Celebrate the release of If This World We're Mine with Arriel Vinson!

EVENT DEETS

When: Thursday, January 28 @ 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 If This World We're Mine, supporting both the author and our store programming. The book will be available for pickup at the event.

Please Note: Books purchased from other retailers are not permitted in the bookstore and are not eligible for the signing or photo line. To participate in the signing and photo opportunity, you must purchase a copy from Kindred Stories.If you already have a copy from Kindred Stories feel free to choose the RSVP only option. 

If you purchase a ticket and are unable to attend the event, your ticket is non-refundable. If your ticket includes a book, an email will be sent to all attendees before and after the event with instructions on how to receive your book. Books must be claimed within 14 days following the event. If your book is not retrieved it will be returned to the publisher and will not be available for pick up in the future.

ABOUT THE BOOK

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Arriel Vinson is a Midwesterner who writes about being young, Black, and in search of freedom. Her debut YA novel-in-verse, Under the Neon Lights, is a 2026 Coretta Scott King/John Steptoe New Talent Award winner, a Reese’s Book Club LitUp selection, and a Junior Library Guild Gold Selection. Arriel earned her MFA in Fiction from Sarah Lawrence College and is a Tin House YA Scholar, Highlights Foundation scholarship recipient, and Walter Grant recipient. Her sophomore novel, If This World Were Mine, is forthcoming in spring 2027. You can connect with her on social media at @arriwrites and find her work at arriwrites.com

ABOUT THE CONVERSATION PARTNER

LIARA TAMANI grew up in Houston, Texas, where every spring meant one thing: rodeo season. She loved getting decked out in her best cowgirl gear and soaking up the music, food, and electric energy of the rodeo, a joy she now shares with her daughter and husband. Her deep Texas roots shine through her storytelling, capturing the spirit and rhythms of the state in all her acclaimed novels: Calling My Name, All the Things We Never Knew, and What She Missed. Before becoming a writer, she attended Harvard Law School and worked as a marketing coordinator for the Houston Rockets and Comets, television production assistant, home accessories designer, floral designer, and yoga and dance teacher. She holds an MFA in writing from Vermont College of Fine Arts and a BA from Duke University.

Hollywood icon and Emmy Award-winning Abbott Elementary actress Sheryl Lee Ralph shares the personal stories that have shaped her and the advice that has guided her throughout her life—helping readers breathe deeper, love stronger, and rise higher.

Sheryl Lee Ralph understands a truth most of us learn the hard way: There are moments in life when you must let your light shine. Moments when the noise of the world tries to mute your mic and silence your voice, dull your glow, and convince you to forget who you are. She has known those moments intimately—under the bright lights of Broadway and in the quiet hum of hospital rooms, on red carpets and in church pews. Sheryl has worn crowns and carried a few crosses, but through it all remained her unshakable faith in one simple belief: better must come. No matter how many times life knocks you down, you can rise, you must rise, reclaim yourself, and begin again.

You Better Love What You See isn’t a list of commandments to make you feel guilty, a to-do list, or the play-by-play story of an actor’s life. Filled with boundless empathy and wisdom, it’s a moving guide for anyone who wonders if they’re enough, who wants to lead with love and heal themselves, or who still battles with self-doubt.

Sheryl’s reflections draw from her life as a performer, mother, daughter, wife, sister, and above all a wise, wild woman. She shares stories about remaining determined in the face of defeat, overcoming obstacles when systemic oppression tried to keep her down, and how to find strength in every storm, including:

* Experiences from her childhood as the only girl of color in her Catholic school, to being fired from a TV role for not being “Black enough”
* Enrolling in the very first coed class at Rutgers University
* Bringing down the house with her historic Emmy Award win and acceptance speech
* And many more inspiring moments touching on themes such as faith, resilience, choosing joy, and finding purpose

Sheryl’s warm and empowering message is that, bottom line, when you look in the mirror, you better love what you see, because feeling powerful and purposeful won’t come from external accolades or approval—it starts with YOU. Her strong, authentic voice and magnetic presence are evident on every page—and readers will return to it again and again whenever their light is feeling a little dim.

From NAACP Image Award–nominated author Elise Bryant comes a tender, funny novel following a type-A teen whose meticulously coordinated life unravels when she develops a chronic illness.
Jubilee Foster is busy. Between caring for her two younger siblings while her single dad is working, maintaining her perfect GPA, and volunteering at her beloved local community center, she doesn’t have time for trivial things like hobbies or sleep.
And that’s just the way Jubilee likes it. When her to-do list is endless and her color-coded planner is full, it’s easier to ignore the glaring fractures in her life—like her mom’s abandonment, or that her community center is on the brink of closing down for good. Or the reappearance of Neal, her childhood friend turned nemesis, and all of the annoying, distracting feelings he brings.
But then Jubilee starts breaking out in mysterious hives, and her ability to be a perfect student, daughter, sister, and friend begins to fray. As her life buckles under symptoms and side effects, Jubilee will have to tackle the most difficult task on her to-do list yet: accepting help.
Critically acclaimed author Elise Bryant returns with a love letter to eldest daughters, recovering people pleasers, and those managing chronic illnesses in desperate search for the care they deserve.

