Explore the full list of featured authors and speakers for the Petersburg Book Fest. The event schedule includes readings, panel discussions, and workshops.
Featured Authors & Moderators
Ayana Gray
Keynote Author
Ayana Gray is a New York Times bestselling author. Her works have been translated in a eleven languages across five continents and have received critical acclaim at the state and national level. Originally from Atlanta, Georgia, she now lives and writes in Arkansas.
Title: Beasts of Prey
ISBN: 9780593405680
Release Date: September 28, 2021
Kelly J. Baptist
Author
Kelly J. Baptist is the award-winning author of eight books for kids, including Isaiah Dunn Is My Hero, The Electric Slide and Kai, and the NAACP Image Award-nominated Eb & Flow. She lives and writes in Southwest Michigan, where her five amazing children keep her busy. As motivation, Kelly constantly applies Kobe Bryant’s Mamba Mentality to the craft of writing. She is an HBCU grad (Oakwood University) and a member of Zeta Phi Beta Sorority, Inc.
Title: The Band In Our Basement
ISBN: 9781419769078
Release Date: November 12, 2024
Frederick L. Jones
Author
American entrepreneur Frederick L. Jones was born in Durham, North Carolina, and graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill with a BA in Communication Studies. He developed a passion for promoting diversity at a young age, including participating in the fight for a Black Student Union on UNC’s campus and attending the original Million Man March in 1995. He spent a decade in the video game industry as an executive. Having worked on nearly every part of product creation, including product marketing, product development, and brand management, Frederick combined his experience with his lifelong love of anime to create the diverse manga brand Saturday AM in 2013. He resides in Raleigh-Durham, North Carolina, with his family and dog, Allie.
Title: Clock Striker Volume 1 & 2
ISBN: Multiple
Release Date: Multiple
Sandra Jackson-Opoku
Author
Sandra Jackson-Opoku is the author of the award-winning novel, The River Where Blood is Born and Hot Johnny and the Women Who Loved Him, an Essence Magazine Bestseller in Hardcover Fiction. She also coedited the anthology Revise the Psalm: Work Celebrating the Writing of Gwendolyn Brooks. Her fiction, nonfiction, and dramatic works are widely published and produced in Adi Magazine, Midnight & Indigo, Aunt Chloe, Africa Risen: A New Era of Speculative Fiction, New Daughters of Africa, Obsidian, Another Chicago Magazine, storySouth, Lifeline Theatre, the Chicago Humanities Festival, and others. Professional recognition includes a Plentitudes Journal Prize, the Hearst Foundation James Baldwin Fellowship at MacDowell Arts, a National Endowment for the Arts Fiction Fellowship, an American Library Association Black Caucus Award, a City of Chicago Esteemed Artist Award, the Iceland Writers Retreat Alumni Award, a Globe Soup Story Award, the Joan Perry Barnes Fellow in Crime Writing at Storyknife Writers Retreat and a Pushcart Prize nomination.
Title: Savvy Summers and the Sweet Potato Crimes
ISBN: 9781250351906
Release Date: July 29, 2025
C.M. Lockhart
Author
C. M. Lockhart (also known as Chelsea) writes books about Black girls who aren’t all that nice. Her debut novel, We Are the Origin, was released June 2022, and her latest series, The Lady Widow, is her first venture into the sci-fi genre. She is the owner of Written in Melanin, which encompasses a podcast and YouTube channel of the same name, founder of the Melanin Library, host of the Melanin Chat, contributing editor of Magic in the Melanin: A Black Fantasy Anthology, and co-founder of the DNF’d Book Club. More information can be found on her website, https://WrittenInMelanin.com.
Title: Magic in the Melanin
ISBN: 9781952978111
Release Date: February 18, 2025
LaDarrion Williams
Author
LaDarrion Williams is a Los Angeles based-playwright, filmmaker, author, and screenwriter whose goal is to cultivate a new era of Black fantasy, providing space and agency for Black characters and stories in a new, fresh and fantastical way. He is currently a resident playwright/co-creator of The Black Creators Collective, where his play UMOJA made its West Coast premiere in January 2022 and produced North Hollywood’s first Black playwrights festival at the Waco Theater Center. Blood at the Root is his first novel. His viral and award-winning short film based on the same concept, is currently on YouTube and Amazon Prime.
