Whisper" Confronts LGBTQ Intimate Partner Violence Book Review: Nina’s Whisper by Sheena C. Howard A Decolonial Lens on Intimate Partner Violence and the DARVO Playbook

DARVO, Gaslighting, and the Queer Silence: How "Nina’s Whisper" Confronts LGBTQ Intimate Partner Violence

Book Review: Nina’s Whisper by @drsheenahoward.bsky.social

A Decolonial Lens on Intimate Partner Violence and the DARVO Playbook

breezeharper.com/darvo-gaslig...

#BookSky #BlackBookSky

✊Happy Juneteenth, everyone!  We’re celebrating by spotlighting incredible Black authors
📚 Wake by Rebecca Hall
📚 Blood At the Root by @itsladarrion.bsky.social
📚 The Reformatory by @tananarivedue.bsky.social
📚 Kindred Graphic Novel by

@abramscomicarts.bsky.social
@simonandschuster.bsky.social

Bindery Books | GIVEAWAY: Signed copies of The Blood Gi... Dismantling systems of oppression one book at a time.

To enter this giveaway, I asked people to drop their favorite Black FMC. YALL!!! The book Recs 😍 Go check them out. And lemme tell you, the breehive showed up for sure 🤣🤣

#booksky

[PREORDER] *SIGNED* Positive Obsession: The Life and Times of Octavia E. Butler by Susana M. Morris [INVENTORY NOTICE]: Orders including this title will ship between 08-19-2025 AND 08-27-2025 after the 08-19-2025 publication date. A magnificent cultural biography that charts the life of one of our g...

What a great Indie Bookstore Day to pre-order a SIGNED copy of my former colleague @susanamorris.bsky.social long-waited book on Octavia Butler, POSITIVE OBSESSION, from @sistahscifi.bsky.social !

Life tip: plot twists have *nothing* on time-travelers.

Or is it …everything? 🤔

#BookSky #plottwist

"Women of Afrofuturism" is at SFO Today I've been feeling especially optimistic and creative. One reason: I slept really well last night. I'm grateful for that! Another reason: on my way to Los Angeles I passed through the San Franci...

So many feelings! My writing inspiration is a lot bigger than my free time today. I hope to go more in depth soon.

Also: Check out "Women of Afrofuturism" at the @sfomuseum.bsky.social

breezeharper.com/women-of-afr...

#Afrofuturism #SFOMuseum #SFO #SF #SFevents #events #museums #museumsky

🖤✏️ 💙📚
"Black indie authors and publishers to pay attention to
- Amanda Weaver -- www.amandaweavernovels.com

- Antoine Bandele -- www.antoinebandele.com

- Deston Munden -- linktr.ee/AuthorDJMunden

- Row House Publishing -- www.rowhousepublishing.com

- E.A. Noble -- eanoble.substack.com
..."

#Bookstagram #BookSky #KidLit #ChildrensBooks #STEMBooks #EngineeringBooks #RobotBooks #RepresentationMatters #DiversifySTEM #BookTok #BlackBookTok #BlackBookSky
🖤✏👩🏾‍🎓👩🏾‍🔬👩🏾‍🏫👷🏾‍♀️👩🏾‍🔧👩🏾‍💻🤖

Reclaiming the Stars Through Comanche Futurism: An Interview with Weyodi OldBear Weyodi OldBear’s novel As Many Ships As Stars is a sweeping work of Indigenous science fiction, reimagining the Quahadi band’s first encounter with horses, not on the Southern Plains, but across the c...

Reclaiming the Stars Through Comanche Futurism: An Interview with @weyodi.bsky.social

redpopnews.com/reclaiming-t...

#redpopnews #indigisky #asmanyshipsasstars #weyodi

Four Questions for Tia Williams We spoke with Tia Williams about her first YA romance, 'Audre & Bash Are Just Friends,' and writing across genres and age ranges.

Tia Williams spoke with PW about her first YA romance, ‘Audre & Bash Are Just Friends,’ the importance of writing about mental health for young audiences, and if readers can catch her back on the YA scene again anytime soon

It’s National Black Author’s Day and I’m so blessed to be doing this for four years and counting!

I write ✍️ books set in the South that look like me and talk like me and give kids a glimpse of hoodoo, magic and possibility.

#booksky #blackbooksky

linktr.ee/srmilesauthor

😏

@Brioxy | Sistah Scifi Book Club: A People's Future of the United States.. Calling all BIPOC lovers of speculative fiction!

🗓️ Wednesday, April 30, 2025
🕕 6:00 PM – 6:50 PM PDT
🌐 Online (link at www.sistahscifi.com)

@JohnJosephAdams @OneWorld

#sistahscifi

gonna definitely tell my kids this is Sinners.

Oakland Is the Heartbeat of LaTajh Simmons-Weaver’s Cinematic Universe At SFFILM, the rising director premieres ‘Budget Paradise,’ about an artist navigating their gentrifying hometown.

LaTajh Simmons-Weaver's new short film 'Budget Paradise' follows a Black nonbinary painter as they roam through Oakland, facing rejection after rejection as they look for a quiet place to paint. It screens this weekend at Marina Theatre:

Image of Clarence O. Smith with a purple color overlay. Below the image text reads: 1933-2025 Clarence O. Smith, co-founder of Essence magazine, dies at 92 Essence launched in 1970 and became one of the most influential magazines for Black women.

Smith was one of the four founders of Essence Communications, launched four years after the Civil Rights Act of 1964 outlawed segregation and banned discrimination in public spaces. www.instagram.com/p/DJCnXPWvqzt/

The Dragon Comes at Night is our first #MenoFantasy novella.

From author Breeze Harper: “…menopause isn’t just about hormones—it’s about power…unfortunately for Auré, she’s about to get a crash course in both…”
#fantasy #menopause #perimenopause #preorder #BlackSky #BlackBookSky #BookSky

Oour [sic] editors’ eyes twitch in understanding.

Thank you? 😬

My new Menofantasy novella is available for pre-order:

The Dragon Comes at Night (ebook)
Teaser: menofantasy.com
Pre-Order: buy.stripe.com/5kA9Ejedy9xk...

Coming soon to @bookshop.org via @blackzephyrpub.bsky.social

#menofantasy #menopause #perimenopause #fantasy #blackbooksky #booksky

Black Zephyr Publishing Bookshop Black Zephyr Publishing is an indie publisher & creator coalition amplifying underrepresented stories in books and other media.

@sistahvegan.bsky.social, you're up as the first coalition entry in our bookshop.

More books, creators, and news to come shortly: bookshop.org/shop/BlackZe...

#comingsoon #bookshop #indiepublisher #coalition #sistahvegan #blackzephyrpublishing

Uhhh, hi! It's me, Bookshop.org, a place to buy books online where every purchase financially supports indie bookstores instead of some billionaire.

👀

Congratulations! 👏🏾

So, there's something I'm getting ready to write on in regards to Sinners and the use of Black Southern Gothic in Fantasy being largely ignored or neglected. Thankfully, South of Midnight and Sinners are bringing it back.

But D&D/ @nirele.bsky.social made a Southern Black setting called Godsbreath