Esnap Publications LLC

04/02/2022

“It has more to do with tone than anything else.”

30/01/2022

It’s a new year. Perhaps you’ve made some writing (or submitting) resolutions? If you’re aiming for 100 rejections this year, or if you’ve been tracking rejections for sixty…

02/01/2022

Remembering Alex Haley

In 1968, the celebrated author of “The Autobiography of Malcolm X” arrived at Hamilton College to teach and work on his magnum opus, “Roots.” Now, on the centenary of his birth, a former student recalls Haley’s class.

03/07/2021

We all know the PI. You need only rattle off the names—Spade, Hammer, Marlowe, Archer—to conjure the picture. Tough, swaggering, fast-talking, busted nose, cigs, that Webley–Fosbery revolver. They’…

23/06/2021

I’ve been keeping track of Paul Beatty’s books since 1996, Kobe Bryant’s rookie year in the NBA. The two men are linked for me because Beatty’s rookie novel The White Boy Shuffle (1996) became the …

15/06/2021

photo: Andy Johanson Screenwriter and poet Brian Broome is a K. Leroy Irvis Fellow and an instructor in the writing program at the University of Pittsburgh. The recipient of a 2019 Vann Award for journalism from the Pittsburgh Black Media Federation, Broome has also be...

07/06/2021

People tend to think of "they," "Mx.," and "hir" as relatively recent inventions. But English speakers have been looking for better ways to talk about gender for a very long time.

05/06/2021

Breaking with the dominant literary styles among Black writers at the time, the author expanded the limits of realism to create a world that was, and remains, all too familiar.

24/05/2021

“What’s Going On,” crafted in a season of unease, persists as a backdrop to another heated summer, half a century later, when the world feels upside down.

22/05/2021

Workers at Duke University Press recently announced their intent to unionize and improve workplace conditions for staff members of color.

17/05/2021

How much do authors make per book? We spoke to self-published authors and traditionally published authors about how much money they make.

08/05/2021

SANStudio, formerly Sisters' Action Network, provides writing assistance in the following areas: academic, business, creative, personal and technical

08/05/2021

Like most women who write, I live my life according to the firmly stated judgments of literary men.

04/04/2021

Founded by and for women of color, the press issued such revolutionary works as This Bridge Called My Back.

28/03/2021

I never set out to become a writer, it just happened. One day in my early twenties, I woke up and felt this urge to write. Back then I was a music fanatic. On a whim, I sent an email to a music mag…

26/03/2021

Plot twist development...

The Netflix thriller has been the TV talk of 2020, thanks to its outrageous surprise ending. Here, Neil Armstrong considers the fine art of the unexpected narrative turn.

23/03/2021

In the 1950s, my father discovered a pile of wet ledgers on the back of a dump truck in our neighborhood. He brought them to our house, dried them on our sunny porch, and put them into the closet. …

01/03/2021

Her talent as a novelist is evident, but her nurturing of Black authors cannot be overlooked

19/02/2021

Octavia Butler's alternate realities and 'speculative fiction' reveal striking, and often devastating parallels to the world we live in today. She was a deep observer of the human condition, perplexed and inspired by our propensity towards self-destruction. Butler was also fascinated by the cyclical...

17/02/2021

Born in Harlem, James Baldwin wrote often of his beginnings here, including his reading “every single book” in the transfor­mative space now known as the Schomburg Center for Re­search in Black Cul…

17/02/2021

"Ebony: Covering Black America" by Lavaille Lavette is a new book about the Chicago magazine that was part of generations of Black American life. Here are six of her favorite covers.

13/02/2021

There is no one to whom a blue dress has meant more to his career than author Walter Mosley, with the possible exception of his biggest fan, President Bill Clinton. Mosley’s Devil in a Blue Dress h…

12/02/2021

Yes, but not at this price.

12/02/2021

The joy of reading—February 14

DL Mullen on opening Semicolon and her dedication to community

10/02/2021

08/02/2021

06/02/2021

These Black science fiction & fantasy authors have transformed the genre we love and deserve to be read all year round, from Octavia E. Butler to Tomi Adeyemi and beyond.

04/02/2021

Acknowledge

31/01/2021

In 1925, an anthology of Black creative work heralded the arrival of a movement that had been years in the making.