Title: Blood At The Root
ISBN: 9780593711927
Release Date: May 7, 2024
Lamar Giles
Author
Lamar Giles is the author of the acclaimed novels Ruin Road, The Getaway, The Last Last-Day-of-Summer, Not So Pure and Simple, SPIN, Fake ID, and has written for globally beloved brands like DC Comics, Star Wars, and National Geographic. He is a three-time Mystery Writers of America Edgar Award nominee, a recipient of the Black Caucus of the American Library Association's Youth Literary Award, and founding member of the non-profit We Need Diverse Books. He resides in Virginia with his family.
Title: Ruin Road
ISBN: 9781338894134
Release Date: September 17, 2024
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Ravynn K. Stringfield
Author
Ravynn K. Stringfield is a writer and professor originally from Suffolk, Virginia. Love Requires Chocolate is her debut novel, and her second, Love in 280 Characters or Less, will publish on April 15, 2025. Her creative nonfiction has appeared in publications such as Shondaland, ZORA, and Catapult Magazine. She can often be found haunting coffee shops in search of the perfect hazelnut latte, knee deep in art supplies, or curled up with her dog, Genghis, telling him about her Lois Lane obsession. Connect with Ravynn on Instagram (@RavynnKaMia) or via her website, www.ravynnkstringfield.com.
Title: Love in 280 Characters or Less
ISBN: 9781250899385
Release Date: April 15, 2025
Chanelle Desamours
Author
Channelle Desamours is a high school science teacher from Atlanta, Georgia who loves writing tales about magical Black girls. When she’s not napping to recover from her five a.m. writing sessions, she can be found building tiny homes on The Sims 4 or tending to her house plants. Needy Little Things is her debut novel.
Title: Needy Little Things
ISBN: 9781250334817
Release Date: February 4, 2025
Danielle Allen
Author
Danielle Allen is a USA TODAY Bestselling author, an educator, and a life coach. Moving with authenticity and intentionality, she has found a way to merge the three as a writer of sexy romance stories full of heart, humor and heat. With a background in social sciences, helping people better understand themselves so they can become the best version of themselves is one of her passions. Writing contemporary romance novels that challenge the status quo of the genre is another.
Title: Plus Size Player
ISBN: 9781250331182
Release Date: June 10, 2025
Natasha Bishop
Author
Natasha Bishop has been passionate about writing since she was a little girl. When the pandemic gave her some free time, she decided it was time to stop ignoring the characters that were screaming in her head and pick up her pen. As an avid romance reader, she knew she wanted to highlight Black love stories. She likes to let love lead, one spicy book at a time.
Title: Only For The Week
ISBN: 9781638932727
Release Date: December 10, 2024
Susana M Morris
Author
Susana M. Morris is a Black feminist scholar and a cultural critic who has dedicated her career to studying the interior lives of Black women. She is an associate professor of Literature, Media, and Communication at Georgia Tech and the co-founder of The Crunk Feminist Collective. A former Anschutz Distinguished Fellow at Princeton University and Norman Freeling Visiting Professor at the University of Michigan, she is the author of Positive Obsession: The Life and Times of Octavia E. Butler. Her other works include Close Kin and Distant Relatives: The Paradox of Respectability in Black Women's Literature, the co-edited collection The Crunk Feminist Collection, and the co-authored young adult handbook Feminist AF: The Guide to Crushing Girlhood. Her writing has appeared in Gawker, Long Reads, Cosmopolitan.com, and Ebony.com, and she has been featured on NPR, the BBC, and in Essence magazine.
Title: Positive Obsession: The Life and Times of Octavia Butler
ISBN: 9780063212077
Release Date: August 19, 2025
Lauren Blackwood
Author
Lauren Blackwood is a Jamaican American living in Virginia who writes romance-heavy fantasy for most ages. When not writing, she's a musician and a tiramisu connoisseur. She's the New York Times bestselling author of Within These Wicked Walls, Wildblood, The Dangerous Ones, and Snow White: Fair & Sinister Heart.
Title: Wildblood
ISBN: 9781250787132
Release Date: February 7, 2023
Michael Harriot
Author
Michael Harriot is an award-winning journalist, bestselling author, celebrated poet, and public historian hailed as “one of the most eloquent writers in America.” Since its 2023 release, his New York Times bestseller, Black AF History: The Un-Whitewashed Story of America, has been the top-selling Black history book in the country since it's. He is the 2024–2025 recipient of Harvard University’s Nyhan Prize for Public Policy Journalism and the founder of the Black journalism collective ContrabandCamp.com.
