https://kimbilio.com/community daily 0.75 2026-03-11 https://kimbilio.com/community/jennifer-mccauley monthly 0.5 2026-03-11 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/693b07897e4fbb06babe730f/4a46c888-8755-4883-932f-62f4a035fed0/IMG_5606.jpg Community Profiles - Jennifer Maritza McCauley - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/693b07897e4fbb06babe730f/33aa7239-106d-4a15-98aa-975c5e74bd40/Neon+Steel+-+2.webp Community Profiles - Jennifer Maritza McCauley - NEON STEEL Set in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in the 1990s and early 2000s, Neon Steel is Jennifer Maritza McCauley’s love letter to millennial nerd culture. Anime fans, vampires, indie rappers, robots, comic book fans, and thrill seekers find their way through the Steel City’s neighborhoods and haunts. A young girl discovers an underground world of Afro Otaku who change the way she sees the city; a high school student discovers a kindred spirit in a Bomba girl; The Terminator (1984) is reimagined as a josei story featuring a purple loc’d robot; and a secret coven of vampires who hide out in Pittsburgh steel mills risk being discovered after they lose one of their own. Magical realist and neon-lit, Neon Steel faithfully follows a group of nerds and the magic that excites them, bringing to life a city and a state of being. https://kimbilio.com/community/avery-irons monthly 0.5 2026-02-23 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/693b07897e4fbb06babe730f/07c035d5-54b7-4ff8-b6cc-adf01a0e1a95/Z72_5362-2+%282%29+%281%29.jpg Community Profiles - Avery Irons - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/693b07897e4fbb06babe730f/84e037ff-10aa-4d71-99b6-70ba56cf469d/Irons_Belonging+to+the+Air_Final+cvr+for+publ+%283%29.jpg Community Profiles - Avery Irons - Belonging To The Air Honest “Bird” Bennett is a young Black girl with a hunger to learn what lies beyond the walls she shares with her mother, Maddy, and her grandmother, Odelia. Their home resonates with the hum of Maddy’s sewing machine, echoes of Bird preparing supper, and Odelia’s stories of times past. The women live in Bennettsville, Illinois, a freedmen’s town established by Bird’s great-grandfather, where rural life pulses with church song and where peace is fragile with the neighboring white town, Tuckersville. As Bird comes of age, she must reckon with turbulence at home and with what it means to fall in love with a childhood friend. As an adult, rejecting a life of self-denial, Bird spreads her wings and finds a new home in Harlem. After a decade of growth and loss, she is summoned back to Bennettsville to confront her kin and her past as Tuckersville residents try to drive Black families from their own land. Belonging to the Air: A Novel follows one family’s intergenerational experience of the Great Migration. Among the novel’s cast of characters are a blind matriarch, women who heal with herbs, and queer lovers. Irons’s evocative and lyrical prose imagines a world in which these complicated characters try to care for one another in a country that does not care about them. History talks to and through itself as elders confront youngsters and as racism shapeshifts in rural and urban settings across the decades. With dialogue that jumps off the page and rings with a truth that lingers, Belonging to the Air urges readers to think about how constructions of race, love, and freedom have―and have not―changed over time, demanding that we consider the wisdom of our inner selves while we listen to that of our elders. https://kimbilio.com/community/nikesha-elise-williams monthly 0.5 2026-02-03 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/693b07897e4fbb06babe730f/9b0159a3-6ab7-4cbc-bf80-ec8e0b88cfd3/BLU_9930+%282%29.jpg Community Profiles - Nikesha Elise Williams - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/693b07897e4fbb06babe730f/e33a0940-c5de-4446-bd7d-44357758b79b/IMG_6920+%282%29.JPEG Community Profiles - Nikesha Elise Williams - The Seven Daughters of Dupree From the two-time Emmy Award–winning producer and host of the Black and Published podcast comes a sweeping multi-generational epic following seven generations of Dupree women as they navigate love, loss, and the unyielding ties of family in the tradition of Homegoing and The Love Songs of W.E.B. DuBois. It’s 1995, and fourteen-year-old Tati is determined to uncover the identity of her father. But her mother, Nadia, keeps her secrets close, while her grandmother Gladys remains silent about the family’s past, including why she left Land’s End, Alabama, in 1953. As Tati digs deeper, she uncovers a legacy of family secrets, where every generation of Dupree women has posed more questions than answers. From Jubi in 1917, whose attempt to pass for white ends when she gives birth to Ruby; to Ruby’s fiery lust for Sampson in 1934 that leads to a baby of her own; to the night in 1980 that changed Nadia’s future forever, the Dupree women carry the weight of their heritage. Bound by a mysterious malediction that means they will only give birth to daughters, the Dupree women confront a legacy of pain, resilience, and survival that began with an enslaved ancestor who risked everything for freedom. The Seven Daughters of Dupree masterfully weaves together themes of generational trauma, Black women’s resilience, and unbreakable familial bonds. Echoing the literary power of The Twelve Tribes of Hattie by Ayana Mathis, Nikesha Elise Williams delivers a feminist literary fiction that explores the ripple effects of actions, secrets, and love through seven generations of Black women. https://kimbilio.com/community/omaria-sanchez-pratt monthly 0.5 2026-01-26 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/693b07897e4fbb06babe730f/1767345146825-HGMRBTP23HPZDS73HHCN/Omaria-Sanchez-Pratt-2025-180x180.jpeg Community Profiles - Omaria Sanchez Pratt Omaria Sanchez Pratt Omaria Pratt (they/them) is a Black trans writer from North Carolina. They hold an M.F.A. from the University of Kentucky where they were a recipient of the 2018 Nikky Finney Fellowship. They have received fellowships from Periplus Mentorship Collective, Kimbilio for Black Fiction, Lambda Literary, Roots. Wounds. Words. and the Hurston/Wright Foundation. Their work can be found in Taint Taint Taint Magazine, StoryMagazine issue 9, and the Anthology of Appalachian Writers–VolumeXII, where they were nominated for a Pushcart Prize. https://kimbilio.com/community/mary-c-lewis monthly 0.5 2026-01-26 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/693b07897e4fbb06babe730f/1767345072743-2YRW0PWYEZF7D5MLYMTP/Lewis-Mary-427x430.jpg Community Profiles - Mary C. Lewis A lover of language in all forms and a word laborer who is not shy about correcting errors, politics be damned, Mary C. Lewis balances her enthusiasm for grammar with a commitment to act creatively on her knowledge. Throughout more than four decades, Mary has built a communications portfolio. She began her career as editorial assistant and then managing editor of Ebony Jr! (Johnson Publishing), entering self-employment in 1980. She has edited manuscripts for book publishers; served as “last eyes” on stewardship reports at universities; helped implement first responses to the Affordable Care Act; and composed intranet articles on cultural events for a global investment firm. Her latest day job, as a senior editor, involves her in analyses of transformative destinations. Those are day jobs. Mary also unearths characters’ footsteps and voices, to bring collective fulfillment to as many ancestors and contemporaries as her daily 4 a.m. rising allows. eMerge has published her short fiction, and her essays appeared in Under Her Skin and Sleeping with One Eye Open. Her début novel, Strangers and Pilgrims, will extend to a sequel. Mary enjoys cooking, films, books, and conversations among the sun, moon, and innocent, determined creatures. https://kimbilio.com/community/jm-holmes monthly 0.5 2026-01-26 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/693b07897e4fbb06babe730f/1767345005033-CPUNS9AO1TSXMRE3ZQKO/JM-Holmes-2025-180x180.jpg Community Profiles - JM Holmes JM Holmes is a father of two, whose family was displaced by the Eaton Canyon Fire in LA. He used to write for TV but now organizes full time with the All African People’s Revolutionary Party and Black Men Build. He has an old collection of stories with Little, Brown and a forthcoming debut novel from Common Notions Press. https://kimbilio.com/community/jason-harris monthly 0.5 2026-01-26 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/693b07897e4fbb06babe730f/1767344940495-20L6WZ8NDBUK6X7EUB3U/Jason-Harris-2025-180x180.png Community Profiles - Jason Harris Jason Harris is a Baltimore based futurist, educator and cultural activist. He is the founder and facilitator of the BlkRobot Project, a long term multi-modal educational art effort designed to place STEM educational opportunities in predominantly Black neighborhoods in the U.S. and Africa. Jason is also a writer whose work has appeared in Black Enterprise magazine, Catalyst Literary journal, Chicory, BmoreArt.com and various online publications. He self-published the speculative fiction anthology entitled, “Redlines: Baltimore 2028′′ in 2012, and is a 2015 Kimbilio Fiction Fellow. He also runs the “SoulBot Saturday Design Squad”, a S.T.E.A.M. based learning course for youth in Baltimore. He co-facilitated “Future Cities” course at Goucher College, and has previously facilitated classes/workshops at the University of Baltimore and the University of the Bahamas. He currently teaches technology classes at the Enoch Pratt Free Library System in Baltimore. You can find him on BlueSky @jharrisfuture, Instagram @jharrisfuture and via Google Sites at https://sites.google.com/site/jharrisfuturenow/home https://kimbilio.com/community/leesa-fenderson monthly 0.5 2026-01-26 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/693b07897e4fbb06babe730f/1767344873915-AKFPDEKFG7D1HBHF2BA9/Fenderson-Leesa-680x684.jpeg Community Profiles - Leesa Fenderson Leesa Fenderson is an IP attorney and has recently completed her Doctoral studies in USC’s Creative Writing and Literature program. She is polishing a collection of short stories. Her work appears in Joyland Magazine, Story Magazine, CRAFT, Callaloo Journal, and elsewhere. Leesa believes deeply that art and rest are modes of resistance. https://kimbilio.com/community/shinelle-l-espaillat monthly 0.5 2026-01-26 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/693b07897e4fbb06babe730f/1767344805160-UW3VO610B5OWQ2NDYQSN/Shinelle-Espaillat-2025-180x180.jpg Community Profiles - Shinelle L. Espaillat Shinelle L. Espaillat is a writer whose work has appeared in midnight & indigo, Pleiades Magazine, Torch Literary Arts, Tahoma Literary Review, Two Hawks Quarterly, Minerva Rising, Ghost Parachute, among others, as well as in the collections Ghost Parachute: 105 Flash Fiction Stories, Shale: Extreme Fiction for Extreme Conditions, and How Higher Education Feels: Commentaries on Poems That Illuminate Emotions in Learning and Teaching. Her stories have been nominated for Pushcart and Best of the Net Prizes. She holds an M.A. in English-Creative Writing from Temple University. She teaches at Westchester Community College in NY. https://kimbilio.com/community/jamiyla-chisholm monthly 0.5 2026-01-26 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/693b07897e4fbb06babe730f/1767344734534-YNI4ES1U5Z1MJXZ53F78/N.-Jamilya-Chisholm-2025-180x180.jpg Community Profiles - Jamiyla Chisholm Jamiyla Chisholm is an author, journalist and educator. She is the author of the book The Community: A Memoir. Jamiyla has appeared in The New York Times, and her writing has been published by BET, Colorlines, Essence, TIME’S UP and other companies and publications. As a writer and editor, Jamiyla leads creative content and storytelling for New York City’s first women’s college and has created narratives that seek to empower people of color and the silenced. As an educator, Jamiyla teaches on the importance of storytelling to create positive narrative and social change. In 2024, she joined the Kimbilio team as a Fellow. https://kimbilio.com/community/elizabeth-bryant monthly 0.5 2026-01-26 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/693b07897e4fbb06babe730f/25e34d4c-c118-4e4b-8c56-ad0e7b3bb8db/Elizabeth-Bryant-2025-705x705.jpg Community Profiles - Elizabeth Bryant Elizabeth Bryant is a lifelong student of the Minnesota River Valley. Her writing explores black interiorities, especially in rural and small town environments in the midwest. She has studied history and black studies, and worked as a barista, literary nonprofit manager, nanny, publicist, events programmer, butcher, and farmer-trainee. Elizabeth is a founding member of the Minneapolis-based artist collective Burn Something, and a current MFA student in fiction at the University of Maryland. https://kimbilio.com/community/samuel-autman monthly 0.5 2026-01-26 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/693b07897e4fbb06babe730f/e5fd8198-f0f7-41bc-9c38-af4bf7ecc52d/Samuel-Autman-705x705.jpg Community Profiles - Samuel Autman Samuel Autman For the thirteen years Samuel Autman wrote for daily newspapers in Tulsa, Salt Lake City, St. Louis, and San Diego, he felt more was calling to him. After penning a front-page story about Cupcake Brown’s remarkable journey from crack addict and street gang member to law school graduate, he found it. Since then his nonfiction has appeared in It Came from the Closet: Queer Reflections on Horror, The Best of Brevity: Twenty Groundbreaking Years of Flash Nonfiction, The Kept Secret: The Half-Truth in Nonfiction, The Chalk Circle: Prizewinning Intercultural Essays, Ninth Letter, The Common Reader, Under the Gum Tree, The Little Patuxent Review, PANORAMA: The Journal of Travel, Place and Nature, Memoir Magazine, Bellevue Literary Review, The St. Louis Anthology and Sweeter Voices Still: An LGBTQ Anthology From Middle America. He’s a three-time Pushcart Prize nominee in nonfiction. When a young director named Chinonye Chukwu converted his flash nonfiction into a short film called “A Long Walk,” he began experimenting with form. His last publication, “Friends on My Screens and In My Head,” blurs the lines between personal narrative and screenwriting, television, and film history. Now a writing professor at DePauw University, he’s pursuing short fiction and screenplays. https://kimbilio.com/community/jessica-sullivan monthly 0.5 2026-01-26 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/693b07897e4fbb06babe730f/1767344480915-JZYCEUPB438KPJLPQR3F/Jess-Sullivan-1500x1500.jpg Community Profiles - Jessica (Jess) Sullivan Jessica (Jess) Sullivan