2022 NAACP Image Award Winner Crystal Wilkinson combines a deep love for her rural roots with a passion for language and storytelling in this compelling collection of poetry and prose about girlhood, racism, and political awakening, imbued with vivid imagery of growing up in Southern Appalachia. In Perfect Black, the acclaimed writer muses on such topics as motherhood, the politics of her Black body, lost fathers, mental illness, sexual abuse, and religion. It is a captivating conversation about life, love, loss, and pain, interwoven with striking illustrations by her long-time partner, Ronald W. Davis.

Crystal Wilkinson combines a deep love for her rural roots with a passion for language and storytelling in this compelling collection of poetry and prose about girlhood, racism, and political awakening, imbued with vivid imagery of growing up in Southern Appalachia. In Perfect Black, the acclaimed writer muses on such topics as motherhood, the politics of her Black body, lost fathers, mental illness, sexual abuse, and religion. It is a captivating conversation about life, love, loss, and pain, interwoven with striking illustrations by her long-time partner, Ronald W. Davis.

As seen on TikTok, Daniel Black’s Perfect Peace is the heartbreaking portrait of a large, rural southern family’s attempt to grapple with their mother’s desperate decision to make her newborn son into the daughter she will never have—“a complex, imaginative story of one unforgettable black family in mid-twentieth century Arkansas” (Atlanta Magazine). When the seventh child of the Peace family, named Perfect, turns eight, her mother Emma Jean tells her bewildered daughter, “You was born a boy. I made you a girl. But that ain’t what you was supposed to be. So, from now on, you gon’ be a boy. It’ll be a little strange at first, but you’ll get used to it, and this’ll be over after while.” From this point forward, Perfect’s life becomes a bizarre kaleidoscope of events—while the rest of his family is forced to question everything they thought they knew about gender, sexuality, unconditional love, and fulfillment. “A morality tale of the consequences of letting our selfish needs trap the ones we love into roles they weren’t born to play. The characters here are as flawed, their sins numerous, as any living human being held under the lens, but the author brings a compassion and understanding to their plights.”—Mat Johnson, award-winning author of Invisible Things “Part cautionary tale, part folk tale, part fable, Daniel Black’s Perfect Peace is a complete triumph...In Emma Jean Peace, Dr. Black has created a character as complex, equivocal and unforgettable as Scarlett O'Hara.”—Larry Duplechan, Lambda Literary Award-winning author of Got ’Til It’s Gone

A playboy bachelor helps a grieving widow learn to love again, but her heart is broken once more when she learns their relationship was based on a bet in the latest novel from Anna Black. Chase Storm is a rich, young bachelor with no intention of settling down. His reputation as the town's playboy is ruining his family's name, so his brothers decide to take action. To tame their youngest brother's appetite for women, they offer him a sweet deal. Unwilling at first, Chase finally agrees to take on the challenge and is introduced to Madison Atkins-Morgan. Madison, a widow, has moved back to her hometown of Tyler, Texas. After losing her husband and twin sons in a car wreck, she needs a fresh start. When things don't go as planned, she finds herself in a slump. Four years later, after having isolated herself, she decides to rejoin the real world and start living again. Unaware of Chase's reputation for being a ladies' man, she accepts his dinner invitation. They've met before, but he hadn't seemed interested in her during any of those brief encounters. Now, however, there is a definite connection between the bachelor and the widow. When his reputation comes to light, she chooses to continue their budding relationship. She is falling in love with the person the whole town warned her about, and she couldn't be happier--until she discovers she was part of a wager that could cost both of their hearts.

A lyrical exploration of love and loss, this book centers on several generations of women in a bucolic southern Black township as they live with and sometimes surrender to madness. The Goode-Brown family, led by matriarch and pillar of the community Minnie Mae, is plagued by old secrets and embarrassment over mental illness and illegitimacy. Meanwhile, single mother Francine Clark is haunted by her dead, lightning-struck husband and forced to fight against both the moral judgment of the community and her own rebellious daughter, Mona. The residents of Opulence struggle with vexing relationships to the land, to one another, and to their own sexuality. As the members of the youngest generation watch their mothers and grandmothers pass away, they live with the fear of going mad themselves and must fight to survive. The author offers up Opulence and its people in lush, poetic detail. It is a world of magic, conjuring, signs, and spells, but also of harsh realities that only love - and love that's handed down - can conquer.

