BloodFresh is a creative collection of honest poems and short stories that take risks in pulling itself out of disappointment, loss, and trauma only to operate in triumph by way of survival. This body of work speaks to the inner child, the everyday person, and future happy self told through Ebony Stewart also known as the Gully Princess. Welcome to BloodFresh.

Ebony Grace Livingston was raised to be flawless. A debutante-turned-elite event planner, she built a life around breathtaking galas, whispered exclusives, and the kind of connections money can’t buy. But when her husband’s betrayal turns her into high society’s juiciest scandal, Ebony decides she’s done curating perfection for everyone but herself.

With a high-profile wedding to pull off, a social media following obsessed with her every move, and a no-nonsense life coach reminding her that the real glow-up starts from within, Ebony is ready to write her next chapter — on her own terms. The only thing standing in her way? Lincoln Bridges, the maddeningly meticulous architect overseeing the historic venue she needs to transform. He’s stubborn, insufferably charming, and worst of all, the one man who saw through her marriage before she did.

Their creative clashes reignite old wounds, unfinished business, and the kind of chemistry that once felt inevitable. But in a world where power is played in private lounges, loyalty is measured in invitations, and champagne flows as freely as the gossip, Ebony will have to decide if rewriting her future means making room for something real.

Set in an exclusive world where wealth whispers, bottomless brunches double as battleground boardrooms, and reputation is the ultimate currency, Ebony is about to prove that reinvention isn’t just an option — it’s a luxury she’s finally ready to afford.

Celebrate the release of This Could Be Forever with Ebony LaDelle!

EVENT DEETS

When: Wednesday, May 28 @ 7PM CST

Where: 2310 Elgin St, Unit 2, Houston, TX 77004

How: RSVP ONLY to reserve your seat or RSVP WITH BOOK to support the author and our store programming. There is limited number of free tickets so please be mindful before you sign up. 

ABOUT THE BOOK

This compelling and complex romance about love across cultures follows a Black girl and Brown boy who find themselves—and each other—while pursuing their passions the summer before college.

Deja’s got a plan. The first in her large family to go to college, she wants to study chemistry and sell natural skin care products, like the ones she already creates from plants grown on her family’s North Carolina farm. It all starts with the Onward Bound summer program at the University of Maryland, the summer before school officially starts.

Raja’s got a dream. His traditional Nepali parents want him to study engineering and settle down in an arranged marriage, but his passion is art, and he wants to open his own tattoo parlor one day. In the meantime, he’s apprenticing at a tattoo shop in College Park, Maryland.

When Deja walks into the shop where Raja’s working, they both start crushing hard—over the course of the summer, they fall more and more deeply for one another. But the closer they get and the more their lives entwine, the more they find that dating someone who doesn’t match your parents’ expectations is harder than they ever imagined.

Can they bridge the divide between the vision their families have for their futures and the lives—and love—that are starting to feel like destiny?

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Ebony LaDelle is the author of Love Radio—which was People magazine’s best book of the summer, a 2023 Audie Award Finalist, a 2023 Michigan Notable Book, and was featured on the Today show—and is the editor of the forthcoming romance anthology, You’ve Got a Place Here, Too. Prior to being an author, Ebony was a brand marketing director in book publishing and worked at Penguin Random House and HarperCollins, among others. You can visit her online at EbonyLaDelle.com and follow her on social at @EbonyLaDelle.

ABOUT THE CONVERSATION PARTNER

Celebrate the release of We Exist in the Whisper with Lupe Mendez!

EVENT DEETS

When: Wednesday, August 5 @ 7 PM CST

Where: Kindred Stories (2310 Elgin St. Houston, TX 77004)

How:

• RSVP ONLY to reserve your seat.
• RSVP WITH BOOK to reserve your seat and purchase a copy of the book, supporting both the author and our store programming.
• RSVP (I ALREADY HAVE THE BOOK) if you plan to bring a copy you previously purchased from another bookseller.

Please note outside copies of the book will not be allowed in the bookstore and you will not be eligible for the signing/photo line. You must buy a book from Kindred Stories or purchase the RSVP ( I ALREADY HAVE THE BOOK) ticket. 

ABOUT THE BOOK

"One day all these classrooms / will no longer hold any of us. / Leave no evidence we were here. / We exist in the whisper…." Lupe Mendez's innovative new collection captures a unique time in Houston, Texas, "a sliver of a moment for Mexican-American and Mexican communities in the early 1970s," that explores Houston ISD's racist plan to integrate schools by sending Mexican-American children-labeled as white-to predominantly African-American schools, thereby satisfying federal desegregation laws.