Known for his acerbic wit and unflinching reporting, has served as a columnist for The Guardian, The Grio, and The Root, shaping everything from presidential politics to pop culture. As the originator of the phrase “invited to the cookout,” his viral social media threads contextualizing Black history have reached millions, earning him the unofficial crown as “The King of Black Twitter.” He co-created the award-winning podcast Drapetomaniax: Unshackled History alongside Pharrell Williams, and his journalism has appeared in The Washington Post, The Atlantic, The New York Times—and, as he likes to note, his mother’s refrigerator. His work has been recognized by the National Association of Black Journalists, the Emmy Awards, the Webby Awards, and the American Library Association.
Harriot holds degrees in mass communications and history from Auburn University and a master’s in macroeconomics and international business from Florida State. Today, he serves as founder and lead columnist at ContrabandCamp and is one of the nation’s most sought-after speakers on the intersections of race, history, politics, and media.
Title: Black AF History
ISBN: 9780358439165
Release Date: September 19, 2023
Shanora Williams
Author
Shanora Williams is a New York Times and USA Today bestselling author known for her versatile voice, diverse characters, and high-stakes love stories. Whether grounded in reality or set in a magical world, her books explore connection, chaos, and the kind of love that lingers long after the last page. When she isn’t writing, she’s deep in family life, binge-watching her favorite shows and movies, working out, or getting cozy with a book. She lives near Charlotte, North Carolina with her husband and three sons.
Title: Whispers of the Lake
ISBN: 9781496745842
Release Date: June 24, 2025
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Jamila Minnicks
Author
Jamila Minnicks' debut novel Moonrise Over New Jessup (Algonquin Books, 2023) won the 2021 PEN/Bellwether Prize for Socially Engaged Fiction, the 2024 Black Caucus for the American Library Association First Novelist Award, and the 2023 Southern Literary Review Book of the Year. New Jessup was also a finalist for the 2023 Center for Fiction First Novel Prize and longlisted the 2023 Crook’s Corner Book Prize. Jamila’s short stories and essays are published in Ploughshares, The Sun, CRAFT, Catapult, Blackbird, The Write Launch, and elsewhere, and her piece "Politics of Distraction" was nominated for the Pushcart Prize. Her work has been supported by the Sewanee Writers’ Conference, the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, VCCA-France at Moulin à Nef, and the Hermitage Artist Retreat.
Jamila is a graduate of the University of Michigan, the Howard University School of Law, and the Georgetown University Law Center.
Title: Moonrise Over New Jessup
ISBN: 9781643752464
Release Date: January 10, 2023
J.L. Seegars
Author
J.L. Seegars is a dedicated smut peddler and lifelong nerd who’s always had a love of words, storytelling and drama. When she isn’t writing messy and emotionally complex characters like the ones she grew up around, she’s watching reality TV, supporting her fellow authors by devouring their work or spending time with her husband and son.
Title: The Illusion of Power
ISBN: 9798986055695
Release Date: July 4, 2025
Victoria Scott-Miller
Author
Victoria Scott-Miller is an award-winning author, entrepreneur, and global thought leader based in Raleigh, North Carolina. As the owner of Liberation Station Bookstore, the first Black-owned children's bookstore in North Carolina, she has transformed the literary landscape by championing underrepresented voices and fostering a love for storytelling. Her work has garnered national acclaim, with features in The Washington Post, Good Morning America, The New York Times, CNN, Essence, NPR's Here & Now, and Oprah Magazine.
Victoria is a documentarian and liberation strategist who uses storytelling to reimagine possibilities and humanize the Black experience. For nearly a decade, she has led initiatives focused on building intergenerational legacies, safeguarding undervalued voices, and promoting historical guardianship. Her dedication to literacy and legacy work has created lasting change locally and globally.
In 2021, Victoria was inducted as the youngest and first African American woman into the Wake County Public School Hall of Fame in the category of Entrepreneurship. She was later commissioned by the North Carolina Museum of Art to serve as the author and creative director for her debut series, The Museum Lives in Me, becoming the first African American to receive such a commission in the museum’s history. Following its success, she signed a global multi-book deal with Paw Prints Publishing, an imprint of Baker & Taylor, to expand her series to museums across the country.
