"Pick Me" | Buy Kindle Single Here Bookshop MP3 CD

A mixed-race couple struggles with class, race and infertility in their decision to adopt a Black child.

Standalone short stories in print and online

“Choke Chains” in Oxford American

A young narrator strains for compassion and love to survive his family’s business exploiting pit bulls.

“Tatiana” in Kweli Journal

A young narrator details account of a girl gone missing from their small town neighborhood at the end of the school year, and the following summer when the girl is missed.

“Word” (2015 Pushcart Prize nomination) in Fiction International at San Diego State University

A successful Detroit native is haunted by his role as a bystander in the crowd who witnessed the real-life beating of Deletha Word, who leaped to her death to escape.

“There Were Six” in Per Contra: An International Journal of The Arts, Literature & Ideas

A Chicago El train worker is haunted from his missing daughter, whom he lost on the El train years before.

“What Billie and Phyllis Sang About” in Atticus Review | Story’s Soundtrack

A jilted woman is determined to make it alone in Harlem with help along the way.

“In 21 Days” in Winter Tangerine Review “Hands Up, Don’t Shoot” Feature in honor of Trayvon Martin

A working class Indiana family copes with their relative’s past violent history and impending execution.

“Who Killed Her?” in Black Renaissance Noire at New York University

An Indiana woman lies pathologically about her past as her present facades crumble.

“The Incredibly Short Love Affair of Sixo Reese” in Crack the Spine Literary Magazine

A Chicago man confronts the passing of time when he comes back home to care for his eldest sister.

“No Comment” in Helen Presents: Friday Night Specials

A woman buys a one-way train ticket to leave the Big Apple, unfulfilled wishes and an abusive relationship behind.

“Drinking Alone” in Intellectual Refuge

A Harlem working mother wonders how to cope with urban pressures on her family.

“Personals” in The Stockholm Review of Literature

A web of interconnected strangers is plagued by urban alienation and internet safety issues across a nameless online platform servicing the Midwest.

“Arresting the Hogs” in 5Stories

Two women discuss their lives, city blues and foster parenting in a Harlem tenement.

“A Letter in April” in Brown Sugar Black Erotica Series

A woman finds herself torn between two lovers she needs and wants in different ways.

“Card Parties” (Bessie Head/Zora Neale Hurston Short Fiction Award Winner at Gwendolyn Brooks Black Writers Conference) in Michigan Quarterly Review at University of Michigan at Ann Arbor

Four women gather on the South Side of Chicago to play cards every week, and then a new woman joins their group and changes everything.

Novel excerpts in print and online

“Searching on 147th Street” Excerpt from Speaking of Summer in Fiction

Opening of Speaking of Summer in Kweli Journal

“Night Wind” Excerpt from Speaking of Summer in Black Renaissance Noire

“Speaking of Summer” in Intellectual Refuge and Cat on a Leash Review

“The Pitchfork Game” (from Solemn) in pluck! Journal of Affrilachain Arts & Culture at the University of Kentucky

“Solemn and the Hassles” (from Solemn) in Hermeneutic Chaos

“Pearletta” (from Solemn) in Deep South Magazine

“Expecting” (from Solemn) in Gravel Literary Magazine at University of Arkansas at Monticello 

“Singer’s” (from Solemn) in Hermeneutic Chaos

Excerpt from Conception in Otium: A Prose Magazine at University of Chicago