Incensed that its children would have to travel to schools that were no better than the ones they could walk to, the Chicano community resisted by instituting a walkout, or huelga, and creating its own schools in churches, homes and neighborhood centers. Weaving poetry and history, the book contains "found" poems created from newspaper articles about the strike; oral history interviews with teachers, principals and students; notes from visits the author made to the sites where classes were held more than 50 years ago; docupoems created from official Huelga School papers; and historical documents such as photographs, charts, fliers and letters.

In his illuminating notes about the book, Mendez describes the methodology for creating this collection and includes a list of best practices for the "poethnographer." His research revealed the racism that existed in this era, perpetuated by the majority white population and between brown and black populations forced to compete for every resource. Ultimately, Mendez asserts the Huelga School strike had a critical impact on Houston, both in the development of Mexican-American leaders who got their start in these "freedom schools" and the nascent collaborations between diverse communities. This creative, thought-provoking volume is a must-read for anyone interested in education, history and Mexican Americans' fight for equality.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Originally from Galveston, TX, Lupe Mendez is a Writer, Editor, Educator, and Artivist…  
He is the author several books poetry and multi-genre works, including WHY I AM LIKE TEQUILA (Willow Books, 2019), winner of the 2019 John A. Robertson Award for Best First Book of Poetry, PRAYER HOLDING NIGHT: NEW & SELECTED WORKS (Texas Christian University Press, 2025) and WE EXIST IN THE WHISPER: HUELGA SCHOOL WORKS (Arte Publico Press, 2026). He is the founder of Tintero Projects which works with emerging Latinx writers and other writers of color within the Texas Gulf Coast Region, with Houston as its hub.

Lupe earned his Masters of Fine Arts from the University of Texas @ El Paso and currently serves as Poetry Editor for the Texas Observer  and Huizache: the Magazine of a New America and Associate Editor for the Acentos Review.  He has been awarded residencies and fellowships from CantoMundo, Macondo, the National Association of Latino Arts & Cultures, the Poetry Foundation + Crescendo Literary Poetry Incubator, the Betsy Hotel Writer’s Room and was one of twenty-five recipients of the inaugural Houston BIPOC Arts Network Fund (now HOUSTON IN COLOR) Artist Award for 2023. . Lupe is a 20+ year veteran in education having served classrooms across K through College in public, private and charter school settings.  Mendez is Texas Poet Laureate Emeritus (Texas Poet Laureate 2022 - 2023).

ABOUT THE CONVERSATION PARTNER

Aris Kian (she/her) is a Houston enthusiast and student of abolition. Her poems are published with Button Poetry, West Branch, Obsidian Lit, and elsewhere. As an Inprint C. Glenn Cambor Fellow, she received her MFA from the University of Houston. Her team Smoke Slam coached by Ebony Stewart ranked #1 at the 2025 Bigfoot Regional Poetry Slam and #1 at the 2024 Southern Fried Poetry Slam. She previously served as the 2023-2025 Houston Poet Laureate and was chosen as a 2025 Ruth Lilly and Dorothy Sargent Rosenberg Poetry Fellow.

Come celebrate the release of Love Radio with author, Ebony Ladelle and Dhonielle Clayton with our wonderful friends at Blue Willow Bookshop.

Event Deets: 

When: Thursday, June 2, 2022 @7 PM CST

Where: Virtual via Zoom

How: Register on this page. Once you register using our website (with or without purchasing the book), you will receive a Zoom Link at least 24 hours before the start of the event.

About the Book

Prince Jones is the guy with all the answers—or so it seems. After all, at seventeen, he has his own segment on Detroit’s popular hip-hop show, Love Radio, where he dishes out advice to the brokenhearted.

Prince has always dreamed of becoming a DJ and falling in love. But being the main caretaker for his mother, who has multiple sclerosis, and his little brother means his dreams will stay just that and the only romances in his life are the ones he hears about from his listeners.

Until he meets Dani Ford.

Dani isn’t checking for anybody. She’s focused on her plan: ace senior year, score a scholarship, and move to New York City to become a famous author. But her college essay keeps tripping her up and acknowledging what’s blocking her means dealing with what happened at that party a few months ago.

And that’s one thing Dani can’t do.

When the romantic DJ meets the ambitious writer, sparks fly. Prince is smitten, but Dani’s not looking to get derailed. She gives Prince just three dates to convince her that he’s worth falling for.