is a writer based in Minneapolis, Minnesota. She received her MFA from American University. Her work has appeared in decomp journal, Fiction Writers Review, and elsewhere. When not writing, she is often found reading, going on long walks, baking, or looking at the sky. https://kimbilio.com/community/melissa-a-watkins monthly 0.5 2026-01-26 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/693b07897e4fbb06babe730f/1767344383514-XB5QUTCCTWOGJ8C27CEF/Melissa-Watkins-2025-1200x1500.jpg Community Profiles - Melissa A. Watkins Melissa A Watkins has been a teacher, a singer, a (bad) actress, and an (even worse) translator. She’s lived in 4 different countries, 10 different cities, and countless houses. Now she’s a writer of speculative fiction, essays, and book reviews based in Massachusetts. Since being a Black writer in America still means you usually have to have a day job(or two), she works as a program coordinator in higher education and performs audio description for blind and low-sighted patrons at live theatre and concert productions. Instagram, Threads, Tiktok: @EqualOpportunityReader, BlueSky: @EQReader https://kimbilio.com/community/angela-watkins monthly 0.5 2026-01-26 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/693b07897e4fbb06babe730f/1767344309266-Z2M9XEDJ0JGGL5SKENK3/Angela-Watkins-2025.jpg Community Profiles - Angela Watkins Angela Watkins is a Chicago native and serious bookworm who makes it a point to visit libraries or bookstores almost every place she visits. In 2014, she earned a Ph.D. in English from the University of Iowa and her research background is in African diasporan literature. Her dissertation, titled Mambos, Priestesses, and Goddesses: Spiritual Healing Through Vodou in Black Women’s Narratives of Haiti and New Orleans, put Zora Neale Hurston’s work in conversation with contemporary novels to explore how fiction by black women writers serve as counternarratives to colonialist, racist, stereotypical, misinformed portrayals of African spirituality. She is also an English teacher and began her teaching career as an assistant professor of English at an HBCU. Currently, she teaches Integrated Humanities at an arts high school in New Orleans. To better understand who she is, Angela has been researching her family history, uncovering surprising information about her ancestors and their difficult journeys. The biggest surprise was learning that her ancestry can be traced largely to Nigeria. She grew up sewing by hand but soon, she will be learning how to sew using a sewing machine in hopes of telling some of the stories she’s learned about her family through quilting. https://kimbilio.com/community/alonzo-vereen monthly 0.5 2026-01-26 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/693b07897e4fbb06babe730f/1767344235127-4AUJBWL5IKCT5CYHH39F/Alonzo-Vereen-2025-1500x1000.jpg Community Profiles - Alonzo Vereen Alonzo Vereen is a graduate of Morehouse College and the Iowa Writers’ Workshop. A recovering editorial assistant, he’s served on editorial teams for Barack Obama, Bruce Springsteen, and Matthew McConaughey. Currently, he teaches high school English in Washington DC. https://kimbilio.com/community/porsha-stennis monthly 0.5 2026-01-26 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/693b07897e4fbb06babe730f/1767344171364-ZURQ2HT78HM3NBZKI3E4/StennisPorsha.jpeg Community Profiles - Porsha Stennis Porsha Stennis is a fiction writer born and raised in Chicago. She received her MFA from Columbia College Chicago and has a B.S. in Psychology from Northern Illinois University. Her short stories and essays have been published in Rize Short Story Anthology, Mamas, Martyrs and Jezebels, midnight & indigo, and online at The Syndrome Magazine. In her spare time, she enjoys reading, taking yoga classes, and is completing her birth and postpartum doula certification. https://kimbilio.com/community/charles-stephens monthly 0.5 2026-01-26 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/693b07897e4fbb06babe730f/1767344099678-CHX92X57XEAHFHVM6IW2/Charles-Stephens-2025.png Community Profiles - Charles Stephens Charles Stephens is an Atlanta-based writer, and an MFA candidate in fiction at Randolph College. His work has been supported by Tin House, VONA, Periplus, The Hambidge Center, and Roots.Wounds.Words. Instagram: @charlsdotsteph , BlueSky: @charlesdotsteph https://kimbilio.com/community/sharda-sekaran monthly 0.5 2026-01-26 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/693b07897e4fbb06babe730f/1767344032312-LZUL4ZWJLGEST2HKKH9K/Sharda-headshot-1-1500x1500.jpg Community Profiles - Sharda Sekaran Sharda Sekaran is an emerging writer, longtime human rights advocate, and music obsessive native New Yorker currently based in Copenhagen, Denmark. Sharda has spent over two decades leading national and international initiatives to shift narratives around human rights, drug policy, and economic inequality. She co-founded a non-profit organization, Partners for Dignity and Rights, which just celebrated its 20th anniversary. Sharda’s writing has been published in Ebony, Colorlines, HuffPost, Filter, Mass Appeal, ATTN:, Al Jazeera, Nonprofit Quarterly, CNN.com, and Brown Girl Magazine’s anthology UNTOLD. She developed her craft through workshops with VONA, Tin House, Community of Writers, and Black Women Writers in Europe. Her fiction explores rebellion, belonging, grief, and transformation—often through the lens of music, mythology, and characters who don’t fit in. Sharda is drawn to weirdos, dreamers, and those navigating trauma in search of beauty and truth. Her debut novel, Bank of the Underworld, follows a young Black man excavating the legacy of his late father, a heavy metal-obsessed graphic artist. She is currently seeking representation and working on a second novel involving memory, belonging, family legacy, and possibly werewolves. Instagram: @shardaglass https://kimbilio.com/community/victoria-palmer monthly 0.5 2026-01-26 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/693b07897e4fbb06babe730f/1767343964976-ORQZE3D3V4471P0BP6PJ/HSDC7517V1-1-1500x1000.jpg Community Profiles - Victoria Palmer Victoria Palmer lives in Washington, DC. Her writing centers on the power and influence physical landscapes and geographies have on the sense of self and the meaning of home. Her play Tea Spilling appeared in the Best 10-Minute Plays Anthology from Smith and Kraus, and was produced in the DC/Baltimore area for the Two Strikes Theatre Collective. She is an alumna of the 2021 Kennedy Center Playwright Intensive. Her fiction work has earned support from Tin House Winter Workshop, The Yale Writer’s Workshop, and Kweli’s Art of the Short Story. She is working on a linked short fiction collection and a novel. https://kimbilio.com/community/ife-o-olatona monthly 0.5 2026-01-26 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/693b07897e4fbb06babe730f/014c2fbb-d83c-4919-87c7-52f0e002ce6e/Ife-Olatona-2025-1500x1002.jpg Community Profiles - Ife O. Olatona Ife O. Olatona is a Johns Hopkins alum and multidisciplinary writer. In 2021, he was spotlighted by The Times in an article titled “Young Hearts: 5 Poets Under 25.” He has performed poems on various stages, and his writing has been published by The New York Times, The Poetry Society, The Massachusetts Review, The Chicago Review of Books, Michigan Quarterly Review, Transition Magazine, and elsewhere. An alum of the Black Playwrights’ Gathering at the Kennedy Center—America’s national cultural center—he previously curated a contemporary African poetry exhibit at the National Museum of Language in the U.S. Born in Lagos, he has lived in multiple cities across Nigeria and the United States. He is working on a novel. Instagram: @ife.olatona https://kimbilio.com/community/guy-melvin monthly 0.5 2026-01-26 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/693b07897e4fbb06babe730f/1767343806532-I6HV403TFNOA9P2NPNWQ/Guy-Melvin-2025-773x1030.jpg Community Profiles - Guy Melvin Guy Melvin was born in North Philadelphia, and lives in Brooklyn. He has spent the majority of his career working for nonprofits that provide underserved young adults with education and career opportunities. When not working or writing, he enjoys cooking, reading, running, and producing music with friends. He has an MA in Literary Theory from Goldsmiths, University of London. His fiction can be found in Sundog Lit, ANMLY, A Long House Magazine, Cerasus Magazine and other journals. His short story ‘Champagne Pools’ was a 2023 Finalist for Best of the Net. He’s at work on a novel as well as a book of short stories. http://www.guymelvin.com https://kimbilio.com/community/darise-jeanbaptiste monthly 0.5 2026-01-26 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/693b07897e4fbb06babe730f/1767343680391-Q163ZIZKMYEDK3IG8PPH/Darise-JeanBaptiste-2025.png Community Profiles - Darise JeanBaptiste Darise JeanBaptiste is a writer born and raised in the Bronx. She earned her MFA from Rutgers-Newark and her MA in English from Brooklyn College. She is a board member with Mind-Builders Creative Arts Center, a community arts organization where she attended youth summer camp. She also volunteers with Lampblack, an organization created in 2020 to support Black writers. Her work is featured at Panorama: The Journal of Travel, Place, Nature, Electric Literature, Green Mountains Review, and Aster(ix) Journal. When she’s not writing, Darise enjoys spending time with her nieces and nephews, traveling to her father’s homeland of St.Lucia with her sisters, or visiting dessert shops in Brooklyn, where she currently lives with her partner. https://kimbilio.com/community/eliamani-ismail monthly 0.5 2026-01-26 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/693b07897e4fbb06babe730f/1767343617694-VFML54Z3KF1X41OPVQYN/Eliamani-Ismail-2025.png Community Profiles - Eliamani Ismail Eliamani Ismail is a writer and filmmaker from Washington, D.C., by way of Mali and Tanzania. She holds a B.A. in Film and Africana Studies from Scripps College and an MFA from University of Maryland. Outside of writing, Eliamani works as an educator, editor, and arts organizer. She teaches undergraduate writing at the University of Maryland, and serves as a fiction editor at Lampblack Magazine, a publication dedicated to uplifting Black writers. Her fiction often navigates African dignity, diaspora, and female agency with a strong commitment to anti-colonial perspectives. She has been supported by fellowships from the Aspen Institute, Brooklyn Poets, the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities, and Kimbilio for Black Fiction. She lives in Brooklyn and is at work on her first novel. https://kimbilio.com/community/karen-hill-crowell monthly 0.5 2026-01-26 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/693b07897e4fbb06babe730f/1767343564874-P10N3ZPZKTRJWMJBT7LZ/K-Crowell-Headshot-1221x1500.jpeg Community Profiles - Karen Hill Crowell Karen Hill Crowell is a freelance writer and copywriter who collaborates with clients ranging from global retailers to emerging brands. She’s currently at work on her first novel, which follows a twenty-something navigating the aftermath of a friendship breakup as she reckons with burgeoning adulthood, belonging, and starting over. Karen’s creative interests go beyond the page; she’s been knitting for most of her life and also enjoys crocheting, painting and tending to her small-but-mighty garden. She grew up in Washington, D.C., and now resides in Jersey City with her husband and daughter. https://kimbilio.com/community/alicia-harrmon monthly 0.5 2026-01-26 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/693b07897e4fbb06babe730f/1767343481620-HK232XHVE2WMP4AQ7NBD/Alicia-Harmon-2025.jpg Community Profiles - Alicia Harrmon Alicia Harrmon is a writer of fiction, poetry, and film scripts. Originally from Columbus, Ohio, she graduated from Indiana University with a bachelor’s in sociology and African American and African Diaspora Studies with minors in psychology, Spanish, and creative writing. Her work focuses on the rawness, complexity, and political nature of intimacy in its various forms: familial, platonic, romantic, and sexual. Her fiction is published in Obsidian: Literature & Arts in the African Diaspora, and her poetry is upcoming in the Praisesong for the People printed anthology. Additionally, she wrote and co-directed a short film titled White Dresses with filmmaker Musila Munuve. Now a fiction fellow at the Michener Center for Writers, she lives in Austin, Texas. Instagram: @aliciaharmon_ https://kimbilio.com/community/racquel-goodison monthly 0.5 2026-01-26 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/693b07897e4fbb06babe730f/1767343375183-7RMXX4D6ULBSJ18ATTRE/Racquel-Goodison-2025.jpeg Community Profiles - Racquel Goodison Racquel Goodison was born and raised in the Caribbean Island of Jamaica. She writes fiction, non-fiction, and poetry and has been a resident at the Fine Arts Work Center, the Vermont Studio Center, Millay, Yaddo, MacDowell, and the Saltonstall Arts Colony, among others. She was also awarded the Astraea Emerging Lesbian Writer’s Grant. She is on faculty at the Borough of Manhattan Community College and was a New York Writers’ Coalition workshop leader for several years. She is currently working on a collection of short stories. Instagram: @racquelgoodison https://kimbilio.com/community/kami-enzie monthly 0.5 2026-01-26 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/693b07897e4fbb06babe730f/52430861-68af-4221-ac73-9c29e2fa889b/Kami-Enzie-2025-1-1170x1500.jpg Community Profiles - Kami Enzie Kami Enzie is a New Orleans-raised, D.C.-based writer. His work appears in Chicago Review, The Glacier, Image, New American Writing, Obsidian, Passages North, and Quarter Notes, among others. He is an alumnus of Tin House Winter Workshops, VCFA’s Postgraduate Writers’ Conference, and the Iowa Writers’ Workshop. Instagram: @yungwerther https://kimbilio.com/community/erica-david monthly 0.5 2026-01-26 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/693b07897e4fbb06babe730f/acef6f5d-88db-4ae9-9791-9521a8938b67/Erica-Davis-2025-773x1030.jpg Community Profiles - Erica David Erica David was a bit of a Wookiee as a kid—hairy and prone to emitting ear-splitting sounds without reason. She has since learned to use her “inside voice” and authored over sixty books and comics for young readers. She holds a BA from Princeton University and an MFA in Creative Writing from St. Joseph’s University, Brooklyn. As a writer, educator and administrator, she has a keen interest in the ways that language and narrative shape experience, particularly their roles in creating stereotypes that have been used to prop up systems of oppression. This has led her to serve as the Director of the ACES Program for non-native English speakers at St. Joe’s and, most recently, as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Jamaica. https://kimbilio.com/community/cg-crawford monthly 0.5 2026-01-26 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/693b07897e4fbb06babe730f/1767342980917-3DSUZLTAZ8JGHHJNHKA0/C.G.