Carell Augustus is a genius. --Karamo Brown A visionary photography book that brings together the best of classic Hollywood with today's iconic Black entertainers for an immersive experience unlike anything you've ever seen before. Features a foreword by Academy Award winner Forest Whitaker and an afterword by beloved entertainer Niecy Nash! Black Hollywood is a groundbreaking reimagining of Hollywood's most beloved films, including Breakfast at Tiffany's, Singin' in the Rain, Mission: Impossible, Forrest Gump, and more. Visionary photographer Carell Augustus has created a who's who of today's Black entertainers recreating iconic cinematic scenes, renewing readers' appreciation of the past while asking questions about representation in media and inspiring the artists of the future. Compiled over the course of more than ten years and highlighting more than sixty-five stars such as Vanessa L. Williams, Dulé Hill, Karamo Brown, Shermar Moore, and others, Carell Augustus says, Black Hollywood is not just a book for Black people--it's a book for all people about Black people. About the dreams we were never told we could achieve. About the places we were never told we could go. And now, finally, about how we can get there.

New York TimesBestseller Baratunde Thurston’s comedic memoir chronicles his coming-of-blackness and offers practical advice on everything from “How to Be the Black Friend” to “How to Be the (Next) Black President”. Have you ever been called “too black” or “not black enough”? Have you ever befriended or worked with a black person? Have you ever heard of black people? If you answered yes to any of these questions, this book is for you. It is also for anyone who can read, possesses intelligence, loves to laugh, and has ever felt a distance between who they know themselves to be and what the world expects. Raised by a pro-black, Pan-Afrikan single mother during the crack years of 1980s Washington, DC, and educated at Sidwell Friends School and Harvard University, Baratunde Thurston has more than over thirty years' experience being black. Now, through stories of his politically inspired Nigerian name, the heroics of his hippie mother, the murder of his drug-abusing father, and other revelatory black details, he shares with readers of all colors his wisdom and expertise in how to be black. “As a black woman, this book helped me realize I’m actually a white man.”—Patton Oswalt

CROSS-STITCH GOES WITCHY WITH DARK AND ELEGANT DESIGNS From spooky skulls to ghoulish graveyards, Lindsay Swearingen of Tusk and Cardinal gives cross-stitch a dark yet whimsical update. Curious creatures like phantom felines, legendary fixtures from folklore like Baba Yaga and all manner of haunted houses make the perfect subjects for these needlework masterpieces. Fun and easy to learn, cross-stitch is an art form that truly anybody can master. Lindsay gives you a crash course in the basics to ensure you have all the materials and techniques you need to start off on the right foot. Then, dive into her incredible patterns and stitch yourself some oddities that range from quirky to downright eerie. Anyone with an appreciation for the macabre will swoon for patterns like Lovers’ Graves, which features twin headstones and a heart-shaped weeping willow. Meanwhile, the ghosts, ghouls and ghastly bats of Trick or Treat and Haunted Wings are perfect pieces to hang on your wall to keep the spirit of Halloween in your home year-round. With moody tones, muted hues and spooky subjects, this collection of bewitching patterns makes it easy to add a little subversive charm to your cross-stitch repertoire.

It’s a case of monstrous cuteness in the third book of the New York Times best-selling series as the Princess in Black encounters a new challenge: a field overrun by adorable bunnies. Princess Magnolia and her unicorn, Frimplepants, are on their way to have brunch with Princess Sneezewort when Princess Magnolia’s glitter-stone ring rings. The monster alarm! After a quick change in the secret cave, Princess Magnolia and Frimplepants are transformed into the Princess in Black and her faithful pony, Blacky. But when they get to the goat pasture, all they can see is a field full of darling little bunnies. Where are the monsters? Are these bunnies as innocent as they appear?

Grievers is the story of a city so plagued by grief that it can no longer function. Dune’s mother is patient zero of a mysterious illness that stops people in their tracks—in mid-sentence, mid-action, mid-life—casting them into a nonresponsive state from which no one recovers. Dune must navigate poverty and the loss of her mother as Detroit’s hospitals, morgues, and graveyards begin to overflow. As the quarantined city slowly empties of life, she investigates what caused the plague, and what might end it, following in the footsteps of her late researcher father, who has a physical model of Detroit’s history and losses set up in their basement. She dusts it off and begins tracking the sick and dying, discovering patterns, finding comrades in curiosity, conspiracies for the fertile ground of the city, and the unexpected magic that emerges when the debt of grief is cleared.