DELUXE LIMITED EDITION first printing featuring stenciled edges

The LONG AWAITED adult debut novel by beloved NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLING Dhonielle Clayton: a romantic contemporary fantasy novel set in New Orleans, about a woman pulled back into a forbidden love, kicking off a brand new series

Collette Marchand never wanted to return home to the immortal wards of New Orleans, let alone inherit her mother’s blood-soaked business. Collette left magic and a great love behind a decade ago, tucking herself away in Boston. But now, her mother, Lady Red, the living Conjure Saint and matriarch of the most notorious Conjure House, has died for the final time.

Back in New Orleans, Téo Baptiste is stuck. He’s working at the same hospital where, ten years ago, he lost everything – his sobriety and the love of his life, Collette. Nights at the busiest ER in the city help him bury his feelings and ignore his magical destiny to take over the undead immortal ward. But Lady Red’s death might be his chance to make things right with Collette again, and build a new future for himself.

When Collette is summoned back home to bury her mother, she uncovers Lady Red’s greatest secret: the true source of her power is a stolen card from the Deck of Life. A card that, along with the family business, passes to Collette. Determined to rewrite the past, Collette needs help from the last person she wants to see ever again: her former flame and the man who shattered her heart, Téo. Now, Collette must confront whether she’s destined to become the next Lady Red and rule over the immortal wards of New Orleans and beyond … or take a second chance at love.

An eloquent, prize-winning historian chronicles the rise of Black enterprise in America.

Entrepreneurs like Booker T. Washington and Madam C.J. Walker are familiar figures in the history of Black business. But from the hopeful dawn of emancipation to the crucible of Jim Crow, from rural Mound Bayou, Mississippi, to the bustling blocks of Harlem, many others built extraordinary businesses in pursuit of prosperity and freedom. Nevertheless, their efforts to pursue the American Dream were steadily undermined by people intent on profiting on their innovations and reining in their opportunities. Award-winning historian Shennette Garrett-Scott reveals the everyday genius of the people who refused to accept exclusion as identity: former slaves turned cotton mill owners, washerwomen turned financiers, and self-taught visionaries who built banks, real estate empires, and grocery store chains. Their successes were real, but ventures that promised economic independence often provoked backlash as white elites, politicians, and vigilantes tried to contain Black success. Even the boldest dreams often buckled under the combined weight of limited resources and state obstruction.

A daring tale, lyrically told, The Business of Freedom reveals the history, strengths, and weaknesses of Black capitalism as a strategy for both individual and collective empowerment and shows why free enterprise alone could never deliver the freedom its champions promised.

26 illustrations

From the award-winning author Jared Lemus comes a novel where myth and danger collide in an isolated Guatemalan town

Huecotenango is a small town in a remote corner of Guatemala, where residents—outcasts, wanderers, and people running from the past—have gathered as if drawn by some unspoken calling. Behind Huecotenango’s daily rhythms, something has been silently approaching for fifteen years, and its inhabitants sense that their lives are about to change forever.

A crash on the outskirts brings two brothers into Huecotenango. The townspeople offer to help without knowing who the brothers are or what danger they might bring. Leo and Santiago see Huecotenango as a place to disappear and continue their illicit work, but their presence soon unsettles the community. Rumors spread and loyalties are tested as the town’s humble existence comes under threat. Extraordinary residents come into focus—a woman who can shapeshift into a jaguar, a healer who absorbs the ailments of others, a young woman with a debt to the god of the underworld—and their pasts, powers, and choices gradually converge with the brothers’ story in ways both dangerous and profound.

Jared Lemus has written a suspenseful, morally complex debut novel about survival, devotion, greed, and the inexorable pull of the past. In Magic in the Land of Eternal Spring, ordinary lives are tested by extraordinary forces, and the consequences of small decisions ripple fatally outward.

For the first time in print! A definitive compilation of Nikki Giovanni’s best and most beloved poems from her extraordinary 60-year career.

Nikki Giovanni’s poems are some of the most quoted, most memorable, and most talked about gems in American literature, with a huge pop culture following that continues even after her death in 2024. But there has never been a single “best of” volume of her work—until now.

The Essential Poems compiles Nikki’s most beloved and thought-provoking work, drawn from her extraordinary 60+ year career. Included here are classics like “Nikki-Rosa,” “Ego Trippin’,” “Housecleaning,” “Cotton Candy for a Rainy Day,” “Bicycles,” and “The Sterling Silver Mirror.” Edited by Dr. Virginia Fowler, Nikki’s widow, it also includes an Introduction and an Afterword by literary superstars Kwame Alexander and Renée Watson.

It is a book to be savored, and shared.

The riveting, darkly humorous, and deeply strange story of three roommates whose everyday struggle to survive in New York is complicated by the intestine-eating demon who haunts their apartment.

Leni was kidnapped and almost sacrificed to the devil as a child, but now she’s perfectly fine. Aside from the fact that she has four reflections in the mirror…and one of them wants her to poison people.