-Crawford-2025--685x1030.jpeg Community Profiles - C.G. Crawford C.G. Crawford is a writer from Birmingham, Alabama, but he calls home the place of his maternal roots in the rural parts of West Alabama. He is an MFA student in Creative Writing at the University of Alabama. He has a political science degree from Auburn University at Montgomery and a Master of Theological Studies from Vanderbilt University with concentrations in American Studies and Black Church Studies. His writing attempts to wrestle with the soul, the South, and the surreal in ways that give shape to a collective human experience. https://kimbilio.com/community/ashley-m-coleman monthly 0.5 2026-01-26 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/693b07897e4fbb06babe730f/1767342881010-JDDPXF8HGRHGB070DMI4/Ashley-M-Coleman-2025-685x1030.jpg Community Profiles - Ashley M. Coleman Ashley M. Coleman is a writer and music industry executive with over a decade of experience nurturing creative talent. Her passion lies in building supportive communities for writers and artists from marginalized backgrounds, work that extends far beyond her published writing. In 2017, Coleman founded Permission to Write, a thriving community dedicated to Black writers and writers of color. Through this platform, she creates safe gathering spaces and provides educational opportunities that empower emerging voices. Coleman’s music industry work centers on supporting artists and creators, where she applies the same community-building principles that drive her literary advocacy. She believes in the transformative power of community and continues to develop programs and initiatives that provide both creative and professional development opportunities for underrepresented voices in the arts. Outside of that work, you can find her writing, listening to playlists, somewhere outside on a walk or hike with her husband, being a part of a fabulous (and supportive) community of writers in LA or buying books to add to her “To Be Read” cart. Instagram: @ashleymcoleman_ https://kimbilio.com/community/stefan-bindley-taylor monthly 0.5 2026-01-26 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/693b07897e4fbb06babe730f/1767342780878-G13SHPEXHXJJ5XYOG43X/Stefan-Bindley-Taylor-2025-1030x849.jpg Community Profiles - Stefan Bindley-Taylor Stefan Bindley-Taylor is a Trinidadian-American author, musician, and educator born and raised in Maryland. His stories balance absurdism, futurism, and sentiment to showcase characters from the Caribbean diaspora through a nuanced, humorous, and empathetic lens. His work has been published in several outlets including Adda, Brooklyn Rail, and NY Carib News. He is the winner of the 2025 Chautauqua Janus prize, the 2025 DISQUIET Flowers fellowship, and the 2024 Brooklyn Caribbean Literary Festival Prize, as well as a short-lister for the 2024 Commonwealth Foundation Short Story Prize, and a finalist for the PEN 2023 Emerging Voices Fellowship. He currently splits his time between New York City and Virginia, where he is pursuing his M.F.A at the University of Virginia. Outside of writing, Stefan received his M.Ed From Harvard Graduate School of Education and has worked as a teacher for over six years. He has also been a performing musician for over a decade. He writes and performs in a punk project called FISHLORD and an alternative hip-hop project called Nafets. He is an avid chess player, a disgruntled Manchester United fan, and a Caribbean foodie. https://www.instagram.com/stef_b.t/ https://kimbilio.com/community/emma-akpan monthly 0.5 2026-01-26 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/693b07897e4fbb06babe730f/1767341867621-XBYYP5XYJF73B9YVFZ13/Akpan-Emma-1-868x1500.jpg Community Profiles - Emma Akpan Emma Akpan is a writer who lives in Washington, DC, and was born in Toledo, Ohio. She is working on a novel about a thirteen year old girl in Toledo who uses hip-hop to navigate her difficult childhood, and a collection of short stories about women encountering gentrification in Washington, DC. She writes about girlhood, the unsaid, fugue and paths of escape, and agency for the powerless. Emma loves exploring other creative pursuits by baking cookies, taking pictures, or making floral arrangements or finding the best cup of coffee. Emma has been awarded a residency at Blue Mountain Center. She has participated in Kenyon Review Summer Workshop, Tin House Summer Workshop and is VONA Voices Fellow. Her writing has appeared in Reckon Magazine, New City Art, TBD Health, Rewire News, The Raleigh News and Observer and The Root. You can find more about Emma at emmaakpan.com, on Instagram @emmanism. [Emma was scheduled for the 2024 retreat, but got waylaid by travel troubles. We’re glad she’s able to join us for this summer’s retreat.] https://kimbilio.com/community/jeni-mcfarland monthly 0.5 2026-01-26 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/693b07897e4fbb06babe730f/325db9c2-e4f6-4ba5-9090-2806f0967952/jeni-mcfarland.jpg Community Profiles - Jeni McFarland - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/693b07897e4fbb06babe730f/4d3b928a-241f-49f0-a098-2cfcb9c44723/the-house-of-deep-water-lg.jpg Community Profiles - Jeni McFarland - The House of Deep Water Facing financial trouble, Beth, a Black divorcee with two kids, moves back to the Midwest to live with her white father, only to find him with a live-in girlfriend, Linda, a girl Beth babysat in high school. After returning home, Beth rekindles an old affair with a married man; she is also forced to address the town’s benign racism, as well as the sexual assault she experienced as a young child at the hands of a neighbor, both issues which her father has long refused to acknowledge. This is a story about the rage boiling inside a woman who has been quiet for too long. https://kimbilio.com/community/sadeqa-johnson monthly 0.5 2026-01-26 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/693b07897e4fbb06babe730f/6aab98a4-5692-4a66-b84d-c6e95dc8457b/Sadeqa-Johnson.jpg Community Profiles - Sadeqa Johnson - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/693b07897e4fbb06babe730f/71b3c33b-ed6e-4ad2-b020-40f090f05095/yellow-wife-lg.jpg Community Profiles - Sadeqa Johnson - Yellow Wife Born on a plantation in Charles City, Virginia, Pheby Delores Brown has lived a relatively sheltered life. Shielded by her mother’s position as the estate’s medicine woman and cherished by the Master’s sister, she is set apart from the others on the plantation, belonging to neither world. She’d been promised freedom on her eighteenth birthday, but instead of the idyllic life she imagined with her true love, Essex Henry, Pheby is forced to leave the only home she has ever known. She unexpectedly finds herself thrust into the bowels of slavery at the infamous Devil’s Half Acre, a jail in Richmond, Virginia, where the enslaved are broken, tortured, and sold every day. There, Pheby is exposed not just to her Jailer’s cruelty but also to his contradictions. To survive, Pheby will have to outwit him, and she soon faces the ultimate sacrifice. https://kimbilio.com/community/wandeka-gayle monthly 0.5 2026-01-26 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/693b07897e4fbb06babe730f/3d0c67a3-e05a-43c0-a024-fb8eae5e7e9d/Wandeka-Gayle.jpg Community Profiles - Wandeka Gayle - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/693b07897e4fbb06babe730f/512b037b-d96e-44e2-9fe5-e72865e18f43/motherland-lg.jpg Community Profiles - Wandeka Gayle - Motherland From London, the USA and the Caribbean, Wandeka Gayle’s mostly young black women protagonists win our hearts as risk-taking, adventurous explorers of the white world, away from home, which at some point has been Jamaica. They include Roxanne who starts work in a care home in London, who strikes up a rapport with a depressed old man who used to be a writer; Ayo who heads to college in Louisiana, and fights off the internalised voice of her godly, tambourine-beating aunt to begin an affair with an engaging, slightly older white man; there’s Sophia who comes to work in Georgia, who struggles to know whether her inability to engage more deeply with other people is really about racism or, rather, a more personally embedded reluctance. What characterises these women is a readiness to encounter, an attempt to get to grips with the oddities and strangeness of the white world, and like Ayo to engage with it, whilst being pretty sure that Forrest “could never understand her world”. They take risks and are sometimes forced to pay for their courage. Other characters have to confront situations of their own making, like Angela returning from the USA for her mother’s funeral, trying to find some point of contact with the now almost grown children she abandoned, or Melba who, after her husband dies, must confront the silence she has permitted in their marriage. https://kimbilio.com/community/lyndsey-ellis monthly 0.5 2026-01-26 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/693b07897e4fbb06babe730f/1679e4c4-02de-45a1-89b9-00cb7f12d5c5/lyndsey-ellis.jpg Community Profiles - Lyndsey Ellis - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/693b07897e4fbb06babe730f/1f09466c-396e-4f47-b551-fdd59dd4053e/bone-broth-lg.jpg Community Profiles - Lyndsey Ellis - Bone Broth Justine Holmes, a widow, former activist, and funeral thief, mourns her husband’s death during the aftermath of the Ferguson unrest in St. Louis, Missouri. As family tensions deepen between Justine and her three grown children, –an unemployed former Bay Area activist at odds with her hometown’s customs, a social climbing realtor stifled by the loss of her only child, and a disillusioned politician struggling with his sexual identity–the matriarch is forced to face her grief head-on. By reconciling a past tied to her secret involvement in civil rights activism during the early 1970’s in St. Louis, Justine quickly learns the more she attempts to make peace with her history, the more skeletons continue to rise to the surface. https://kimbilio.com/community/monica-west monthly 0.5 2026-01-26 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/693b07897e4fbb06babe730f/a6f9cc4e-f5a7-411e-aebe-3e96157e5784/monica-west.jpg Community Profiles - Monica West - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/693b07897e4fbb06babe730f/55e555eb-26b2-4853-afaf-c6dc884c1f55/revival-season-lg.jpg Community Profiles - Monica West - Revival Season Every summer, fifteen-year-old Miriam Horton and her family pack themselves tight in their old minivan and travel through small southern towns for revival season: the time when Miriam’s father holds massive healing services for people desperate to be cured of ailments and disease. After one such service in which Reverend Horton’s healing powers are tested like never before, Miriam witnesses a shocking act of violence that shakes her belief in everything she’s known to be true. When the Hortons return home, Miriam’s confusion only grows as she discovers she might have the power to heal—even though her father and the church have always made it clear that such power is denied to women. Over the course of the next year, Miriam must decide between her religion, her family, and her newfound power that might be able to save others, but, if discovered by her father, could destroy Miriam. Celebrating both feminism and faith, Revival Season is a story of spiritual awakening and disillusionment in a Southern, Black, evangelical community. It explores complicated family dynamics and what it means to live among the community of the faithful. https://kimbilio.com/community/nana-nkweti monthly 0.5 2026-01-26 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/693b07897e4fbb06babe730f/896c9ea2-bccf-4138-96fd-738d360cfcf4/Screenshot+2025-12-26+at+4.24.19%E2%80%AFPM.png Community Profiles - Nana Nkweti - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/693b07897e4fbb06babe730f/ce1f8877-3b45-474c-b376-d3e4b5625b4a/9781644450543-scaled.jpeg Community Profiles - Nana Nkweti - WALKING ON COWRIE SHELLS In her powerful, genre-bending debut story collection, Nana Nkweti’s virtuosity is on full display as she mixes deft realism with clever inversions of genre. In the Caine Prize finalist story “It Takes a Village, Some Say,” Nkweti skewers racial prejudice and the practice of international adoption, delivering a sly tale about a teenage girl who leverages her adoptive parents to fast-track her fortunes. In “The Devil Is a Liar,” a pregnant pastor’s wife struggles with the collision of western Christianity and her mother’s traditional Cameroonian belief system as she worries about her unborn child. In other stories, Nkweti vaults past realism, upending genre expectations in a satirical romp about a jaded PR professional trying to spin a zombie outbreak in West Africa, and in a mermaid tale about a Mami Wata who forgoes her power by remaining faithful to a fisherman she loves. In between these two ends of the spectrum there’s everything from an aspiring graphic novelist at a comic con to a murder investigation driven by statistics to a story organized by the changing hairstyles of the main character. Pulling from mystery, horror, realism, myth, and graphic novels, Nkweti showcases the complexity and vibrance of characters whose lives span Cameroonian and American cultures. A dazzling, inventive debut, Walking on Cowrie Shells announces the arrival of a superlative new voice. https://kimbilio.com/community/dahlma-llanos-figueroa monthly 0.5 2026-01-26 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/693b07897e4fbb06babe730f/1766740720434-Q7NGZTL2YE4WWG3WFNK2/_Dahlma+Llanos-Figueroa_Matvey+Zabbi_4.jpg Community Profiles - Dahlma Llanos-Figueroa - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/693b07897e4fbb06babe730f/58062140-1739-4249-9e6b-52e08d63d431/a-woman-of-endurance-lg.jpg Community Profiles - Dahlma Llanos-Figueroa - A Woman of Endurance Combining the haunting power of Toni Morrison’s Beloved with the evocative atmosphere of Phillippa Gregory’s A Respectable Trade, Dahlma Llanos-Figueroa’s groundbreaking novel illuminates a little discussed aspect of history—the Puerto Rican Atlantic Slave Trade—witnessed through the experiences of Pola, an African captive used as a breeder to bear more slaves. A Woman of Endurance, set in nineteenth-century Puerto Rican plantation society, follows Pola, a deeply spiritual African