Black on Black: On Our Resilience and Brilliance in America

Releasing in paperback January 2025 *From the Viral Clark Atlanta University Commencement Speaker* *From the Georgia Author of the Year Award Winner* *A Zibby's Most Anticipated Book of 2023* *A "Next Big Idea Club" Must-Read Book for January* *An Essence "Books by Black Authors to Read This Winter" Pick* *An Ebony Entertainment "Required Reading" Book for January* *A Lambda Literary "Most Anticipated LGBTQIA+ Literature" for January* *A Southern Review of Books Best Book of January* A piercing collection of essays on racial tension in America and the ongoing fight for visibility, change, and lasting hope "There are stories that must be told." Acclaimed novelist and scholar Daniel Black has spent a career writing into the unspoken, fleshing out, through storytelling, pain that can't be described. Now, in his debut essay collection, Black gives voice to the experiences of those who often find themselves on the margins. Tackling topics ranging from police brutality to the AIDS crisis to the role of HBCUs to queer representation in the black church, Black on Black celebrates the resilience, fortitude, and survival of black people in a land where their body is always on display. As Daniel Black reminds us, while hope may be slow in coming, it always arrives, and when it does, it delivers beyond the imagination. Propulsive, intimate, and achingly relevant, Black on Black is cultural criticism at its openhearted best.

About the Author :
Daniel Black is an author and professor of African American studies at Clark Atlanta University. His books include The Coming, Perfect Peace and They Tell Me of a Home. He is the winner of the Distinguished Writer Award from the Middle-Atlantic Writer's Association and has been nominated for the Townsend Prize for Fiction, the Ernest J. Gaines Award, and the Georgia Author of the Year Award. He was raised in Blackwell, Arkansas, and lives in Atlanta, Georgia.

Review :
"Intimate, wide-ranging, and sharply argued, this is an inspirational call for a more inclusive vision of Black community."--Publishers Weekly "Daniel Black takes his talent for writing about inexplicable pain and tells the stories of the marginalized. From police brutality to queer representation in the Black church, Daniel Black gives voice to experiences that show the remarkable resilience that has taken place, a collective celebration of fortitude and survival. A cultural criticism with stories that must be told."--SheReads "Black's new collection of essays dig deep into Blackness, history and racial tension in this country, while simultaneously serving as a powerful call to action and a celebration of Black culture."--NPR "Black on Black is a tour de force. Brilliant. Passionate. Deeply caring. One reads these essays and feels immediately enveloped in Daniel Black's love--even when he challenges you or when you might disagree. I really needed to read this book in these trying times."--Eddie S. Glaude, Jr., New York Times bestselling author of Begin Again: James Baldwin's America and Its Urgent Lessons for Our Own "In a very real sense, the moral and ethical imperative of Black on Black is to speak a truth that renders black lives sacred, valued, and luminous. In this sense, like many of my generation, Daniel Black announces a prophetic lineage that places him among Baldwin's progeny, a fierce and passionate wish for the community, indeed the country, to heal and hold itself by standards that emerge from within rather than without, an unapologetic love that runs like fire beneath the history of skin. Black on Black is tender. Beautiful. Fierce beyond measure."--Major Jackson poet and author of The Absurd Man "Daniel Black is one of our most treasured authors. Black on Black takes on a confessional mode, the stirring of a soul that shines a bright light on too many untold truths. Writers often write by hiding themselves between the pages of their books. There is no hiding in the shadows here, for we see the full evolution of Black's brilliance, his queerness, his blackness, his love of the written word. Engaging the familiar and unpacking the unfamiliar makes Daniel Black both witness and much needed prophet for our times. A book you will not want to put down and will be excited to share."--Maryemma Graham, University of Kansas Professor of English and Founding Director, Project on the History of Black Writing