Prolific urban fiction author K'wanbrings the streets to menacing life with authentic dialogue and compelling plots. Writing graphically of gang culture and drug traffic in New York, he sets a brutally fast pace sure to hook readers looking for action. K'wan's gritty series offer readers multiple volumes of his criminal characters' dramatic, violent ambitions...or equally dramatic revenge. Start with: Hood Rat.
Ashely and Jaquavis are a real life couple who began writing together during college. Their books feature realistic portrayals of urban life including, drugs, crime, and prostitution. Try: Murderville.
Deja King writes urban lit featuring strong, ruthless African-American women who are either professionals or self-made entertainment entrepreneurs. Her fast-paced novels are punchy, graphic, and action-packed. Much of the dialogue is abundant in dialect and African-American cultural references. King's complicated and melodramatic plots are filled with elaborate business schemes, double-crosses, and romantic entanglements with liberal doses of violence and sex. Her books are primarily set in New York City and Beverly Hills, California. Try: Ride Wit’ Me.
Sister Souljah began her career as a musician with the group Public Enemy, and her controversial writing continues to be influenced by hip-hop culture. Her first published work was her autobiography, in which she candidly discusses racism, poverty, and drug culture, though it has drawn criticism for homophobic remarks. Her urban fiction novels present gritty coming-of-age stories featuring young African-American characters negotiating the perils of growing up in the inner city. Try: Midnight: A Gangster Love Story.
Eric Jerome Dickey writes Mainstream Fiction focused on an accessible middle class world of careers and emotions, inhabited by African-American characters seeking to improve themselves. Firmly set in the urban black community, fashion, music, and entertainment figures are featured; and his upwardly mobile characters are concerned with public displays of wealth to cement their image. Try Chasing Destiny.
Reinventing herself as Honey Thomas, the founder of a counseling company that helps victimized women, Lace St. Thomas finally takes control of her life until her criminal past catches up to her with a vengeance.
Dylan, who lives a luxurious life despite being broke, finds herself plunged into a world of lies, lust, love, and betrayal when she attempts to cope with her latest break-up by turning to her best friend's brother for comfort.
Tired of his hustling and cheating, Kira tries to leave her drug-dealing husband Ricky as federal charges mount against him, but she faces complications along the way.
Having tricked her boyfriend into believing she is pregnant, eighteen-year-old Red enjoys his lavish attentions until she becomes pregnant for real by an ex-boyfriend who is in jail, a situation that leads her into a successful new career.
When she keeps encountering professor Steven Williams throughout the years, writer Christina Brinsely realizes that he is her destiny, but when he is implicated in the investigative piece she is writing about missing funds, her newfound happiness may be destroyed.
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