Featured Urban Fiction
THE GOLDEN HUSTLA by Wahida Clark
All of Georgia law enforcement is aware that WMM Advertising-also known as “We Make Millionaires”-is one of the biggest and hardest-to-penetrate fraudulent telemarketing firms in the state. But when a tape recording of a man’s death surfaces that may involve WMM, Atlanta homicide detective Danny Houser realizes that he may actually have the smoking gun needed to go after the firm. All he needs is someone inside WMM to sniff out the company’s secrets. Soon he sets his sights on Alexis Greenspan, aka Nina Coles, the telemarketer’s top sales associate. Approaching retirement,... Read More
Interviews
Q&A: Paul Volponi
Mr. Volponi is a writer, journalist and teacher living in New York City. For six years he taught incarcerated teens on Rikers Island to read and write, and for six years taught teens in drug day-treatment centers, influencing many of his novels. To learn more about him and his books, visit www.paulvolponibooks.com Tell us a little about yourself. How did you get started writing? I was so inspired by the students around me, on Rikers Island and in the day drug rehabs where I was teaching in NYC, that I wanted to tell their unique stories. I use the word “their” sparingly, because “their”... Read More
News
The Word on Street Lit (Library Journal) – July 2010
This month’s Word on Street Lit column features something old and something new, but I did not run across any title borrowed or blue. However, I was giddy as a new groom reading Karen Williams’s Dirty to the Grave. It’s that GREAT. Another trend I’ve noticed is the reissuing of street lit titles in the mass-market paperback format. Kiki Swinson’s 2008 Still Wifey Material comes out this November with an affordable $6.99 price tag. It’s a handy and cheap option to replace lost or worn copies of your trade version. – Rollie Welch Read More →
StreetTalk
The Genre Hookup
Danyel Smith has an interesting perspective on the potential relationship between literary fiction and urban fiction in Jeff Chang’s incredible book Total Chao: The Art and Aesthetics of Hip-Hop: “Black literary fiction and street lit should embrace in a rowdy, passionate, illicit love affair – very Romeo and Juliet minus the whole star-crossed thing. The two genres should hole for a long weekend of wet, buck-naked lovemaking, and then part as the rare kind of lovers who remain acquaintances, but respect the other’s skill and heat. In a perfect world, the two genres, each... Read More
Fiction
YOU KNEW BETTA by Cachet Johnson
No one said living a double life was easy. When Raimone marries his high school sweetheart and starts a family, he’s still not satisfied. What’s more, Raimone’s wife Sasha doesn’t know that her husband fathered a child right under her nose with his mistress NaTaisha. After four years of sitting on the sidelines,...
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RIPPED DOLLARS by Raymond Francis
When some people picture Philadelphia, they think of Cheesesteaks and the Liberty Bell. “Ripped Dollars” will change that perception. The story centers on Tone and Amir, two youngn’s who are their own and ready to do whatever is necessary to survive. From schemes to stick-ups, anything goes when it...
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Altered Destiny: A Hustler’s Choice By Sherylynne L. Rochester (Kindle Book)
We meet Sasha Miller, a young girl from Brooklyn who has grown up amid drugs, crime, and violence. She manages to make a life for herself on the streets, with money, sex, respect, power, notoriety, and even love, and she feels that the choices she has made to get there are the right ones. No one can stop her or tell...
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HOODFELLAS III: READY TO DIE by Richard Jeanty
Deon and his crew are forced to return back to the States because of unfortunate situations in Haiti. However, lurking around in Deon’s mind are those killers who took out his boys, Short Dawg and No Neck. He won’t rest until the heads of the killers are delivered to him. This personal vendetta will have...
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HOODFELLAS II: AMERICAN GANGSTER by Richard Jeanty
Navigating in a foreign nation will take some time. However, with the kind of money Deon brought with him, he understands everything is for sale in Haiti and his buying power is unlimited. Deon never thought that he would be kidnapped for a ransom large enough to leave him broke by the most ruthless thugs that he has...
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HOODFELLAS by Richard Jeanty
When an Ex-con finds himself destitute and out of luck after he’s released from prison, he turns to what he knows best, crime. Crazy D was doomed to become a statistic until he took matters into his own hands. Hungry and determined for success, he uses his street smarts and connects to build an empire with his...
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EXTREME CIRCUMSTANCES by Cereka Cook
What happens when a devoted woman is betrayed? Come take a ride with Chanel as she takes her boyfriend, Donnell, to circumstances beyond belief after he betrays her trust with his endless infidelities. How long can Chanel’s friend, Janai, use her looks to get what she wants from men before it catches up to her?...