woman who is captured and later sold for the purpose of breeding future slaves. The resulting babies are taken from her as soon as they are born. Pola loses the faith that has guided her and becomes embittered and defensive. The dehumanizing violence of her life almost destroys her. But this is not a novel of defeat but rather one of survival, regeneration, and reclamation of common humanity. Readers are invited to join Pola in her journey to healing. From the sadistic barbarity of her first experiences, she moves on to receive compassion and support from a revitalizing new community. Along the way, she learns to recognize and embrace the many faces of love—a mother’s love, a daughter’s love, a sister’s love, a love of community, and the self-love that she must recover before she can offer herself to another. It is ultimately, a novel of the triumph of the human spirit even under the most brutal of conditions. https://kimbilio.com/community/tara-campbell monthly 0.5 2026-01-26 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/693b07897e4fbb06babe730f/1766740236028-WSHQX06MFLE6GRDRW4JC/Tara-Campbell_Photo-by-Anna-Dewitt-Carson_Vertical-2048x1927.jpeg Community Profiles - Tara Campbell - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/693b07897e4fbb06babe730f/4c79444a-3344-4c04-a90d-23d05c879c90/Campbell-Wrath-cvr-lr.jpg Community Profiles - Tara Campbell - Cabinet of Wrath Deep in the recesses of childhood memory, your old playthings await. Listen: don’t you hear them crying out for you? Come take a peek inside the Cabinet of Wrath to find out what really happens when toys go missing, and the stark decision they must make if they ever want to go home again. Discover what doll heads really think about being separated from their bodies. Follow a skull-and-bones novelty ring as it assembles a full body for itself, bit by grisly bit, and learn how loving your doll too much can lead to grave consequences. Open the door to these fabulist tales of toys and vengeance for a playtime you’ll never forget. https://kimbilio.com/community/rosalyn-story monthly 0.5 2026-01-26 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/693b07897e4fbb06babe730f/1766739983548-8IHR96VMC4G6XJZVC4V3/DSC_0015.jpeg Community Profiles - Rosalyn Story - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/693b07897e4fbb06babe730f/1fa72fb8-9bd3-4cfe-a101-1b146bc57dcf/9781572842977.jpg Community Profiles - Rosalyn Story - Sing Her Name In New Orleans on a winter night in 1919, Celia DeMille, the beautiful and brilliantly talented singer, leaves her lover’s apartment believing she has nothing to live for. The great maestro has reneged on a promise that would have revived her waning career. “The world is not ready,” he told her. A black woman had never sung in the city’s famed opera house, and now Celia will not be the first. That night, broken and distraught, she walks the streets of the French Quarter dressed in her finest and clutching her most valuable possession, the precious gold necklace around her neck. In the distance she sees fire; the opera house is engulfed in flames. Dazed and delusional, she walks toward the blaze, determined. It’s her last chance to sing on the opera house stage. In 2006, New Orleans waitress Eden Malveaux has fled the city after Hurricane Katrina and landed in New York. With her troubled teenaged brother in tow, and as his sole guardian, she has sworn to fulfill a promise to her dying father; to keep her brother safe from the streets that could easily claim his life. When Eden waited tables in New Orleans restaurants, her beautiful voice kept her customers entertained, but in New York such random bursts of song during shifts cost her the job she desperately needed. Unemployed and broke, she opens a recent letter from her estranged great aunt in New Orleans who summons her home. “I’ve got something special for you,” she says. “Something that can help you.” Eden returns to New Orleans hoping for financial help, but instead her Aunt Julia reveals a box she found in the street after the flood waters cleared. In it is a scrapbook detailing the life and career of a once-famous but long forgotten singer, Celia DeMille. There is also the singer’s gold pendant necklace. Eden returns to New York and continues to struggle, but when delving into the diva’s scrapbook, she pieces together the extraordinary life of Madame DeMille. Curiosity grows into obsession, then into inspiration, and Eden’s talent propels her into a world she never dreamed. With the help of new friends, and finding power and inspiration in the diva’s story and her fabled gold necklace, Eden’s life in New York takes a dramatic and unimagined turn. But just when Eden is poised to make her mark as a singer, her brother’s dangerous choices catch up with them, even as she confronts the shameful secrets of her own complicated childhood. To face the promise of her future, she must first reconcile her own history of mistakes and regret. For Eden, finding the path ahead means not only leaving behind the guilt of the past, but perhaps even the brother she loves. https://kimbilio.com/community/jonathan-escoffery monthly 0.5 2026-01-26 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/693b07897e4fbb06babe730f/1766739728153-6KLZO1PWAUGQ5K59LS9O/E64A8643-scaled.jpg Community Profiles - Jonathan Escoffery - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/693b07897e4fbb06babe730f/ec43612d-84ca-4e08-9f40-e46f01d7f3cb/IfISurviveYou_Cover.jpeg Community Profiles - Jonathan Escoffery - If I Survive You In the 1970s, Topper and Sanya flee to Miami as political violence consumes their native Kingston. But America, as the couple and their two children learn, is far from the promised land. Excluded from society as Black immigrants, the family pushes on first through Hurricane Andrew and later the 2008 recession, living in a house so cursed it’s begun sinking into the hill it sits atop. But even as things fall apart, the family remains motivated, often to its own detriment, by what their younger son, Trelawny, calls “the exquisite, racking compulsion to survive.” Constructed with heart and humor, If I Survive You centers on Trelawny as he struggles to carve out a place for himself amid financial disaster, racism, and flat-out bad luck. After a fight with Topper—himself reckoning with his failures as a parent and his longing for Jamaica—Trelawny claws his way out of homelessness through a series of odd, often hilarious jobs. Meanwhile, his brother, Delano, attempts a disastrous cash grab to get his kids back, and his cousin Cukie searches for a father who doesn’t want to be found. As each character searches for a foothold, they never forget the profound danger of climbing without a safety net. Pulsing with vibrant lyricism and inimitable style, sly commentary and contagious laughter, Escoffery’s debut unravels what it means to be in between homes and cultures in a world at the mercy of capitalism and white supremacy. With If I Survive You, Escoffery announces himself as a prodigious storyteller in a class of his own, a chronicler of American life at its most gruesome and hopeful. https://kimbilio.com/community/latoya-watkins monthly 0.5 2026-01-26 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/693b07897e4fbb06babe730f/1766739475199-W9S64VMXLYRMPWOYHK98/unnamed-1.jpg Community Profiles - LATOYA WATKINS - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/693b07897e4fbb06babe730f/269bc188-062d-4fb2-986c-676413b86099/unnamed+%2821%29.jpg Community Profiles - LATOYA WATKINS - Perish Spanning decades Perish tracks the choices Helen Jean—the matriarch of the Turner family—makes and the way those choices have rippled across generations, from her children to her grandchildren and beyond. Told in alternating chapters, Perish follows four members of the Turner family: Julie B., a woman who regrets her wasted youth and the time spent under Helen Jean’s thumb; Alex, a police officer grappling with a dark and twisted past; Jan, a mother of two who yearns to go to school and leave Jerusalem, Texas, and all of its trauma behind for good; and Lydia, a woman whose marriage is falling apart because her body can’t seem to stay pregnant, as they’re called home to say goodbye to their mother and grandmother. https://kimbilio.com/community/erin-e-adams monthly 0.5 2026-01-26 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/693b07897e4fbb06babe730f/10c758ab-84fb-418b-9c14-45a8d5efeda8/Erin+Adams.jpeg Community Profiles - ERIN E. ADAMS - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/693b07897e4fbb06babe730f/9a383054-d991-4b05-85a1-be3ad5b0272d/4195QYz0DIL._SX329_BO1204203200_.jpg Community Profiles - ERIN E. ADAMS - JACKAL A young Black girl goes missing in the woods outside her white rust belt town. But she’s not the first—and she may not be the last. . . . Liz Rocher is coming home . . . reluctantly. As a Black woman, Liz doesn’t exactly have fond memories of Johnstown, Pennsylvania, a predominantly white town. But her best friend is getting married, so she braces herself for a weekend of awkward, passive-aggressive reunions. Liz has grown, though; she can handle whatever awaits her. But on the day of the wedding, somewhere between dancing and dessert, the couple’s daughter, Caroline, disappears—and the only thing left behind is a piece of white fabric covered in blood. As a frantic search begins, with the police combing the trees for Caroline, Liz is the only one who notices a pattern: A summer night. A missing girl. A party in the woods. She’s seen this before. Keisha Woodson, the only other Black girl in Liz’s high school, walked into the woods with a mysterious man and was later found with her chest cavity ripped open and her heart removed. Liz shudders at the thought that it could have been her, and now, with Caroline missing, it can’t be a coincidence. As Liz starts to dig through the town’s history, she uncovers a horrifying secret about the place she once called home. Children have been going missing in these woods for years. All of them Black. All of them girls. With the evil in the forest creeping closer, Liz knows what she must do: find Caroline, or be entirely consumed by the darkness. https://kimbilio.com/community/janelle-williams monthly 0.5 2026-01-26 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/693b07897e4fbb06babe730f/8432183a-4319-4d8b-8b08-07966f138538/DSC00314-3-scaled.jpg Community Profiles - Janelle M. Williams - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/693b07897e4fbb06babe730f/62f637e9-af30-4ae8-aa17-0a62f7e94054/9780593471630.jpg Community Profiles - Janelle M. Williams - GONE LIKE YESTERDAY Sharp and wholly original, Gone Like Yesterday is a story about family and the quest for legacy but also a literary exploration of ethnic and racial identity, self, and what it means to be found. Shot-through with generation spanning song lyrics and stark societal truths, this novel explores the majestic and haunting experience of a Black American woman. Zahra is a listless college prep coach helping New York’s wealthy teens craft pitch-perfect essays to get into the most prestigious schools, while Sammie, a teenage girl and budding activist, is struggling to embrace the varied aspects of her identity. The two women are drawn to each other, seemingly randomly, before realizing an unexpected commonality—beautiful, mysterious moths have been singing the songs of Zahra’s ancestors to her for years and have more recently begun giving Sammie the eerie feeling of being watched. Then the unthinkable happens: Zahra’s brother, Derrick, goes missing. Derrick has always been enigmatic—sensitive and connected to the spiritual world—and it’s no secret he has been drifting from Zahra and her family. But this time feels different, and Zahra is panicked that he may really be gone for good. Zahra and Sammie embark on a road trip from New York to Atlanta, Zahra’s hometown, in search of Derrick. A journey that balloons into something far bigger than they could have imagined. In order to uncover the truth, they must discover what the moths and their ancestors want with them, and what that answer means for their individual and collective futures. https://kimbilio.com/community/kim-coleman-foote monthly 0.5 2026-01-26 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/693b07897e4fbb06babe730f/e0d33068-37a8-4f81-806d-40e0e6401b7e/Kim-Foote_final-au-photo_clr_Sara-Abbaspour-scaled.jpg Community Profiles - KIM COLEMAN FOOTE - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/693b07897e4fbb06babe730f/2f020d5d-eead-4bd7-a93d-666f82232445/9781638931140_FC-scaled.jpg Community Profiles - KIM COLEMAN FOOTE - COLEMAN HILL Coleman Hill is the exhilarating story of two American families whose fates become intertwined in the wake of the Great Migration. Braiding fact and fiction, it is a remarkable, character-rich tour de force exploring the ties that bind three generations. In 1916, Celia Coleman and Lucy Grimes flee the racism and poverty of their homes in the post–Civil War South for the “Promised Land” of the North. But soon they learn that even in Vauxhall, New Jersey, black women are mainly hired for domestic work, money is scarce, children don’t progress in school, and black men die young. Within a few short years, both women’s husbands are dead. Left to navigate this unwelcoming place alone, Celia and Lucy turn to one another for support in raising their children far from home. They become one another’s closest confidantes and, encouraged by their mothers’ friendship, their children’s lives become enmeshed as well. However, with this closeness comes complication. As the children grow into adolescence, two are caught in an impulsive act of impropriety, and Celia and Lucy find themselves at irreconcilable odds over who’s to blame. The ensuing fallout has dire consequences that reverberate through the next two generations of their families. A stunning biomythography—a word coined by the late great writer Audre Lorde—Coleman Hill draws from the author’s own family legend, historical record, and fervent imagination to create an unforgettable new history. https://kimbilio.com/community/mary-slechta monthly 0.5 2026-01-26 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/693b07897e4fbb06babe730f/1766734304891-5GFWTHOBNLAMVBE7CIJ9/Slechta_headshot1-scaled.jpg Community Profiles - Mary Slechta - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/693b07897e4fbb06babe730f/a08a5795-0162-41bb-9799-6c9eba9a64b7/Mulberry_Slechta-front-cover-1-scaled.jpg Community Profiles - Mary Slechta - MULBERRY STREET Mulberry Street is an African-American neighborhood with a disputed past: is it the result of white flight, a tenuous foothold for southern transplants, or a sliver