Victoria’s creative voice is deeply influenced by her upbringing in Memphis, Tennessee, where her experiences shaped her unique perspective on storytelling. When she is not advocating for Black voices, she enjoys traveling, hiking, roller-skating, and visiting art museums with her husband Duane and their two sons, Langston and Emerson.
She is represented by Regina Brooks of Serendipity Literary Agency in Brooklyn, NY.
Title: At Night, They Danced
ISBN: 9781665927819
Release Date: March 4, 2025
Sara Koffi
Author
Sara Koffi is a thriller writer from Memphis, TN, which means she's always rooting for The Grizzlies and always catching up on Netflix cult documentaries. She's also an overenthusiastic cat mom and perennially behind on reading her TBR pile (despite this she continues to purchase new books). As a writer, she strives to explore the nuances of "unlikable female characters" and humanize Black women by giving them space on the page to breathe.
Title: While We Were Burning
ISBN: 9780593714959
Release Date: April 16, 2024
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Elvatrice Parker Belsches
Author
Richmond native Elvatrice Parker Belsches is a public historian, author, curator and filmmaker who speaks extensively on the history of the Black experience in America. She also is the author of Black America Series: Richmond, Virginia, and eight (8) biographical entries for the African American National Biography. Belsches served as an archival researcher for the art department led by Academy Award-winning production designer Rick Carter on Steven Spielberg’s motion picture Lincoln. Her three-part series, When Freedom Came, commissioned by the Richmond Free Press, was recognized as runner-up for the Journalistic Integrity and Community Service Award by the Virginia Press Association. She is a former faculty member at Hampton University, where she earned her bachelor’s and master’s degrees, and a graduate of the MCV/VCU School of Pharmacy.
Title: Richmond, VA
ISBN: 9780738514031
Release Date: March 5, 2002
Jarvis McInnis
Author
Jarvis C. McInnis is an Associate Professor of English at Duke University. He is a proud summa cum laude graduate of Tougaloo College in Tougaloo, Mississippi, where he earned a BA in English, and Columbia University in the City of New York, where he earned a Ph.D. in English & Comparative Literature. McInnis is an interdisciplinary scholar of African American & African Diaspora literature and culture with teaching and research interests in the Global South (primarily the US South and the Caribbean), black geographies and ecologies, sound studies, visual culture, and the archive. His first book-length monograph, Afterlives of the Plantation: Plotting Agrarian Futures in the Global Black South (2025, Columbia University Press), charts an alternative cultural and intellectual genealogy of Black modernity by centering Booker T. Washington’s school, the Tuskegee Institute, as a crucible of black transnational and diasporic relations between southern African American and Caribbean writers, intellectuals, and cultures in the early twentieth century.
Title: Afterlives of the Plantation
ISBN: 9780231215756
Release Date: May 13, 2025
Raymond Williams
Moderator
Raymond Williams is one of the book club administrators of Black Men Read Book Club, a virtual book club sponsored by Resist Booksellers; he has been a member since 2020. He also administered the Zora Neale Hurston Summit Book Club in 2024, where he co-led discussions on four of Hurston's books. In 2021 and 2022, he served on the executive board for the Black Readers Con, a two-day virtual conference that enhanced and amplified the voices of Black readers and the book clubs they love. As an influencer, Raymond writes about books and other topics on his blog Ballasts for the Mind and on social media platforms like Goodreads, Instagram, and Threads. A trained political scientist, Raymond, has been published in academic journals and in an edited book. He received his MA and PhD in Government and Politics from the University of Maryland, College Park, and BS in Political Science from East Carolina University.
Krystle Dandridge
Moderator
Krystle is a Jersey girl who found her way to Virginia after completing her undergraduate degree at Temple University. She began as a foster care social worker in the city of Philadelphia, PA prior to moving to Virginia. She continued as a foster care social worker in Petersburg, Virginia while beginning her studies toward her master's degree in counseling. Krystle continued her education by completing her doctoral degree in Psychology in 2017. She began her clinical experience in 2011, and opened her private practice in 2014 where she specializes in working with children, adolescents, and young adults. After years in the clinical space and following the COVID lockdown, Krystle noticed a need in the community for a space that encourages self-care. Her response was to create that space with the opening of The Book Bar. She also took her expertise into academic spaces as she began teaching at Virginia State University in 2023 in the psychology department and focuses her research on sexual health and wellness.