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STICK N MOVE 3 by Shawn Black
Serosa becomes the subject to information that could financially ruin and possibly destroy the lives and careers of many prominent people involved in the government if this data is exposed. As this intricate plot thickens, speculations start mounting and a whirlwind of death, deceit, and betrayal finds its way into...
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STICK N MOVE 2 by Shawn Black
Scorcher and Yasmina’s low key lifestyle was interrupted when they were taken down by the Feds, but their daughter, Serosa, was left to be raised by the foster care system. Will Serosa become a product of her environment or will she rise above it all? Her bloodline is undeniable, but will she be able to control...
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STICK N MOVE by Shawn Black
Stick and Move is the story of young Yasmina who loss her parents to a gang of Jamaican druglords at a young age during a random act of violence for initiation into the gang. Yasmina is forced to go live with her grandmother in Miami after the death of her parents. However, her life will come full-circle with her parents’...
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Nonfiction
How to Hustle and Win, Part One: A Survival Guide for the Ghetto by Supreme Understanding
Likened to a 48 Laws of Power for young Black men, this book presents Black biographies, history, and current events in a language that the Hip-Hop... Read More
The Other Wes Moore: One Name, Two Fates by Wes Moore
Two kids with the same name lived in the same decaying city. One went on to be a Rhodes Scholar, decorated combat veteran, White House Fellow,... Read More
A unique book of wisdom and experience that reaches from the most violent slums of New York City to the highest planes of spiritual thought by... Read More
Queen Pin by Jemeker Thompson-Hairston and David Ritz
Jemeker Thompson-Hairston paid a heavy price for her involvement in the drug game. Learning from her sources of a federal investigation, Jemeker... Read More
BMF: The Rise and Fall of Big Meech and the Black Mafia Family By Mara Shalhoup
In the early 1990s, Demetrius “Big Meech” Flenory and his brother, Terry “Southwest T,” rose up from the slums of Detroit to build one... Read More
Book of Rhymes: The Poetics of Hip Hop by Adam Bradley
If asked to list the greatest innovators of modern American poetry, few of us would think to include Jay-Z or Eminem in their number. And yet... Read More
HOW TO SUCCEED IN THE PUBLISHING GAME by Vickie Stringer
Best-selling author and world-renowned publisher Vickie Stringer began her empire with one book – Let That Be the Reason. After enduring 26... Read More
STREET LEGENDS by Seth Ferranti
In a time where the world is infatuated by the streets, learn firsthand what a trye hustler is – and the price they pay for the crown. This... Read More
GRACE AFTER MIDNIGHT by Felicia “Snoop” Pearson and David Ritz
In GRACE AFTER MIDNIGHT, Felicia Pearson, who plays Snoop in the HBO hit series The Wire, reveals her incredible, hard knock life story, one... Read More
DONALD WRITES NO MORE by Eddie Stone
Addict, Thief, Pimp, Pusher, Player…and Writer! Donald Goines was all of these things. He started as a kid, the product of a middle-class family.... Read More
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Urban Christian
Pastor Jerome Tyler “JT” Thomas is charismatic behind the pulpit, charming to all he comes in contact with, and lethal to those who... Read More
ME, MYSELF, AND HIM by E.N. Joy
How was Locksie supposed to tell her boyfriend that she had gone off to church and fallen in love with another man? Locksie grew up in the church-against... Read More
Hustling wasn’t easy, but Isaac did his best. He ruled the underworld like a predator – a self made CEO of the streets. But one woman dared... Read More
AFTER THE FEELING by T.N. Williams
Pornography was once an acceptable element of the Wilson marriage, but a particular incident stretches Germani’s comfort zone to the limit.... Read More
ABUNDANT RAIN by Vanessa Miller
Elizabeth Underwood. Bold. Vivacious. Confident. Her life was about to be turned upside down. As far as Elizabeth was concerned, the Underwoods... Read More
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Urban Teen
Martin Stokes could hold his own in the tough New York City neighborhood where he grew up, but that’s nothing – nothing – compared... Read More
HOW TO SALSA IN A SARI by Dona Sarkar
First, Issa Mazumder’s nerdy boyfriend dumps her for popular Latina princess Cat Morena – as if Cat even likes him. She just hates Issa.... Read More
16 ON THE BLOCK by Babygirl Daniels
A girl’s 16th birthday is supposed to be sweet, but For Summer Flynt, it was the day that changed her life forever. Young, fly, and beautiful,... Read More
FAST FORWARD by Celeste Norfleet
How did Kenisha Lewis’s life go from near perfect to sheer chaos in just a few months? Coping with family tragedy is tough enough without... Read More
FIRST SEMESTER by Cecil R. Cross
James “JD” Dawson grew up in the hood, but left a life of violence three thousand miles behind to make something of himself at the... Read More
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