spun off during the creation of Earth and once ruled by a god named Mr. Washington? The stories, connected sometimes by character and plot and always by geography, are told by and about its residents who, despite not in possession of a definitive history, have, in another sense,“seen it all”: not just the generational damage from forced migration, redlining, gentrification, racial profiling, over-policing, and other aspects of systemic racism, but, like the child in Seuss’ picture book, also the fantastical. Among the latter are children falling off the flat world; a vampire posting himself like Henry Box Brown; the ghost of the “first black meter man” taking credit for triggering white flight; and a husband building a maze to trap the “somethin,” the faceless racism that has plaqued his family and threatens his wife. Several characters reappear at different stages of life, spotlighting the impact of trauma over time on the individual and the community. A central trauma is The Fire, an attack by white vigilantes as seen from the perspectives of a woman with a talking belly, a vampire burned in his casket, a resident blamed for the the fire, and a huckster selling rebrowning cream.The perspectives help explore how trauma awakens the grifter as well as the saint, and how reparations, although important, cannot repair damage to the soul. Another recurring motif are cracks, in the asphalt and memory, which signal both destruction and hope that a new Mulberry is being born. Beginning with the start of Mrs. Washington’s atonement for the lost children, the collection ends with an ode to Toni Morrison’s project to elevate untold stories. In “A Bench on the Moon,” Marjorie, a southern transplant and griot charged with remembering things exactly as they happened, is in the mid-stages of Alzhemeir’s. Wandering away during a fugue, she is drawn into music spilling from a bar and claims to be a storyteller named Toni. The bartender and patrons, hang on every word of her intriguing tales, one of them resting his hand on her arm “like a penny on the arm of a record player” to keep the disjointed stories together. In this way the promise of a new Mulberry Street is fulfilled. https://kimbilio.com/community/amina-gautier monthly 0.5 2026-01-26 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/693b07897e4fbb06babe730f/af045d01-d4c1-4e49-a5e7-1b9b76f0e361/Amina-BW-Photo-Something-Funny-Nov-2021-scaled.jpg Community Profiles - Amina Gautier - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/693b07897e4fbb06babe730f/cb0479b5-fac9-4a1e-a1a2-2f29ccee20b0/BEST-THAT-YOU-CAN-DO-COVER.jpg Community Profiles - Amina Gautier - THE BEST THAT YOU CAN DO Winner of the Kimbilio Soft Skull Fiction Prize The Best That You Can Do is a collection of very short fiction whose stories probe the frailty of human effort and intention, and which explore the myriad ways in which people engineer their own downfalls. Grouped into five thematic subsections, with stories ranging in time from the Civil Rights era to the present day, and set in such places as Brooklyn, Chicago, Lisbon, Menlo Park, Philadelphia, Puerto Rico, and elsewhere, these very short stories follow characters threading together culturally complex identities as they attempt to connect with absent or negligent relatives, offer nostalgic looks at black childhood, depict failed and imploded romantic and interpersonal relationships, explore the increased surveillance of and violence against black bodies, and capture the plight of those who live through urban blight. https://kimbilio.com/community/toni-ann-johnson monthly 0.5 2026-02-10 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/693b07897e4fbb06babe730f/1449a655-5343-4c95-98ec-642ae30d6415/ToniAnn2025+%281%29+%281%29.jpg Community Profiles - Toni Ann Johnson - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/693b07897e4fbb06babe730f/234ffeb3-94f7-44bc-bd82-889249e0752b/Johnson_But+Wheres+Home_Final+cvr+for+publ+%282%29+%281%29.jpg Community Profiles - Toni Ann Johnson - BUt Where’s home? Deeply emotional, funny, and unflinchingly honest, But Where’s Home? lays bare the realities of Black life in America, challenging readers to confront issues of racism and classism as well as narcissistic abuse and parent-child relationships. The Arringtons are an affluent Black family residing in a picturesque, predominantly white town. Through multiple perspectives that span from the 1960s to 2022, readers are invited into the sometimes painful and often humorous lives of the Arringtons. The daughters, Livia and Maddie, must find ways to survive their narcissistic parents. Their father, a practicing psychologist, has affairs with white women in the town. Their mother is volatile, dealing with infidelity while trying to raise daughters in a place that rejects them. The complex and interwoven characters create a kaleidoscope of truths about human nature and the United States’ complicated relationship with race. https://kimbilio.com/community/james-cherry monthly 0.5 2026-01-26 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/693b07897e4fbb06babe730f/82b7bc79-b76e-4a22-8791-59686ae69977/kimbiliophoto.jpg Community Profiles - James Cherry - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/693b07897e4fbb06babe730f/7114583a-3f45-447b-ae99-29168734333a/EdgeoftheWindCover300.jpg Community Profiles - James Cherry - EDGE OF THE WIND In the highly suspenseful Edge of the Wind, the main character, a sensitive but deeply troubled 25 year-old black man, Alexander van der Pool, is off his meds and has begun hearing voices, especially that of his alter ego, Tobi. Having been holed up in his sister’s bedroom in southwest Tennessee for two months, Alex has done nothing but read and write poetry. Until one day, he is convinced writing poetry is his life’s calling and sets out to visit a local community college to have his work evaluated. But life takes a terrible turn when those at the college reject Alex and his work. When they try to kick him out, he takes matters into his own hands and holds the literature class hostage. Noted author James E Cherry holds nothing back as he tackles mental illness, race, poetry, art and the importance of relationships in this his second novel. https://kimbilio.com/community/joseph-thomas monthly 0.5 2026-01-26 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/693b07897e4fbb06babe730f/a831f6e2-adb9-4a2d-9fe6-a686fc126a4e/joseph-Thomas.jpg Community Profiles - Joseph Thomas - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/693b07897e4fbb06babe730f/899ba2bc-bd2a-46d2-916a-fb05229e87fc/download-1.jpg Community Profiles - Joseph Thomas - GOD BLESS YOU, OTIS SPUNKMEYER GOD BLESS YOU, OTIS SPUNKMEYER takes place in a Philadelphia of the present where perpetual global war, climate crisis and petty interpersonal conflicts both suffocate and sustain the negative emotional states of late capitalism, helping us all forget about, or come to terms with the fact that the Holmesburg Prison Experiments are still ongoing. It follows Joseph Thomas over one long shift in a North Philly emergency department where he works as tech. He’s just returned from Baghdad as a medic with a GI Bill and a dream. Struggling to build true emotional relationships with other adult black people, especially other men, he is also an MD/PhD student at The University of Pennsylvania. Through no accident of his own, Joseph ends up studying and writing about the Holmesburg experiments himself, wherein he gets to know his father, who has long been one of the primary subjects of skin experimentation by Johnson & Johnson and Dow Chemical. His best friend, a visual artist named Ray who is also from Philly and worked closely with him in Baghdad thinks he’s crazy, but loves him, and follows along anyway. Over the course of the hospital shift we encounter friends and lovers, family and kin from Joseph’s past, present, and future, whereby the emergency department as primary care becomes a hub for the surrounding community and contemporary moment. Trying to balance his interpersonal life as a single dad, Iraq War vet, and exhausted lover working twelve-hour shifts as a medic brings him closer than he ever imagined to his own father, and consequently, the broader socio political struggles beginning in Philly and expanding across the globe. Focusing on the relationships between care and money, time and grief, power and politics, Joseph finds himself both closer and further away than he ever imagined to the people who made him. https://kimbilio.com/community/ryane-nicole-granados monthly 0.5 2026-01-26 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/693b07897e4fbb06babe730f/1766732728425-A2PZJ2TAJXD5AMHUKITA/Ryane-Nicole-Granados-Pic.jpg Community Profiles - Ryane Nicole Granados - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/693b07897e4fbb06babe730f/af3a6a33-799a-4eed-9bb5-f0a6cb523ea9/81LuobTb6mL._SL1500_.jpg Community Profiles - Ryane Nicole Granados - THE AVES Plenty of things in Zora’s youth would seem strange to others, but they’re perfectly normal to her. Her mother’s fixation with germs, and parties, and the power of names. Her father, who Zora rarely sees, disappearing among the stars as his biggest claim to fame. Her role in explaining things to her younger sister, even as Zora works to discover her own philosophies of life. And her neighborhood, a one-way street with an entrance but no exit called “the Aves.” Zora wants more. More than an honorable name. More than glimpses of glory captured in window frames. Surviving childhood can be as intricate as the intertwined streets of Los Angeles. But as Zora grows, so does her story. And in the process, her desire for more is transformed into a tribute of the magnificent people who live alongside her. https://kimbilio.com/community/rob-franklin monthly 0.5 2026-01-26 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/693b07897e4fbb06babe730f/1766732155837-F0Y54HK58VOPRDRMEMJ2/Headshot-scaled.jpg Community Profiles - Rob Franklin - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/693b07897e4fbb06babe730f/48adef36-a830-4e14-b1df-8a87737963e5/GBH-Cover.jpg Community Profiles - Rob Franklin - GREAT BLACK HOPE An arrest for cocaine possession on the last day of a sweltering New York summer leaves Smith, a queer Black Stanford graduate, in a state of turmoil. Pulled into the court system and mandated treatment, he finds himself in an absurd but dangerous situation: his class protects him, but his race does not. It’s just weeks after the death of his beloved roommate Elle, the daughter of a famous soul singer, and he’s still reeling from the tabloid spectacle—as well as lingering questions around how well he really knew his closest friend. He flees to his hometown of Atlanta, only to buckle under the weight of expectations from his family of doctors and lawyers and their history in America. But when Smith returns to New York, it’s not long before he begins to lose himself to his old life—drawn back into the city’s underworld, where his search for answers may end up costing him his freedom and his future. Smith goes on a dizzying journey through the nightlife circuit, anonymous recovery rooms, Atlanta’s Black society set, police investigations and courtroom dramas, and a circle of friends coming of age in a new era. Great Black Hope is a propulsive, glittering story about what it means to exist between worlds, to be upwardly mobile yet spiraling downward, and how to find a way back to hope. https://kimbilio.com/community/arriel-vinson monthly 0.5 2026-01-26 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/693b07897e4fbb06babe730f/760edd91-8a3f-4ddf-92b7-1aa47dfbcfbf/6F302D27-9DA3-4E10-A714-48B7C2B17532_1_105_c.jpeg Community Profiles - Arriel Vinson - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/693b07897e4fbb06babe730f/82ae3b94-9bdc-434e-9303-febfdcb7e2ef/Under-The-Neon-Lights-sticker-1-scaled.jpg Community Profiles - Arriel Vinson - UNDER THE NEON LIGHTS Sixteen-year-old Jaelyn Coleman lives for Saturdays at WestSide Roll, the iconic neighborhood roller rink. On these magical nights, Jae can lose herself in the music of DJ Sunny, the smell of nachos from the concession, and the crowd of some of her favorite people—old heads, dance crews, and other regulars like herself. Here, Jae and other Black teens can fully be themselves. One Saturday, as Jae skates away her worries, she crashes into the cutest boy she’s ever seen. Trey’s dimples, rich brown skin, and warm smile make it impossible for her to be mad at him though. Best of all, he can’t stop finding excuses to be around her. A nice change for once, in contrast with her best friend’s cold distance of late or her estranged father creeping back into her life. Just as Jae thinks her summer might change for the better, devastating news hits: Westside Roll is shutting down. The gentrification rapidly taking over her predominantly Black Indianapolis neighborhood, filling it with luxury apartments and fancy boutiques, has come for her safe-haven. And this is just one trouble Jae can’t skate away from. https://kimbilio.com/community/nuha-fariha monthly 0.5 2026-01-26 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/693b07897e4fbb06babe730f/1766731164309-R05CBYXSRB4JFFM0D0FB/cornell1.jpeg Community Profiles - Nuha Fariha - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/693b07897e4fbb06babe730f/cad290ad-1866-44ef-acab-e0c8c05feeb4/God%2BMornings%2BTiger%2BNights_ARC.webp Community Profiles - Nuha Fariha - God Mornings, Tiger Nights In Nuha Fariha’s God Mornings, Tiger Nights, a keen and observant speaker narrates a love letter to immigration. At the same time, the speaker also addresses international and national issues such as gender norms, Islamophobia, unnerving xenophobia, and personal and cultural isolation in an increasingly dangerous America. The speaker’s astute, brave self-awareness centers the collection, and their direct, bold voice echoes in each poem. https://kimbilio.com/community/david-haynes monthly 0.5 2026-01-26 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/693b07897e4fbb06babe730f/1766721298927-H736RVJWTWAJHHH01BH3/David.jpg Community Profiles - David Haynes - Board Chair - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/693b07897e4fbb06babe730f/6b512c0f-7402-4b02-8aeb-7e869dcd9ef1/Martha%27s+Daughter.webp Community Profiles - David Haynes - Board Chair - MARTHA’S DAUGHTER: A NOVELLA AND STORIES David Haynes’s first short story collection and the first time that Haynes’s stories have ever been assembled in one volume. Steeped in everyday gossip and lives, this collection ranges from the magically real life of a city’s crumbling superhero to a rundown motel whose long-term guests are lucky to call