In this collection of timely essays and incantations, award-winning author May-lee Chai explores the intersection of world history and her own—feeding herself and her ghosts in the process.

Drawing upon the traditional Chinese Daoist and Buddhist concept of hungry ghosts, May-lee Chai writes about personal hauntings, the people, histories, ancestors, and family members who continue to touch her life. Hungry ghosts are spirits that are caught between realms forgotten by their descendants and separated from their ancestors. Yet the Chinese traditional celebration of the Hungry Ghost Festival in the 7th lunar month shows a path forward and a way to heal, when the living can still feed even the hungriest of the wandering spirits in this most egalitarian of holidays. This spiritual practice serves as inspiration in Chai’s writing.

In these 12 reflections and incantations, both new and previously published award-winning works, Chai explores Chinese spiritual traditions, the lunar almanac, exile and the diaspora born of war; weaves family stories with our society at large; examines the legacies of the “women of Nanjing” who were enslaved there by the Japanese military in World War II; and examines the racist fearmongering about Chinese men and white women and how that impacted her own multiracial family. Other topics of this wide-ranging collection include Western European-dominated beauty standards, the rise of authoritarianism in Hong Kong leading to mass migration, the extinction of the Yangzi River dolphin due to climate change, and Chai’s complex relationship with her white mother.

Spanning continents and centuries, My Hungry Ghosts: Essays and Incantations is a collection that speaks to our current political moment with fresh and innovative forms of writing. Chai’s essays provide a lens and path forward for activism and healing.

A message from Chanecka Williams:

"Alice Walker has been a force in the world for over forty years. As a writer, poet and activist, she is relentless in her pursuit of a free(er) world for all. In this social, political, time-space reality, Walker’s work feels essential to be explored with new eyes. Join us as we read her novels, short story collections, and a few of her nonfiction works. It would be remiss to not mention that this journey is as spiritual as literary being that Alice Walker has always given credit to the spirits that accompany her. "

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A tender, humorous, and page-turning debut about a Vietnamese Canadian family in Toronto who will do whatever it takes to protect their no-frills nail salon after a new high end salon opens up—even if it tears the family apart. Perfect for readers of Olga Dies Dreaming and The Fortunes of Jaded Women.

Vietnamese refugees Debbie and Phil Tran have built a comfortable life for themselves in Toronto with their family nail salon. But when an ultra-glam chain salon opens across the street, their world is rocked.

Complicating matters further, their landlord has jacked up the rent and it seems only a matter of time before they lose their business and everything they’ve built. They enlist the help of their daughter, Jessica, who has just returned home after a messy breakup and a messier firing. Together with their son, Dustin, and niece, Thuy, they devise some good old-fashioned sabotage. Relationships are put to the test as the line between right and wrong gets blurred. Debbie and Phil must choose: do they keep their family intact or fight for their salon?

Curses! Adventures! And drama! Oh my! Safia might not be able to see the world, but that doesn’t mean she can’t experience it to the fullest as she finds herself on her very first adventure! This is a contemporary fantasy middle-grade graphic novel about discovering what you are truly capable of.

Safia thought that being blind meant she would only get to go on adventures through her audiobooks. This all changes when she goes to live with a distant and mysterious aunt, Lady Whimsy, who takes Safia on the journey of a lifetime!

While the reclusive Lady Whimsy stops an old rival from uncovering the truth behind her disappearance, Safia experiences parts of the world she had only dreamed about. But when an unlikely group of chaotic agents comes after Whimsy, Safia is forced to confront the adventure head-on. For the first time in her life, Safia is the hero of her own story, and she must do what she can to save the day.

And maybe find some friends along the way.

Reimena Yee returns with an all-new graphic novel filled with action, magic, and family. My Aunt Is a Monster explores how anybody can do anything as long as they are given the chance and have the right people behind them.

A spellbinding story of two young people whose fates intersect and diverge across continents and years—an epic of love and family, India and America, tradition and modernity, by the Booker Prize-winning author of The Inheritance of Loss

“A novel so wonderful, when I got to the last page, I turned to the first and began again.”—Sandra Cisneros
"A grand and stirring love story, written in exquisite prose . . . [a] sheer delight!"—Namwali Serpell

When Sonia and Sunny first glimpse each other on an overnight train, they are immediately captivated, yet also embarrassed by the fact that their grandparents had once tried to matchmake them, a clumsy meddling that only served to drive Sonia and Sunny apart.

Sonia, an aspiring novelist who recently completed her studies in the snowy mountains of Vermont, has returned to her family in India, fearing she is haunted by a dark spell cast by an artist to whom she had once turned for intimacy and inspiration. Sunny, a struggling journalist resettled in New York City, is attempting to flee his imperious mother and the violence of his warring clan. Uncertain of their future, Sonia and Sunny embark on a search for happiness together as they confront the many alienations of our modern world.