Three dates for the love expert to take his own advice, and just maybe change two lives forever. 

About Author 

Ebony LaDelle is a marketing pusher by day, storyteller by night. Born in Michigan, awoken at Howard University, and cultivated in Brooklyn, Ebony can usually be found searching for her next live concert, scouting out the latest food craze to try, or being the undisputed Mom Friend of any group. She cohosted Why Not YA?, a @Belletrist and @EpicReads monthly video series where she interviewed authors in the young adult space. You can visit her online at EbonyLaDelle.com and follow her on social @EbonyLaDelle

About Moderator

Dhonielle Clayton spent most of her childhood under her grandmother's table with a stack of books. She hails from the Washington, D.C. suburbs on the Maryland side. She is the New York Times-bestselling author of The Belles series, Shattered Midnight, co-author of Blackout, and the co-author of The Rumor Game and the Tiny Pretty Things duology, a Netflix original series. She taught secondary school for several years, and is a former elementary and middle school librarian. She is COO of the non-profit We Need Diverse Books, and President of Cake Creative, an IP story kitchen dedicated to diverse books for all ages. She's an avid traveler, and always on the hunt for magic and mischief. Her new book, The Marvellers, is her middle-grade fantasy debut.

Celebrate the release of CORD SWELL with brittny ray crowell!

EVENT DEETS

When: Wednesday, January 7 @ 7PM

Where: Kindred Stories (2310 Elgin St, Houston, TX 77004)

How: RSVP ONLY to reserve your seat or RSVP WITH BOOK to support the author and our store programming.

ABOUT THE BOOK

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

brittny ray crowell is an assistant professor of English at Clark Atlanta University, where she teaches courses in poetry and composition. She is a recipient of the Inprint Donald Barthelme Prize in Poetry and the Lucy Terry Prince Prize. She lives in Atlanta, Georgia.

ABOUT THE MODERATOR

Aris Kian (she/her) is a Houston enthusiast and student of abolition. Her poems are published with Button Poetry, West Branch, Obsidian Lit, and elsewhere. As an Inprint C. Glenn Cambor Fellow, she received her MFA from the University of Houston. Her team Smoke Slam coached by Ebony Stewart ranked #1 at the 2025 Bigfoot Regional Poetry Slam and #1 at the 2024 Southern Fried Poetry Slam. She previously served as the 2023-2025 Houston Poet Laureate and was chosen as a 2025 Ruth Lilly and Dorothy Sargent Rosenberg Poetry Fellow.

Join Viola Davis for a virtual discussion about her incredible life, career, and new memoir, FINDING ME. She’ll be in conversation with Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms.  

Event Details

When: Tuesday, April 26 @ 6:00 PM CST

Where: Virtual via Zoom

How:  After purchasing the book you’ll be registered and will receive an email confirming your event registration. Please allow at least one week between time of purchase and when you will receive the confirmation email. Your book will ship on April 26, 2022, the book's release date.

About Finding Me:

In my book, you will meet a little girl named Viola who ran from her past until she made a life changing decision to stop running forever.

This is my story, from a crumbling apartment in Central Falls, Rhode Island, to the stage in New York City, and beyond. This is the path I took to finding my purpose and my strength, but also to finding my voice in a world that didn’t always see me.

As I wrote Finding Me, my eyes were open to the truth of how our stories are often not given close examination. They are bogarted, reinvented to fit into a crazy, competitive, judgmental world. So I wrote this for anyone who is searching for a way to understand and overcome a complicated past, let go of shame, and find acceptance. For anyone who needs reminding that a life worth living can only be born from radical honesty and the courage to shed facades and be...you.

Finding Me is a deep reflection on my past and a promise for my future. My hope is that my story will inspire you to light up your own life with creative expression and rediscover who you were before the world put a label on you.

About Viola Davis: 

 VIOLA DAVIS is an internationally acclaimed actress and producer, known for her exceptional performances in television shows like 'How to Get Away with Murder' and movies like 'Fences' and 'The Help.' She is the winner of an Academy Award, an Emmy Award, and two Tony Awards, and in 2021 she won a Screen Actors Guild award for her role in 'Ma Rainey's Black Bottom'. In both 2012 and 2017, Time magazine named her one of the 100 most influential people in the world. Davis is also the founder and CEO of JuVee Productions, an artist driven production company that develops and produces independent film, theater, television, and digital content.