home. In the titular novella the first hours are chronicled after Cynthia finds out her mother has died. What we learn is that Cynthia is a woman who has been bullied by her mother’s overbearing opinions, her disdain for difference, her respectability politics, and her outdated beliefs about how men and women should relate to one another. Martha’s death is less a catalyst for Cynthia’s grief than an opportunity to free herself of a burden too long endured. The sixth in McSweeney’s Of the Diaspora series, Martha’s Daughter is another record in David’s oeuvre, of the people and places he’s been recording since the beginning of his career, some thirty years ago. With its full-circle connection to David’s previous novels, Martha’s Daughter is guaranteed to enthrall longtime fans and new readers alike. https://kimbilio.com/community/elizabeth-t-gray-jr monthly 0.5 2026-01-26 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/693b07897e4fbb06babe730f/a1f10bb5-c8b5-4e45-958d-d212a416f96b/Elizabeth.jpg Community Profiles - Elizabeth T. Gray Jr. - Board Secretary - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/693b07897e4fbb06babe730f/3f2e772d-b5de-47f6-a625-289842bbdd12/elizabeth-gray-poems-after-the-operation-book.jpg Community Profiles - Elizabeth T. Gray Jr. - Board Secretary - After the Operation Elizabeth T. Gray Jr.’s After the Operation reports from the No Man’s Land she wandered following eight hours of surgery to remove a brain tumor. What does the mind feel like after something has been taken out of your skull? “An uninhabited coast,” or “all shatter and thoroughfare”? These spare poems interweave medical documents, journal entries, and memories, assembling a polyvocal chorus to document the surgery itself and the recuperation process. Four Way Books / Barnes & Noble / Amazon https://kimbilio.com/community/diana-napier monthly 0.5 2026-01-26 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/693b07897e4fbb06babe730f/7b305b88-7d32-445e-a9a8-085a473c276e/Diana.jpg Community Profiles - Diana Napier - Board Treasurer - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://kimbilio.com/community/george-higgins monthly 0.5 2026-01-26 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/693b07897e4fbb06babe730f/f5c47ec5-fb08-4473-aba6-a1c8eedc577d/George-Higgins-updated-pic.png Community Profiles - GEORGE Higgins - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/693b07897e4fbb06babe730f/2e4a3ba8-677c-4a5a-a4f4-19fc52a74412/41bsiDx%2BKOL.jpg Community Profiles - GEORGE Higgins - There, There There, There, George Higgins’s first collection of poems, is a search for that something more, that something that was promised: justice, equality, progress, and truth. The speaker seeks this promise through seeing, defending, and distinguishing. His is made among family members, The Constitution is cited, and poetry, that earnest genre, tries its damnedest to name. Seeing is practice, both literal and figurative; it is personal and political, a practice for him as both poet and lawyer. We glimpse at the origins—parents, ancestors, prisoners, judges, and poetic traditions—comprising this poet. Sometimes they deny each other. For example, In “Reading Hayden’s Frederick Douglass to the Alleged Dealers,” the speaker shares a poem by one of his favorite authors, Robert Hayden, but the accused won’t give the lawyer their attention, even after he’s bought them ties and showed them how to make the loops and turns. These tensions and operatives abound in Higgins’s work. https://kimbilio.com/community/ravi-howard monthly 0.5 2026-01-26 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/693b07897e4fbb06babe730f/83c18b20-7f7d-4c97-87dc-97d6bb452143/Ravi.jpg Community Profiles - Ravi Howard - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/693b07897e4fbb06babe730f/2949859d-d9b1-4905-a250-5e6ede88c141/503437.jpg Community Profiles - Ravi Howard - LIKE TREES, WALKING LIKE TREES, WALKING examines an old tale in the New South. Based on the true story of the 1981 lynching of Michael Donald in Mobile, Alabama, the novel follows the lives of Paul and Roy Deacon, teenagers and childhood friends of Michael Donald, as they cope with the aftermath of his hanging. It is Paul Deacon who discovers the body, and the experience leaves him forever changed. The Deacons have operated a funeral home in the city for over 100 years. When the family is asked to conduct the services for Michael, Roy Deacon must examine whether a life in the family tradition is where he belongs. The story explores the vivid history and landscape of the Gulf Coast community and takes readers down the wooden–bricked streets of turn of the century Mobile with its Spanish architecture and its tree–lined avenues that host the annual Mardi Gras parades. Readers experience the complexities of the American South–the beauty of the landscape mixed with the ugliness of its racial history–as the characters cope with a tragic chapter in the unfolding story of the New South.Seeing is practice, both literal and figurative; it is personal and political, a practice for him as both poet and lawyer. We glimpse at the origins—parents, ancestors, prisoners, judges, and poetic traditions—comprising this poet. Sometimes they deny each other. For example, In “Reading Hayden’s Frederick Douglass to the Alleged Dealers,” the speaker shares a poem by one of his favorite authors, Robert Hayden, but the accused won’t give the lawyer their attention, even after he’s bought them ties and showed them how to make the loops and turns. These tensions and operatives abound in Higgins’s work. https://kimbilio.com/community/james-bernard-short monthly 0.5 2026-01-26 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/693b07897e4fbb06babe730f/4da7a391-db55-4b49-b94b-aad76c6b8900/James-Beard-Updated-Photo.png Community Profiles - James Bernard Short - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/693b07897e4fbb06babe730f/2f790391-9cde-429d-8da9-a4d81b075414/612NpSfz07L._AC_CR0%2C0%2C0%2C0_SX960_SY720_.jpg Community Profiles - James Bernard Short - Julie Mangos Julie Mangos picks up the fast pace and tightly crafted drama delivered in Underground from Brixton with Marcella boarding a Train at Paddington Station en route to Heathrow. Brixton is no longer safe...or anywhere else in London for that matter. Marcella’s enemies have made good on their threats and based on the shocking revelations concerning the apparent identity of her father and the uncertainties that come with unearthing them, Marcella is forced to return to her native Jamaica to once and for all confront the ghosts that have inhabited her dreams since she was a child. Will Marcella’s questions finally be answered? Will a lifetime of queries and open issues be satisfactorily resolved? Or has she barely scratched the surface of unexpected and even more shocking discoveries? Jamaica is in the midst of another election cycle, Garrison Politics permeates all facets of the Island’s commerce and the unholy dynamic between the badmen and their government handlers will ignite an inevitable confrontation that finds Marcella trapped within the conflict. The Rude Bwoys have connections across the Island and Marcella will soon discover that no place is entirely safe. Her London troubles have followed her pon di Yard... and now she will have to employ an entirely different set of rules to solve them if she ever hopes to survive. https://kimbilio.com/community/jacinda-townsend monthly 0.5 2026-01-26 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/693b07897e4fbb06babe730f/33321551-d75e-4783-9727-b4d70c12253f/Jacinda-Townsend-imagee.png Community Profiles - Jacinda Townsend - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/693b07897e4fbb06babe730f/06140e99-a8de-4e3c-9c97-a2481e150aa8/trigger-warning.webp Community Profiles - Jacinda Townsend - Trigger Warning Early in life, Ruth survived a series of devastating events: Her little brother died from a childhood illness, her mother died of grief, and then her father was shot by the police right in front of their home. In the years following her father’s murder, Ruth pushes her past underground. She changes her name and moves to Kentucky, marries a man named Myron, and together they raise a kid. It’s been two decades, and she is, by outside measures, living a good life―but why doesn’t it feel good? When her marriage comes to a sudden end, their house burns down in the middle of the night, and she learns that her estranged sister has been diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, Ruth is jolted back into action. She flees again, this time back to her home state of California, with her nonbinary teenager in tow, perhaps ready at last to face her pain and retrieve her former self. Searing, surprisingly witty, and deeply human, Trigger Warning is a novel about the durational aftermath of anti-Black police violence. Through the perspectives of Ruth and Myron, and those of their friends and their child, Townsend explores divorce and desire, the heartbreaking brevity of parenting, the push and pull of old friendships, and the possibility, after incredible trauma, of reconnecting to what makes us feel alive. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/693b07897e4fbb06babe730f/99208b12-eb4d-4566-be0c-8f0e5c336f9e/HighResCover-scaled.jpg Community Profiles - Jacinda Townsend - Mother Country Saddled with student loans, medical debt, and the sudden news of her infertility after a major car accident, Shannon, an African American woman, follows her boyfriend to Morocco in search of relief. There, in the cobblestoned medina of Marrakech, she finds a toddler in a pink jacket whose face mirrors her own. With the help of her boyfriend and a bribed official, Shannon makes the fateful decision to adopt and raise the girl in Louisville, Kentucky. But the girl already has a mother: Souria, an undocumented Mauritanian woman who was trafficked as a teen, and who managed to escape to Morocco to build another life. In rendering Souria’s separation from her family across vast stretches of desert and Shannon’s alienation from her mother under the same roof, Jacinda Townsend brilliantly stages cycles of intergenerational trauma and healing. Linked by the girl who has been a daughter to them both, these unforgettable protagonists move toward their inevitable reckoning. Mother Country is a bone-deep and unsparing portrayal of the ethical and emotional claims we make upon one another in the name of survival, in the name of love. https://kimbilio.com/community/lauren-morrow monthly 0.5 2026-01-26 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/693b07897e4fbb06babe730f/1fe3728d-dc92-40e9-8eb6-d90727eb856b/Lauren-Morrow_photo-by-Kate-Enman-1.jpg Community Profiles - LAUREN MORROW - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/693b07897e4fbb06babe730f/1766511323274-SMLWF1EQ6ZGRLYHWGZFA/Little-Movements_cover-1-scaled.jpg Community Profiles - LAUREN MORROW - LITTLE MOVEMENTS A NOVEL BY KIMBILIO FELLOW LAUREN MORROW A page-turning, tenderhearted debut about a Black woman who is finally given a chance to pursue her dream of becoming a renowned choreographer, only to find that it comes at a tremendous personal cost Layla Smart was raised by her pragmatic Midwestern mother to dream medium. But all Layla’s ever wanted is a career in dance, which requires dreaming big. So when she receives a prestigious offer to be the choreographer-in-residence at Briar House, an arts program in rural Vermont, she leaves behind Brooklyn, her job, her friends, and her husband to pursue it. Navigating Briar House and the small, white town that surrounds it proves difficult—Layla wants to create art for art’s sake and resist tokenization, but the institution’s director keeps encouraging Layla to dig deep into her people’s history. Still, the mental and physical demands of dancing spark a sharp, unexpected sense of joy, bringing into focus the years she’d distanced herself from her true calling for the sake of her marriage and maintaining the status quo. Just as she begins to see her life more clearly, she discovers a betrayal that proves the cracks in her marriage were deeper than she ever could have known. Then Briar House’s dangerously problematic past comes to light. And Layla discovers she’s pregnant. Suddenly, dreaming medium sounds a lot more appealing. Poignant, propulsive, and darkly funny, Little Movements is a novel about self-discovery, about what we must endure—or let go of—in order to realize our dreams. https://kimbilio.com/community/category/Faculty monthly 0.5 https://kimbilio.com/community/category/Fellow monthly 0.5 https://kimbilio.com/community/category/Board monthly 0.5 https://kimbilio.com/community/category/2025+Fellows monthly 0.5 https://kimbilio.com/community/category/2025+Returning+Fellow monthly 0.5 https://kimbilio.com/community/category/Staff monthly 0.5 https://kimbilio.com/community/category/Author monthly 0.5 https://kimbilio.com/community/category/Fiction+Prize+Winner monthly 0.5 https://kimbilio.com/community/category/2025+Fellow monthly 0.5 https://kimbilio.com/news-events daily 0.75 2026-03-18 https://kimbilio.com/news-events/kimbilio-author-showcase-4mae6 monthly 0.5 2026-02-23 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/693b07897e4fbb06babe730f/f3708845-788e-449d-bb6e-48c1696dd3ec/TT-1220+BHM+Author+Event-JOHNSON-ig.jpg News & Events - Sadeqa Johnson Reading & Discussion - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://kimbilio.com/news-events/kimbilio-author-showcase-jn57g monthly 0.5 2026-02-27 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/693b07897e4fbb06babe730f/2530ed8c-fcc1-4e06-a7bf-ecab8edad54d/RM-0201+Favorite+Author+Event-JONES-IG-FB.jpg News & Events - Tayari Jones Reading & Discussion - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://kimbilio.com/news-events/a-reading-and-conversation-with-toni-ann-johnson-and-avery-irons monthly 0.5 2026-02-21 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/693b07897e4fbb06babe730f/1771649643805-D1YBSHP4424NH6B5NBF6/KIMBILIO-media-ads-April-2026-1200X675.jpg News & Events - A Reading and Conversation with Toni Ann Johnson and Avery Irons - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://kimbilio.com/news-events/a-celebration-of-the-kimbilio-x-leon-literary-issue monthly 0.5 2026-01-10 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/693b07897e4fbb06babe730f/1768066041455-PPT0SEQ8DRG7A5I1NSFG/KIMBILIO-Jan2026-ad-1200x675+%281%29+%282%29.jpg News & Events - A CELEBRATION OF THE KIMBILIO X LEON LITERARY ISSUE - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://kimbilio.com/news-events/kimbilio-author-showcase monthly 0.5 2026-02-21 