The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny is the sweeping tale of two young people navigating the many forces that shape their lives: country, class, race, history, and the complicated bonds that link one generation to the next. A love story, a family saga, and a rich novel of ideas, it is the most ambitious and accomplished work yet by one of our greatest novelists.

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Made at a critical juncture in Betye Saar’s (born 1926) career, the enigmatic assemblage Black Girl’s Window (1969) was recognized by the artist as a crucial link between her past and future even at the time she made it. Saar has drawn upon family history, spirituality, astrology and politics consistently throughout her 60-year career, and all are present in the prints, drawings and found material neatly ensconced within the gridded panes of the antique window frame that is the work’s defining element.

This in-depth study by curators Christophe Cherix and Esther Adler expands our understanding of Saar’s early career and casts light on all that followed. Drawing on new research into the work’s construction and materials, and on firsthand discussions with the artist regarding the making of Black Girl’s Window and the themes behind her evocative imagery, this concise, generously illustrated volume explores one of Saar’s best-known and most iconic works.

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"In a world eager to promote the newest wunderkind, grandmother theology carries us two or more generations back: to the kitchens, hair salons, gardens, and church basements of older Black women who are often invisible in theological discourse but without whom the American Christian church would cease to exist."

The church mothers who raised Yolanda Pierce, dean of Howard University School of Divinity, were busily focused on her survival. In a world hostile to Black women's bodies and spirits, they had to be. Born on a former cotton plantation and having fled the terrors of the South, Pierce's grandmother raised her in the faith inherited from those who were enslaved. Now in paperback, In My Grandmother's House follows Pierce as she reckons with that tradition, building an everyday womanist theology rooted in liberating scriptures, experiences in the Black church, and truths from Black women's lives. Pierce tells stories that center the experiences of those living on the underside of history, teasing out the tensions of race, spirituality, trauma, freedom, resistance, and memory. The paperback features a new readers' guide, written by the author, that is useful for individual reflection and group discussion.

A grandmother's theology carries wisdom strong enough for future generations. The Divine has been showing up at the kitchen tables of Black women for a long time. It's time to get to know that God.

This authoritative, focused and bestselling guide by two of the UK's brightest young entrepreneurs - The Apprentice runner-up, Bianca Miller-Cole and serial entrepreneur, Dr Byron Cole - is a comprehensive toolkit for anyone who wants to make a success of running their own business. Featuring interviews with well known entrepreneurs, entertainers and industry experts, the book covers every tier of the business development process, from start-up to exit, offering practical, implementable and global advice on the start up process.

This fully updated new edition will de-code the jargon that is prevalent in business circles today, providing straightforward advice on converting an innovative business concept into a commercially viable proposition. It will help you to avoid the costly common mistakes of many who have gone before you, and create a sustainable enterprise that will flourish. Fully updated and expanded to make it more timely, more international, more practical and more inspiring, it will be a vital tool for Entrepreneurs both inside and outside of the author's hugely motivated network.

I, Braxton Fawn, am the luckiest girl alive. Or so the world keeps telling me.

Every so often, gods walk the earth. This time they came as musicians. When Bound loses its lead guitarist, yours truly is chosen to fill his shoes. From dive bars to the big stage, my instant claim to fame is nothing short of a fairytale. The only problem? My new bandmates.

Jaded, gorgeous, and ridiculously talented―they’re determined to turn my dream into a nightmare. It’s no secret I wasn’t their first choice. I wasn’t even their last. The label wants a new image, Bound wants me gone, but I’ve got my own agenda.

To succeed I have to survive a world tour, public scrutiny, and idols turned enemies. But the biggest threat of all isn’t a meticulous front man, a narcissistic bassist, and a drummer with too many secrets. It’s me.

Somehow, I must resist the temptation of Houston Morrow, Loren James, and Jericho Noble. It seemed easy enough when I boarded their tour bus, but it only took one city for the lines we’d drawn to blur.

Only ninety-nine more to go.

From visionary Afrofuturist Maurice Broaddus comes the re-release of this seminal collection, with an all-new introduction and notes from the author. Fourteen stories meld history, folktales, horror, fantasy, and science fiction into electric moments scattered through ten centuries of Black experience.

An outcast West African warrior takes on evil spirits, and the brutal priest who creates them. A freedwoman reveals what a spirit stone truly commemorates. A museum of grief houses a widower’s memories—and a child’s. Visiting his mother’s Jamaican home, an American inherits a strange spirital inheritance. A 1970s quad skater flees time-traveling Afronauts convinced he can find the mothership groove. Steamfunk revolution foments in communities underneath robot-run Indianapolis. A lieutenant of the Evangelical States of America navigates first contact with an unexpected alien race.

Through war and enlightenment, alongside vampires, obeah men, and common injustice, Broaddus’s lyrical prose delivers epiphanies wrapped in page-turning excitement.