Emerson was a leading heart surgeon until The Incident that left his patient dead. Now he’s too sick to work, keeps finding severed fingers in his water bottles, and is followed around by a faceless Girl Scout with a creaky red wagon.

Jasper is a line cook with a criminal record, just trying to keep his chosen family together. Sure, he sees a man in the shadows who likes the taste of blood, but he’s very good at ignoring that. He would do anything for Leni and Emerson. Anything.

They’re fine. They’re normal. They’re roommates making it work in New York City.

That is, until a demon leaves his sigil on their wall.

Now, they have seven days to bring Sychar a sacrifice, or he’ll tear off their skin. Who knew demon-slaying wasn’t a valid excuse to miss work? Why are murder supplies so expensive? Just how is a low-income household supposed to afford a human sacrifice?

As their personal ghosts grow louder and Sychar’s deadline draws nearer, Leni, Emerson, and Jasper discover just how far they’ll go to protect each other.

For readers who love:
* Grady Hendrix and Stephen King
* Morally gray protector
* Haunted apartment
* Found family in danger
* Demon-slaying
* Darkly funny, deeply haunted stories

For readers of Nightcrawling, My Absolute Darling, and My Dark Vanessa, this captivating debut centers on nineteen-year-old Keke as she sets out on a desperate quest for freedom and a stable life for herself and her young daughter.

Keke is a young mother living in the basement of a house in Newark, New Jersey under the watchful eye of a man called Daddy. For five years, she has been told that she’ll be able to move upstairs once she and the other “girls” being trafficked hit the magic number. When that happens, she will no longer have to work the motels along the interstate. Her daughter, Angel, will be able to go to school, and Keke will live with Daddy in a real home, like a real family.

But then Keke gets picked up by vice cops and diverted to a women’s shelter, upending the delicate balance of her life. Hope for a new beginning starts shining through the cracks―but she doesn’t trust the system to save her. Unwilling to surrender Angel to foster care, Keke needs to figure out how to get both herself and her daughter to freedom.

Sakinah Hofler’s debut is a taut, incendiary testament to a mother’s love, and an uncompromising evocation of how desperation can drive you through to the light.

In this meticulously researched and vividly written account, a prominent historian reclaims a forgotten incident of racial violence in the Jim Crow South.

The Rifle and the Plough reconstructs a little-known episode from the summer of 1910, when the Black farming settlement of Sandy Beulah in East-Central Texas came under attack. White mobs waged war on prosperous Black landowners; rumors became weapons; celebration became provocation. Historian Steven A. Reich shows how the massacre unfolded and why it happened: the growing accumulation of land by Black residents, heightened racial tensions following boxer Jack Johnson’s heavyweight title victory, and white resistance to Black autonomy and public festivity, including Juneteenth. The Rifle and the Plough recovers the rise and destruction of a thriving Black community and asks why this history still matters. By linking racial violence to struggles over historical memory, land theft, and accountability, Reich speaks directly to contemporary debates about how the nation confronts its past, what justice demands of the present, and what reparative futures might yet be imagined.

59 illustrations

Award-winning author Kai Ashante Wilson returns with a bold new vision of fantasy. The Fall of Elvenesse transforms the genre of Tolkien in the image of N. K. Jemisin, Marlon James, and Simon Jimenez.

Elves have ruined the world.

From their high mountain, the cruel knights of Elvenesse range out to conquer. They pillage, they enslave, they wreak genocide. Always the Elves have taken, never considered when the bill for their crimes will come due.

That time has come. The fury of the world has awoken. The victims will have their vengeance.

A divine scourge of fire sweeps across the land toward Elvenesse, and the last free people of the Nations flee before it. As the mountains char, rivers boil, and savannas burn, the Free Nations rely on the muscle and magic of their strong and runt freaks. But as their one remaining Saint assumes his power, he receives a prophecy: the Nations' only path to survival runs through Elvenesse. Only by navigating the Elven labyrinth can he win his people's lives.

The story that captivated readers―now complete for the first time.

Passion for the Heist introduced readers to the love story of Passion Adams and Percy “Pain” Wells―a tale of survival, betrayal, and love. Now, experience The Wild Hearts Duology in one volume, including Passion for the Heist and the never-before-published sequel, Murder of Crows.

A crime brought them together. Grief bound them. Love made them infamous.

Percy “Pain” Wells returned from prison with two things: a ruined reputation and his grandmother’s medical bills. Debts don’t care if he’s trying to go straight, and the streets he once ruled now whisper his name like a warning.

Passion Adams has nothing left but the locket holding her parents’ ashes, a monster for an uncle, and habits that numb the pain. When the locket is stolen in a robbery, she thinks it’s gone forever. Then it turns up in the hands of a stranger with hardened eyes and a calm that screams danger.

Pain should walk away, but something about Passion―her fire, her pain―won’t let him go. Their lives collide, and what starts as a mission to make things right becomes a fight to stay alive. Their explosive love turns two broken souls into the most wanted names in the city, hunted by cops and the underworld alike.

For Passion and Pain, there are only two ways out: disappear into the shadows or become the story everyone tells.