Steven Barnes: The sequel to Lion's Blood, entitled Zulu Heart.
Jabari Asim: I'm working on a cultural history of white supremacy, with a focus on how whites have used language to enforce the idea that black people are inferior. I'm starting with the colonial period (Thomas Jefferson and his peers) and bringing it up to the present. Houghton Mifflin will be publishing it, probably in 2003.
Myles Pinkney and Sandra Pinkney: We are now working on several rough ideas, including a children's devotional book.
Michael Datcher: Last year, the Getty Museum in Los Angeles, commissioned me to write and direct an original play. SILENCE goes up February 22, 2002. I'm also working on a novel called Secircle.
Francis Ray: Currently I'm working on In My Father's House, the sequel to The Turning Point. The hero, Rafe Crawford, was raised by an abusive father and wrongly fears he is just like his father. Rafe will learn differently, but it will not be without heartache and pain.
Alexs Pate: Two books: One a novel about a black pirate: The Untold Adventures Of The Black Arrow, set on the Spanish Main in the 1700s. And a memoir about my relationship with my son, The Past Is Perfect: A Memoir of a Father Son Reunion.
Mat Johnson: My second novel is coming out next year. It’s called Hunting In Harlem. It’s about these real estate agents that start killing off lowlifes to make the neighborhood better. The main character is an intern who gets blackmailed into committing three “accidents” before they’ll let him go.
A couple of months after that I’m following with a historical novella called The Great Negro Plot, which is based on the inquisition into black terrorism in New York City in 1741. Both will be published by Bloomsbury USA.
Maryann Reid: I am getting ready to wrap up a hot, juicy novel. There's nothing like it on the market now! But it's still top secret. Currently, my series SINGLE BLACK FEMALE is running on USATODAY.COM.
Natasha Tarpley: I am currently working on a varied assortment of picture books, as well as a young adult novel, which is going to be a magical story about a girl who can do fantastic things through her writing. This should be fun since I've never really since I've never really written magical realism or fantasy before.
I am also co-editing with a seventeen year-old young woman, an anthology of writings by African American girls ages 12-19 on their life experiences. The title of the book is, What I Know Is Me, and it will be published by Harlem Moon, an imprint of Doubleday/Random House, in September 2003. We are in the process of soliciting submissions, so if any of you out there know any young women writers and would like more information about the project, please e-mail me at Natarana@aol.com. And one of these days, I will finish my great American novel-for grown-ups.
Tonya Bolden: I'm working on a couple of books, one of which is about heroes/inspirations: I am writing profiles of 20 men and women who have made a positive difference in America. My prose will accompany an artist's original paintings of the subjects. It's a book for children.
Raymond A. Winbush: I just finished editing a book for HarperCollins entitled The Reparations Debate: Arguments for and Against Reparations for Slavery in the United States. It should be out in the early fall, and brings together all of the important persons (pro and con) on this important subject. I am also starting a book on urban religions among young African Americans that should be published in 2003.
Marissa Monteilh: I recently completed my second and final novel for HarperCollins titled The Chocolate Ship, a romantic and humorous adventure aboard a Black owned cruise ship. Currently, I am working on Hot Boyz' in Ladera Heights, the story of four brothers who experience life's ups and downs in an upscale
neighborhood of Los Angeles.
Virginia DeBerry and Donna Grant: We are working on our new novel, Better Than I Know Myself, and hoping to have it finished by late spring. Of course then it will still be at least another 6-8 months before it's on the shelves.
Phyllis Y. Harris: I am currently on a university lecture tour promoting my book, From The Soul: Stories of Great Black Parents and the Lives They Gave Us.
Kayla Perrin: I am currently working on my second mainstream novel for St. Martin's Press. It is called The Delta Sisters and is about a family generation of women who all went to the same sorority in the South. There are family secrets that come back to haunt, and to test the strength of these women.
Kim McLarin: I just finished co-writing a memoir with Ilyasah Shabazz (daughter of Malcolm X) called Growing Up X. Now I'm working on my third novel. I'll be happy to tell you about it once I figure out what it's about myself.
Afi Scruggs: I'm writing a book of essays on the knitting.
Michele Andrea Bowen: I'm doing some heavy editing on my second novel, Second Sunday before get back to writing on my third novel.
Monique Morris: I am currently working on a novel about overcoming oppression by connection with our ancestral roots and a nonfiction on hip-hop America and the Criminal Justice System.
William Jelani Cobb: Right now I'm completing my doctoral dissertation -- a study of African American anti-Communism between the Depression and the McCarthy Era and a novel called Twice Before Midnight which is based on my father and grandfather's experiences as prizefighters in the "Chit'lin Circuit" they had for black boxers during the Jim Crow era.
