This is a photo of me and my then five-year-old son Michael at a party celebrating the publication of my first book Migrations of the Heart. That was forty years ago. Check out the Migrations of the Heart cake. I…
The day I interviewed Toni Morrison (for what would be the first time) I was writing an article for Essence Magazine about the rise of the Black feminist movement. We met in a French restaurant a few blocks from the…
Who are your most influential mentors? In the early 1970’s I was young, gifted, and Black living in New York City and beginning to find my voice as a writer. At a poetry reading, I gave a sheaf of poems…
This year I am celebrating the fortieth anniversary of the publication of my debut book the memoir Migrations of the Heart. I consider the publication of that book to be the official launching of my career as writer and teacher…
In this month’s blog post I continue last month’s topic about the publishing industry and focus on self-publishing. The self-publishing industry is a 26 billion dollar industry. Four million self-published books were released in 2019. Self-publishing by working with an…