Bailey West
Author
Bailey West is a bestselling author of African-American Contemporary romance, known for her thought-provoking, heart-stirring stories that spark conversation and inspire hope. She made her debut with Blue’s Beauty and writes to empower readers through faith, love, and connection.
Title: Loving Man
ISBN: 9798551645443
Release Date: October 27, 2020
Jor-El Caraballo
Author
Jor-El Caraballo is a licensed therapist and cofounder of Viva, a multi-state mental health practice. Caraballo received a BA in psychology from the University of North Carolina at Wilmington and MA and EdM degrees in psychological counseling from Teachers College at Columbia University. He is the author of Self-Care for Black Men: 100 Ways to Heal and Liberate and the upcoming titles The Shadow Work Self-Reflection Deck (December 2025) and Mindful Meditations for Black Men: Restorative Practices to Soothe Mind, Body, and Spirit (Jan 2026), both of which are available for pre-order. He has been featured as a mental health expert across many media outlets, including Dish Nation, Mind Body Green, Men’s Health, Healthline, Insider, Self, and more, sharing advice and insight on self-care, interpersonal relationships, dealing with trauma, and more.
Title: Self-Care For Black Men
ISBN: 9781507221044
Release Date: November 7, 2023
Jasmine Marie
Author
Jasmine Marie is an author, speaker, breathwork practitioner, and CEO & Founder of black girls breathing®. Her debut book Black Girls Breathing: Heal From Trauma, Combat Chronic Stress and Find Your Freedom, published by Balance, an imprint of Hachette Book Group was released on December 17th, 2024. Her work is innovating the wellness, healthcare and research industry by making mental health and stress management services accessible to Black
women while filling in the gaps of data and research available on this underserved and underrepresented demographic.
Title: Black Girls Breathing
ISBN: 9781538756621
Release Date: December 17, 2024
Rob "YB" Youngblood
Author
Rob “YB” Youngblood is a proud husband, father of two beautiful teenage daughters, an active member of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc, and a graduate of the greatest HBCU in the nation - Virginia Union University.
YB is a 2x Author, Award Winning Speaker, Public Relations Consultant, Visionary Business Coach and Top Business Networking Voice. His first book entitled “SPEAKUP! The Ultimate Guide To Dominate In The Speaking Industry” featured Les Brown, Dr. George C Fraser and 32 other dynamic Speakers, where his chapter focused on helping Speakers to leverage LinkedIn
to increase their Network and Net Worth. His 2nd book: “Collaboration Creates Currency” is another co-author project which highlights keys to increase Visibility, Credibility and Profitability while closing the racial wealth gap.
As Founder & President of YBCredibility PR, “YB” works with Authors, Business Owners, Corporate Leaders, Entrepreneurs and Professional Speakers to leverage Public Relations as a strategy for enhancing their visibility, credibility and profitability.
Title: Collaboration Creates Currency
ISBN: 9798353385042
Release Date: December 15, 2022
Lakita Wilson
Author
Lakita Wilson is the author of several novels and nonfiction projects for children and young adults, including What Is Black Lives Matter? a part of the New York Times bestselling Who HQ Now series, the middle grade novel Be Real, Macy Weaver, and YA romances Last Chance Dance and Pretty Girl County. A 2017 recipient of SCBWI's Emerging Voices Award, Lakita’s books have received multiple starred reviews, appeared on state reading lists, the Black Caucus ALA Best of the Best list, YALSA’s Quick Pick for Reluctant Readers list, Amazon & Apple's Best of the Month picks, and more.
Title: Pretty Girl County
ISBN: 9780593525647
Release Date: July 1, 2025
Breonna Moore
Moderator
Breonna Moore, a proud Richmond, Virginia native, is a Registered Nurse turned real estate investor, podcast creator, and author of Investing While Black: From No Knowledge to No Limits. During the COVID-19 pandemic, she used her earnings as a travel nurse to invest in real estate and business ventures, discovering the power of wealth-building through lived experiences and storytelling. Breonna is the creator of the Conversations Unearthed podcast, where she explores collective financial empowerment. Her background in healthcare and business has shaped her into a dynamic entrepreneur and finance influencer committed to inspiring others to take control of their financial futures.