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/693b07897e4fbb06babe730f/f51a77fa-ff39-4b48-b55c-de18c2c2d088/KIMBILIO-March2026-ad-1200x675-1.jpg News & Events - Kimbilio Author Showcase - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://kimbilio.com/reading-series daily 0.75 2026-03-11 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/693b07897e4fbb06babe730f/1767092358876-K5GIXLXJVCGVDHT0HC4V/12049636_10153608524305692_710609284266919479_n-1.jpeg The Kimbilio Reading Series https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/693b07897e4fbb06babe730f/1769366317875-9DQT2QW1ENYEAM7RQ2K8/Another+reading+series+photo+%28alternaitve+national+fiction+prize%29.jpg The Kimbilio Reading Series https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/693b07897e4fbb06babe730f/1769366336804-PAN2RBN9N78TVUK22WX0/For+Reading+Series+page+3.png The Kimbilio Reading Series https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/693b07897e4fbb06babe730f/1767092364599-1QYL10AE5ET975244JIO/IMG_2652.jpg The Kimbilio Reading Series https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/693b07897e4fbb06babe730f/1769366336622-7JJZ45FHFEFMF4J3GJ6J/For+Reading+Series+page+2.png The Kimbilio Reading Series https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/693b07897e4fbb06babe730f/1769366359537-3FF40PQLOIXF5525V8FM/For+Reading+Series+page.png The Kimbilio Reading Series https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/693b07897e4fbb06babe730f/1767092364794-H8CKQD6BBQVAZA4VRMNL/IMG_2653-1.jpg The Kimbilio Reading Series https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/693b07897e4fbb06babe730f/1767092365842-HNM3FPE5YHTQ7YUZMJAA/reading-series2.jpg The Kimbilio Reading Series https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/693b07897e4fbb06babe730f/1769366339040-6YX8WXV41HFRNU7W5DJA/Readign+Series+%281%29.jpg The Kimbilio Reading Series https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/693b07897e4fbb06babe730f/1769366341728-P5FFRPW1Q0RNTL7BA6Z2/Reading+series+.jpg The Kimbilio Reading Series https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/693b07897e4fbb06babe730f/1767092366091-MGO9MN2D8TO5S32AKS2N/reading-series3.jpg The Kimbilio Reading Series https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/693b07897e4fbb06babe730f/1767092367161-DAXLDQD9WBA6PN5Z8XB6/reading-series4.jpg The Kimbilio Reading Series https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/693b07897e4fbb06babe730f/1767092367825-TOVUCDOWJTJBBUC2H127/reading-series5+%281%29.jpg The Kimbilio Reading Series https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/693b07897e4fbb06babe730f/1767092368443-EYWWLL02TT989EAGDX8F/reading-series6+%281%29.jpg The Kimbilio Reading Series https://kimbilio.com/reading-series/lauren-morrow-and-rickey-fayne-left-bank-books-7z3x8-fysgd monthly 0.5 2026-03-11 https://kimbilio.com/reading-series/lauren-morrow-and-rickey-fayne-left-bank-books-7z3x8 monthly 0.5 2026-03-11 https://kimbilio.com/reading-series/lauren-morrow-and-rickey-fayne-left-bank-books monthly 0.5 2026-02-27 https://kimbilio.com/reading-series/denne-michele-norris-and-angela-flournoy-left-bank-books monthly 0.5 2025-12-30 https://kimbilio.com/reading-series/jacinda-townsend-arriel-vinson-and-allegra-solomon-zoom monthly 0.5 2026-02-27 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/693b07897e4fbb06babe730f/1767084014023-PCVBTFKM9KMH5FJ2E4DA/SnapInsta.to_565345095_18110050789570942_4001398045194827423_n.jpg The Kimbilio Reading Series - Jacinda Townsend, Arriel Vinson, and Allegra Solomon @ Zoom - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://kimbilio.com/retreat daily 0.75 2026-02-02 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/693b07897e4fbb06babe730f/a15ea6b1-c308-4fce-afe9-193333e50292/Retreat+Alt+2.jpg The Kimbilio Retreat - About the Retreat The Kimbilio Retreat provides new and emerging fiction writers with dedicated time, space, and community support to develop their work. In 2026, it will be hosted at Wildacres in the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina. Kimbilio’s signature program facilitates writers finding their voices and honing their craft through culturally responsive teaching, and through the nurturing support and mentorship of established writers. Previous Fellows have published over a dozen novels and short story collections and have been nominated for and have been awarded major literary prizes. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/693b07897e4fbb06babe730f/386d971f-b35f-4f10-8987-eefddc09126e/MZP0812.2jpg+%281%29.jpg The Kimbilio Retreat - The Figueroa Sisters Fellowship The Figueroa Sisters Fellowship has been established and seeded with funds by Dahlma Llanos-Figueroa. She writes: “As a Kimbilio alumna, I am pleased to offer a fellowship, named after three Afro-Puerto Rican women who were, in their very quiet, very private way, role models for me and other women in our family. My mother Carmen, and her sisters, Betty and Cani, were my first storytellers and, unbeknownst to them, started me on my long journey to being a published writer. I can almost hear them cheering as they stand at my back, delighting in the narratives, many based on their own stories, that I now share with my readers. I am equally sure, that they rejoice in knowing that this modest fellowship will help propel another woman in her journey on the road to becoming a storyteller in her own right. Women of color, 50 years and over, are encouraged to apply. We need to tell our own, authentic stories, in our own authentic voices.” Dahlma Llanos-Figueroa is a novelist, author of “Daughters of the Stone” (Dahlma Llanos-Figueroa, 2019) and “A Woman of Endurance” (Amistad, 2022) https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/693b07897e4fbb06babe730f/1703490c-2de1-4d57-81d9-a11b67fdf35a/DSC_0282-scaled+%281%29.jpg The Kimbilio Retreat Kimbilio welcomes support of the retreat! To contribute, please find our donation portal at this link: DONATE TO KIMBILIO. If you are interested in establishing a new fellowship, please contact us via email. We encourage you to donate in honor of someone who has made a difference in your life. https://kimbilio.com/retreat/2025 monthly 0.5 2026-01-22 https://kimbilio.com/retreat/2024 monthly 0.5 2025-12-24 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/693b07897e4fbb06babe730f/5257128e-4c96-4924-90a8-5abbc26ed7a2/2024+Fellows.png The Kimbilio Retreat - 2024 Fellows - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://kimbilio.com/retreat/2023 monthly 0.5 2025-12-24 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/693b07897e4fbb06babe730f/74da833d-0721-4e78-9eaa-2d36c750ab47/Screenshot+2025-12-24+at+7.46.42%E2%80%AFPM.png The Kimbilio Retreat - 2023 Fellows - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://kimbilio.com/retreat/2022 monthly 0.5 2025-12-24 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/693b07897e4fbb06babe730f/dbf23505-2626-48d4-996f-79ea6d70700f/IMG_1946-2048x1536+%281%29.jpg The Kimbilio Retreat - 2022 Fellows - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://kimbilio.com/retreat/2019 monthly 0.5 2025-12-24 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/693b07897e4fbb06babe730f/74d2df5e-7847-4794-89bf-f9fce6caf041/2019-fellows.jpg The Kimbilio Retreat - 2019 Fellows - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://kimbilio.com/retreat/2018 monthly 0.5 2025-12-24 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/693b07897e4fbb06babe730f/96843eb6-55c5-4406-8a2d-00e5ef255fcd/2018-fellows.jpg The Kimbilio Retreat - 2018 Fellows - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://kimbilio.com/retreat/2017 monthly 0.5 2025-12-24 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/693b07897e4fbb06babe730f/6fa1bb45-7027-48de-89b3-4433348a5540/2017-fellows.jpg The Kimbilio Retreat - 2017 Fellows - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://kimbilio.com/retreat/2016 monthly 0.5 2025-12-24 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/693b07897e4fbb06babe730f/db76a4ec-2797-49f6-b4b2-f808d5e3de7d/IMG_0923-2-1030x1030.jpeg The Kimbilio Retreat - 2016 Fellows - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://kimbilio.com/retreat/2015 monthly 0.5 2025-12-24 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/693b07897e4fbb06babe730f/94be27cd-5f71-45b5-b8f7-d46f6475a82a/IMG_3014-copy-2048x1365.jpg The Kimbilio Retreat - 2015 Fellows - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://kimbilio.com/retreat/2014 monthly 0.5 2025-12-24 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/693b07897e4fbb06babe730f/7492893b-7ce8-49cd-8945-8dffc2f316ee/2014-07-25-13.42.10-1500x1125.jpg The Kimbilio Retreat - 2014 Fellows - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://kimbilio.com/retreat/2013 monthly 0.5 2025-12-24 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/693b07897e4fbb06babe730f/e05b4bf0-503f-470f-970f-ef1a8cb0fedc/2013-07-24-19.55.59-rotated.jpg The Kimbilio Retreat - 2013 Fellows - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://kimbilio.com/home daily 1.0 2026-04-02 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ec321c2af33de48734cc929/1618497259178-6XJGK9GR6YAVBQL5L519/20140301_Trade-151_012-2.jpg Home https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ec321c2af33de48734cc929/1607694583486-2PQT0LQ193RL7MCB6DX4/20140228_Trade+151_0046.jpg Home https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ec321c2af33de48734cc929/1607694644871-IC85FNH781UNZSZEGHDR/Aro+Ha_0428.jpg Home https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/693b07897e4fbb06babe730f/d8bef2a2-ce49-4123-9fc2-5d3ad2e87cba/DSC06871-1030x580.jpeg Home https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/693b07897e4fbb06babe730f/53aa65d0-a234-4d3e-94ba-58204ac65856/LEON-Literary-Logo-480x400.png https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/693b07897e4fbb06babe730f/186015d6-4353-4cc3-97d7-9c61870e37aa/sponsor-logo-SMU.jpg https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/693b07897e4fbb06babe730f/d3c49765-7747-4a54-8605-64829b69c07a/sponsor-logo-Four-Way-Books.jpg https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/693b07897e4fbb06babe730f/e34b68ac-875f-4564-b912-bc0162e805ea/KFAF.png https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/693b07897e4fbb06babe730f/43e739b3-39a9-4006-9cff-8b117fc4289e/sponsor-logo-Community-of-Writers.jpg https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/693b07897e4fbb06babe730f/60827bf4-f9ab-447f-b721-fb3ee57b3c78/sponsor-logo-VLAA.jpg https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/693b07897e4fbb06babe730f/41281191-eb2c-417b-b81e-32f529b3c6b5/rac-logo-resized.png https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/693b07897e4fbb06babe730f/88077dd3-b473-4a32-be5e-015245223a15/LBB-logo_A_web_address-80x80.webp https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/693b07897e4fbb06babe730f/b3750a18-6b05-41b9-8e8e-df00ea0821fc/DSC_0282-scaled+%281%29.jpg Home - The Kimbilio Retreat An annual immersive writing residency for new and returning Kimbilio Fellows. Fellows participate in workshops, classes, individual conferences—with plenty of time for their own work and to build community. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/693b07897e4fbb06babe730f/a54c91a9-2f58-42e5-b9ce-846e4f35aef6/Reading+series+.jpg Home - The Kimbilio Reading Series Live literary events celebrating our community of writers and their work. Join us for readings, conversations, and celebrations of Black fiction. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/693b07897e4fbb06babe730f/039859f2-35aa-4072-bbe2-0664de362372/For+National+Fiction+Prize+on+Home+Page+%28one+of+the+winners+is+featured%29.png Home - The Kimbilio National Fiction Prize Recognizing excellence in fiction by writers of the African diaspora. This annual award celebrates outstanding literary achievement. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/693b07897e4fbb06babe730f/1dc3b5ed-a17a-4203-8b5b-2a469eadb03a/Wildacres1.png Home - The Kimbilio Mentorship Project One-on-one guidance from established authors to develop your craft and career. Mentees work closely with acclaimed writers over an extended period. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/693b07897e4fbb06babe730f/e4ae6755-50a6-47fe-863c-9ffe5c8ed852/Irons_Belonging+to+the+Air_Final+cvr+for+publ+%283%29.jpg Home - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/693b07897e4fbb06babe730f/537a3ce0-7f95-46a1-bca4-827de6a8cd75/IMG_6920+%282%29+%281%29.JPEG Home - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/693b07897e4fbb06babe730f/a9e9a870-2ecf-41f9-84bc-e510fdaa0d77/Neon+Steel+-+2+%281%29.webp Home - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/693b07897e4fbb06babe730f/dd7da8ff-80e1-4899-8732-2ddcf35c23b8/Johnson_But+Wheres+Home_Final+cvr+for+publ+%282%29+%281%29.jpg Home - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/693b07897e4fbb06babe730f/a404b8cd-1741-4249-932c-2b3242129298/Screenshot+2025-11-24+at+11.18.38%E2%80%AFAM.png Home - Community Growing and nurturing a powerful writing community https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/693b07897e4fbb06babe730f/62e45311-b430-444c-86fd-1dcf90b708d5/Literary+Excellence+copy.jpg Home - Literary Excellence Fostering the highest standards of literary craft and artistry https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/693b07897e4fbb06babe730f/2b6709bf-9564-4a95-a15a-28cc45b2d240/Screen+Shot+2017-07-24+at+8.31.01+PM.png Home - Legacy Sharing and preserving literary excellence https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/693b07897e4fbb06babe730f/af7354e3-5a06-4b49-95d4-653b26b9581b/Screen+Shot+2017-07-26+at+2.15.03+AM.png Home - Outreach Showcasing resources that support black writing and writers https://kimbilio.com/programs daily 0.75 2026-02-02 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/693b07897e4fbb06babe730f/db66ca94-eb04-43d2-b905-57f150995d6c/Another+possible+Kimbilio+Retreat+page+-+for+Home.png Programs - The Kimbilio Retreat An annual immersive writing residency for new and returning Kimbilio Fellows. Fellows participate in workshops, classes, individual conferences—with plenty of time for their own work and to build community. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/693b07897e4fbb06babe730f/039859f2-35aa-4072-bbe2-0664de362372/For+National+Fiction+Prize+on+Home+Page+%28one+of+the+winners+is+featured%29.png Programs - The Kimbilio National Fiction Prize Recognizing excellence in fiction by writers of the African diaspora. This annual award celebrates outstanding literary achievement. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/693b07897e4fbb06babe730f/a54c91a9-2f58-42e5-b9ce-846e4f35aef6/Reading+series+.jpg Programs - The Kimbilio Reading Series Live literary events celebrating our community of writers and their work. Join us for readings, conversations, and celebrations of Black fiction. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/693b07897e4fbb06babe730f/ebe5af8a-a32d-4b02-b729-f427bcaa5095/For+Kimbilio+Mentorship+Series+page+%281%29.jpg Programs - The Kimbilio Mentorship Project One-on-one guidance from established authors to develop your craft and career. Mentees work closely with acclaimed writers over an extended period. https://kimbilio.com/contact daily 0.75 2026-02-02 https://kimbilio.com/donate daily 0.75 2026-02-02 https://kimbilio.com/mentorship daily 0.75 2026-02-02 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/693b07897e4fbb06babe730f/2b1e363b-1119-4ba4-b5be-4e4814052888/For+Kimbilio+Mentorship+Series+page+%281%29.jpg The Kimbilio Mentorship Project - About the Program The Kimbilio Mentorship Project connects emerging fiction writers with established authors for intensive, personalized guidance. Over six months, mentees receive dedicated support in developing their manuscripts and navigating the publishing landscape. Our mentors are acclaimed authors who understand the unique challenges and opportunities facing writers of the African diaspora. They provide not only craft guidance but also career mentorship and community connection. https://kimbilio.com/newsletter daily 0.75 2026-02-02 https://kimbilio.com/national-fiction-prize daily 0.75 2026-02-02 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/693b07897e4fbb06babe730f/7db01b06-a096-44d9-ac34-997c8c85c37b/Screenshot+2025-12-28+at+11.53.39%E2%80%AFPM.png The Kimbilio National Fiction Prize - A MOTHER’S TRUTH by Donnetrice Allison Selected by Jacinda Townsend The Kimbilio National Fiction Prize is a collaborative project with Four Way Books. A celebration and affirmation of the best in contemporary fiction, the contest is open to writers of the African Diaspora. Dr. Allison’s book, A Mother’s Truth, will be published by Four Way Books in 2027! https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/693b07897e4fbb06babe730f/81b52a23-79ca-4d32-bee3-c08ac572a9e8/There%27s+Nothing+Left.jpeg The Kimbilio National Fiction Prize - 2025: THERE’S NOTHING LEFT FOR YOU HERE by Allegra Solomon Selected by Carolyn Ferrell https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/693b07897e4fbb06babe730f/a08a5795-0162-41bb-9799-6c9eba9a64b7/Mulberry_Slechta-front-cover-1-scaled.jpg The Kimbilio National Fiction Prize - 2023: MULBERRY STREET STORIES by Mary McLaughlin Slechta Selected by Deesha Phillyaw https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/693b07897e4fbb06babe730f/e8f47bc9-e7a9-463d-a189-1be4747423f9/Malawis-Sisters_Hatter_Cover.jpg The Kimbilio National Fiction Prize - 2019: MALAWI’S SISTERS by Melanie S. Hatter Selected by Edwidge Dandicat https://kimbilio.com/about daily 0.75 2026-02-02 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/693b07897e4fbb06babe730f/429d3e58-469d-40c6-9059-804df0259d41/IMG_5911.jpeg About Kimbilio Kimbilio® is a 501(c)(3) organization, incorporated in the state of Missouri. Our board and staff are unpaid volunteers, and all donations directly benefit programming for the Fellows and the larger literary community. We are grateful to the English Department and to Dedman College at Southern Methodist University for their ongoing support of the Kimbilio Retreat. Kimbilio is also supported by grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, the National Book Foundation, the Regional Arts Commission of St. Louis, and the generosity of many individual donors. Kimbilio® is the registered trademark of the literary organization. The name and logo may be used only with permission of the Kimbilio Board of Directors. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/693b07897e4fbb06babe730f/53aa65d0-a234-4d3e-94ba-58204ac65856/LEON-Literary-Logo-480x400.png https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/693b07897e4fbb06babe730f/28da0b3f-021b-45d8-985c-4c352dabe5f4/sponsor-logo-NEA.jpg https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/693b07897e4fbb06babe730f/186015d6-4353-4cc3-97d7-9c61870e37aa/sponsor-logo-SMU.jpg https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/693b07897e4fbb06babe730f/d3c49765-7747-4a54-8605-64829b69c07a/sponsor-logo-Four-Way-Books.jpg https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/693b07897e4fbb06babe730f/e34b68ac-875f-4564-b912-bc0162e805ea/KFAF.png https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/693b07897e4fbb06babe730f/43e739b3-39a9-4006-9cff-8b117fc4289e/sponsor-logo-Community-of-Writers.jpg https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/693b07897e4fbb06babe730f/60827bf4-f9ab-447f-b721-fb3ee57b3c78/sponsor-logo-VLAA.jpg https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/693b07897e4fbb06babe730f/41281191-eb2c-417b-b81e-32f529b3c6b5/rac-logo-resized.png https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/693b07897e4fbb06babe730f/70851806-80c5-41b1-883a-d654e100ad1c/download.jpg https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/693b07897e4fbb06babe730f/8056c97d-71b2-4a24-9649-717ae1413d44/Literary-Arts-Emergency-Fund-supported-by-the-Mellon-Foundation-2-495x270.png https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/693b07897e4fbb06babe730f/50a03a69-0707-4486-a475-faf6138576fa/download-e1671476211583.png https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/693b07897e4fbb06babe730f/88077dd3-b473-4a32-be5e-015245223a15/LBB-logo_A_web_address-80x80.webp https://kimbilio.com/directory daily 0.75 2026-03-11 https://kimbilio.com/faculty-staff daily 0.75 2026-02-02 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/693b07897e4fbb06babe730f/f08341ae-953c-4273-8b54-d3785c292521/Another+possible+faculty+picture+%281%29.png Faculty & Staff - THE KIMBILIO FACULTY 2025: Carolyn Ferrell, Naomi Jackson, Rion Amilcar Scott, Asali Solomon 2024: Lesley Arimah, Jabari Assim, Angela Flournoy, Jacinda Townsend, 2023: Patricia Elam, Dana Johnson, Renee Simms, Asali Solomon 2022: Danielle Evans, Angela Flournoy, Ravi Howard, Rion Amilcar Scott 2019: Ravi Howard, ZZ Packer, Asali Solomon, Rion Amilcar Scott 2018: Natalie Baszile, Dana Johnson, Martha Southgate, Jacinda Townsend 2107: Danielle Evans, Angela Flournoy, Ravi Howard, Jacinda Townsend 2016: Jeffrey Renard Allen, Danielle Evans, Asali Solomon 2015: Jeffrey Renard Allen, Angela Flournoy, Dolen Perkins-Valdez 2014: Mat Johnson, ZZ Packer 2013: ZZ Packer, Dolen Perkins-Valdez David Haynes teaches at the retreat as needed. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/693b07897e4fbb06babe730f/dd2a99ce-4658-4fb2-8d55-c03504565eea/snapinst.to_pR49G_QunzyMPjJHxtlkoK17v_Z3EO%26AwIr68BNmqLYFD5C20s.png Faculty & Staff - WHO GETS THE WORK DONE Organizational Development Consultant and Retreat Operations Manager: Diana Napier Administrative Manager: Nuha Fariha Chair of the English Department, SMU: Christopher González Assistant to the Chair of the English Department: Deanna Hooper Steadfast Tax and Accounting Solutions Consigliere: Kima Jones https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/693b07897e4fbb06babe730f/a404b8cd-1741-4249-932c-2b3242129298/Screenshot+2025-11-24+at+11.18.38%E2%80%AFAM.png Faculty & Staff - Community Growing and nurturing a powerful writing community https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/693b07897e4fbb06babe730f/bef58f5b-4209-4dd4-8075-46e0f8133ae5/334177485_799006074918986_3355074614000588892_n-1030x1030.png Faculty & Staff - Literary Excellence Fostering the highest standards of literary craft and artistry https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/693b07897e4fbb06babe730f/2b6709bf-9564-4a95-a15a-28cc45b2d240/Screen+Shot+2017-07-24+at+8.31.01+PM.png Faculty & Staff - Legacy Sharing and preserving literary excellence https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/693b07897e4fbb06babe730f/af7354e3-5a06-4b49-95d4-653b26b9581b/Screen+Shot+2017-07-26+at+2.15.03+AM.png Faculty & Staff - Outreach Showcasing Resources that support black writing and writers https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/693b07897e4fbb06babe730f/53aa65d0-a234-4d3e-94ba-58204ac65856/LEON-Literary-Logo-480x400.png https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/693b07897e4fbb06babe730f/28da0b3f-021b-45d8-985c-4c352dabe5f4/sponsor-logo-NEA.jpg https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/693b07897e4fbb06babe730f/186015d6-4353-4cc3-97d7-9c61870e37aa/sponsor-logo-SMU.jpg https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/693b07897e4fbb06babe730f/d3c49765-7747-4a54-8605-64829b69c07a/sponsor-logo-Four-Way-Books.jpg https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/693b07897e4fbb06babe730f/e34b68ac-875f-4564-b912-bc0162e805ea/KFAF.png https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/693b07897e4fbb06babe730f/43e739b3-39a9-4006-9cff-8b117fc4289e/sponsor-logo-Community-of-Writers.jpg https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/693b07897e4fbb06babe730f/60827bf4-f9ab-447f-b721-fb3ee57b3c78/sponsor-logo-VLAA.jpg https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/693b07897e4fbb06babe730f/41281191-eb2c-417b-b81e-32f529b3c6b5/rac-logo-resized.png https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/693b07897e4fbb06babe730f/70851806-80c5-41b1-883a-d654e100ad1c/download.jpg https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/693b07897e4fbb06babe730f/8056c97d-71b2-4a24-9649-717ae1413d44/Literary-Arts-Emergency-Fund-supported-by-the-Mellon-Foundation-2-495x270.png https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/693b07897e4fbb06babe730f/50a03a69-0707-4486-a475-faf6138576fa/download-e1671476211583.png https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/693b07897e4fbb06babe730f/88077dd3-b473-4a32-be5e-015245223a15/LBB-logo_A_web_address-80x80.webp https://kimbilio.com/the-kimbilio-community daily 0.75 2026-02-02 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/693b07897e4fbb06babe730f/35fd852d-b4d2-4013-9dda-0f58d7f9a082/snapinst.to_k4uR9BHOPMDZGzlsx5vIAEC_Nn0_8wm1yFoj7YKp%26tq3QL6Jr2.png The Kimbilio Community - Fellows The heart of the Kimbilio community. Kimbilio Fellows are writers selected through a highly competitive process to participate in our retreats, mentorship opportunities, and ongoing community programming. Fellows represent a wide range of voices, styles, and stages of career, united by a commitment to craft and storytelling. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/693b07897e4fbb06babe730f/8ed71b59-2902-401b-af1d-9a2faa82fb05/Another+possible+faculty+picture+%281%29.png The Kimbilio Community - Faculty And Staff Writers and educators who guide and mentor our Fellows and the team that keeps Kimbilio running. Kimbilio Faculty are accomplished writers and teachers who lead workshops, mentor Fellows, and contribute to the artistic life of the organization. Kimbilio’s staff supports the day-to-day operations of the organization, coordinates programs and events, and ensures that Fellows and Faculty have the resources they need to thrive. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/693b07897e4fbb06babe730f/08623bd7-89fc-42b6-9ff3-c762eb37e21a/2024+Fellows.png The Kimbilio Community - Directory A complete listing of the Kimbilio community. The Kimbilio Directory provides an alphabetical listing of Fellows, Faculty, and other members of the community. This space is designed to help visitors explore the breadth of writers and leaders connected to Kimbilio. https://kimbilio.com/becoming-a-fellow daily 0.75 2026-02-02 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/693b07897e4fbb06babe730f/04c2a20f-8b00-43c7-8a35-2e712cdf229a/Reatreat+alternative+1.jpg Becoming a Fellow If you are a serious-minded, committed writer with a solid grounding in the fundamentals of fictional craft, you should consider applying to become a Kimbilio Fellow. Applications for new Fellowships open in January of each year. Interested writers submit a sample of their fiction writing and a short essay about why they are interested in becoming a Kimbilio Fellow. Applications are juried by outside evaluators who are themselves accomplished fiction writers. New Fellows are announced in the spring, along with final arrangements for the summer retreat. https://kimbilio.com/becoming-a-fellow-1 daily 0.75 2026-02-02 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/693b07897e4fbb06babe730f/360da266-0e85-4a3c-8ed5-3fb3282b858c/534315243_18524027074051895_287780258430806730_n.jpg Applications are Open - THE PROCESS If you are a serious-minded, committed writer with a solid grounding in the fundamentals of fictional craft, you should consider applying to become a Kimbilio Fellow. The retreat will take place at WILDACRES in Little Switzerland, NC, August 10-16, 2026. You are required to attend the entire retreat, arriving for a 5:30pm dinner meeting on the 10th and departing on the morning of the 16th, no later than noon. Tuition is covered by Kimbilio, and we provide transportation to and from Charlotte/Douglas Airport in North Carolina (CLT). Participants are responsible for their own transportation to North Carolina as well as a small fee that partially covers the costs for room and board with the amount varying by size of the chosen accommodation. Fees for a room shared with one other fellow are $325 for the retreat week. The is a ten dollar application fee which covers Kimbilio’s costs related to the application process, which include paying our retreat jury and the costs of using the submission platform. The application process consists of: An essay of no more than 150 words describing what attending the Kimbilio Summer Retreat means for you or what you hope to gain from the experience. A 20-page, double-spaced, 12-point font manuscript of fiction (short story or novel excerpt). If submitting a novel excerpt, you may include a short summary of no more than 200 words. Juries will not read beyond the page limit. The summary page does not count as part of the 20-page excerpt. Apply through Submittable between now and March 31, 2026! THE KIMBILIO APPLICATION PORTAL https://kimbilio.com/application daily 0.75 2026-04-02 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/693b07897e4fbb06babe730f/6a2ccf96-436c-4cf9-9e2b-59280d7d2fc0/Summer+2025+Wildarcres1.png Application Season is Open - THE APPLICATION CYCLE IS CURRENTLY CLOSED. We welcome you to check in June 2026 to welcome our new class of Fellows. More infomation about the next Kimbilio Fellowship cycle will be posted in 2027. https://kimbilio.com/privacy-policy daily 0.75 2026-02-10