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This episode features our conversation with Naomi Rivers.

Naomi Rivers writes lesbian romance and women’s fiction. Naomi Rivers is a wife writing team who believes in romance, fairy tales, and happily ever after. Their first novel, THIS: A Simple, Complex Love Story, was written over twenty years to maintain their connection during multiple deployments. They are both retired U.S. military veterans and reside with their two rescue dogs on the east coast. Naomi’s work has appeared in I Heart SapphFic’s anthology Favorite Scenes from Favorite Authors and From a Black Perspective: The Homeland. Their second book, Why Not Us? was released on November 11. 2025.

Learn more about their work: https://www.naomiriversbooks.com/

Purchase THIS: A Simple, Complex Love Story: https://bookshop.org/a/114101/9798987329702

Purchase Why Not Us?: https://bookshop.org/a/114101/9798987329733

Find Naomi Rivers on Instagram: @naomiriversbooks

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This episode features our conversation with Dorsía Smith Silva, which was live-streamed on October 19, 2025. We chatted about her debut poetry collection, In Inheritance of Drowning (CavanKerry Press, 2024).

In this striking debut, Dorsía Smith Silva explores the devastating effects of Hurricane María in Puerto Rico, highlighting the natural world, the lasting impact of hurricanes, and the marginalization of Puerto Ricans. These poems also focus on the multiple sites of oppression in the United States, especially the racial, social, and political injustices that occur every day. Smith Silva writes with a powerful, gripping voice, confronting the “drowning” of disenfranchised communities as they are displaced, exploited, and robbed of their identities, but remain resilient. Written with unflinching language and vivid imagery, In Inheritance of Drowning reveals the many facets of the lives of marginalized people.

To learn more about Dorsía and her work, please visit her website at dorsiasmithsilva.com.

Purchase your copy of In Inheritance of Drowning TODAY by clicking here.

Here's the list of Caribbean authors mentioned during the interview (information on each writer is hyperlinked in their names): Velma Pollard, Shara McCallum, Dionne Brand, Lorna Goodison, M. NourbeSe Philip, and V. S. Naipaul.

FInd Dorsía on Instagram: @dsmithsilva

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This episode features our conversation with Tiriq Rashad, which was live-streamed on October 17, 2025 as a part of our National Black Poetry Day marathon. We chatted about his recently released spoken word album, Kiss My Art.

Tiriq Rashad, a proud native of “Atlantic-Ville” (Atlantic City and Pleasantville), blends his social work background with a gift for storytelling to create work rooted in resilience, authenticity, and healing. Author of A Diamond In God’s Dirt and shine through our shade: an evolution of self-love, his writing has earned praise from readers and icons like Nikki Giovanni for its powerful reflection of both universal and Black experiences.

Kiss My Art, which was released on October 17, 2025, is a soul-baring journey through grief, identity, and creative liberation. Merging spoken word with jazz and hip-hop, the album unfolds like a living memoir.

Purchase Kiss My Art, directly on Bandcamp.

Check out Nicole's spoken word album, IN/Put: Live from the Valley on Apple Music or Amazon Music

Find Tiriq Rashad on Instagram: @tiriq_rashad

Find Black Writers Read on Instagram: @blackwritersread

Find Black Writers Read online: https://blackwritersread.com/

Support Black Writers Read on Patreon

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