As a diplomat's son, star athlete, and Harvard Law School graduate, in the early 1980s Joseph Holland had a world of opportunities awaiting him on Wall Street and in corporate America. Instead, Holland moved to the inner city, driven by a divine calling full of unfolding mystery and challenge. He found himself in Harlem during the nadir of its blight and endeavored to contribute to a neighborhood that was tough in every sense of the word. A Republican among Democrats, a privileged Southern scion among working-class Northerners, Holland earned his stripes as an entrepreneur/activist embracing a vision of personal and community transformation. A five-year sojourn became a three-decade commitment, as his Harlem-based career morphed from practicing law to empowering the homeless, to running small businesses, to writing plays, to serving in politics, to building housing--all aimed at revitalizing a beaten-down, dream-deferred cultural mecca haunted by poignant memories of its glory days in the early twentieth century.

Cousin of novelist Dorothy West and friend of Zora Neale Hurston, Helene Johnson (1905-1995) first gained literary prominence when James Weldon Johnson and Robert Frost selected three of her poems for prizes in a 1926 competition. This volume brings together the poetry and a selection of correspondence by this poet of the Harlem Renaissance.

Qua loves Wynner. Wynner loves Qua. Easy enough, right? But Wynner comes with two brothers who can't stand Qua with their baby sister. In spite of it all, Qua grabs Wynner's hand and marries her at the courthouse. Flash forward five years, and Qua has kept all his promises to Wynner, supporting her through constant illness. As a wife, she's supposed to nurture and cater to her husband, but she's always sick, and she feels like less than a wife. When Qua's childhood friend comes to the city, she's sure to shake things up between the couple. Will they take their vows to heart? Uzi is feared by everything with a beating heart in New York. He has no time for a steady woman, but when Remi, a smart-talking bartender at his favorite strip club catches his eye, he chases her like a lion does an antelope. Remi is so over men wasting her time that she doesn't want to play. Will Uzi eventually shoot an arrow in her heart? Remi's younger sister, Tweeti, was always overlooked as a child. Now, all the boys who played her for being plus-sized are the same men chasing her. Tweeti doesn't know what she wants to do with her life. One week she wants to save lives; then the next she wants to take them. When Jahquel rolls into her life, she's taken aback. Will he eventually capture her heart? In New York where you gotta go hard, these kings need to reign with an iron fist. Will they do it with or without queens?

Cadence Camille Diaz could never imagine that colliding with the love of her life again after two years would turn her world upside down and inside out. This is not your typical love story, and there's no happy ending. Cadence walks a tightrope between right and wrong. Richard Jefferson represents everything right. The combination of the two presents problems that could have never been predicted. As the answers to most of the questions she has had all her life come flying at full speed, Cadence is forced to question the loyalty and trust of the people she has put in her life, and face the truth about herself.

“Marvelously dramatic…brings its era to life with lush detail.” – People Magazine From the author of Wild Beautiful and Free In this vivid reimagining of the French classic Les Liaisons Dangereuses, it’s the summer when Jackie Robinson breaks Major League Baseball’s color barrier and a sweltering stretch has Harlem’s elite fleeing the city for Westchester County’s breezier climes, two predators stalk amidst the manicured gardens and fine old homes. Heiress Mae Malveaux rules society with an angel’s smile and a heart of stone. She made up her mind long ago that nobody would decide her fate. To have the pleasure she craves, control is paramount, especially control of the men Mae attracts like moths to a flame. Valiant Jackson always gets what he wants—and he’s wanted Mae for years. The door finally opens for him when Mae strikes a bargain: seduce her virginal young cousin, Cecily, who is engaged to Frank Washington. Frank values her innocence above all else. If successful, Val’s reward will be a night with Mae. But Val secretly seeks another prize. Elizabeth Townsend is fiercely loyal to her church and her civil rights attorney husband. Certain there is something redeemable in Mr. Jackson. Little does she know that her worst mistake will be Val’s greatest triumph.

A collection of humorous, autobiographical essays about a California surfer-girl who became a jazz musician famous for playing stride piano.

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • From the two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Underground Railroad and The Nickel Boys, this gloriously entertaining novel is “fast-paced, keen-eyed and very funny ... about race, power and the history of Harlem all disguised as a thrill-ride crime novel" (San Francisco Chronicle). "Ray Carney was only slightly bent when it came to being crooked..." To his customers and neighbors on 125th street, Carney is an upstanding salesman of reasonably priced furniture, making a decent life for himself and his family. He and his wife Elizabeth are expecting their second child, and if her parents on Striver's Row don't approve of him or their cramped apartment across from the subway tracks, it's still home. Few people know he descends from a line of uptown hoods and crooks, and that his façade of normalcy has more than a few cracks in it. Cracks that are getting bigger all the time. Cash is tight, especially with all those installment-plan sofas, so if his cousin Freddie occasionally drops off the odd ring or necklace, Ray doesn't ask where it comes from. He knows a discreet jeweler downtown who doesn't ask questions, either. Then Freddie falls in with a crew who plan to rob the Hotel Theresa—the "Waldorf of Harlem"—and volunteers Ray's services as the fence. The heist doesn't go as planned; they rarely do. Now Ray has a new clientele, one made up of shady cops, vicious local gangsters, two-bit pornographers, and other assorted Harlem lowlifes. Thus begins the internal tussle between Ray the striver and Ray the crook. As Ray navigates this double life, he begins to see who actually pulls the strings in Harlem. Can Ray avoid getting killed, save his cousin, and grab his share of the big score, all while maintaining his reputation as the go-to source for all your quality home furniture needs? Harlem Shuffle's ingenious story plays out in a beautifully recreated New York City of the early 1960s. It's a family saga masquerading as a crime novel, a hilarious morality play, a social novel about race and power, and ultimately a love letter to Harlem. But mostly, it's a joy to read, another dazzling novel from the Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award-winning Colson Whitehead. Look for Colson Whitehead’s new novel, Crook Manifesto!

Told through the eyes of the grandmotherly Sister Mary Bradley, this is a heartwarming description of life in Harlem.