...But Make It Books

Join Niccara as she welcomes the incomparable Bernice L. McFadden — national bestselling, award-winning author of Sugar, The Book of Harlan, and Praise Song for the Butterflies — to the pod for a tender, wide-open conversation about First Born Girls, her first memoir. After a lifetime of writing other people's stories, Bernice finally turns the pen on herself, and we sit with everything that excavation asks of you. We talk about opening the book with her mother literally resurrecting her, the craft choice of calling her elders by their given names so she could tell the whole truth, and tracing her maternal line all the way back to 1822 Georgia. We get into eldest-daughter syndrome and the gift and the weight firstborn girls carry, writing with her ancestors and not just about them, disassociation as protection while confronting the page every day for three and a half years, questioning and unlearning religion, and why history doesn't repeat — it rhymes. Perfect for readers who appreciate ancestral reverence, maternal legacy, generational trauma and healing, spiritual reckoning, and the courage it takes to finally tell your own story after telling everyone else's. Make sure you pick up First Born Girls from where you get your books! Follow Us: @butmakeitbookspod | @thebookishhottie | bookishlyhealing.com Follow & Find Bernice L. McFadden: bernicelmcfadden.com | @bernicelmcfadden Shop With Us: Use our Mahogany Books link with code BMIB Don't forget to rate, subscribe and review!

Join Niccara as she welcomes Amena Brown, poet, comedic storyteller, and author of Never Tell a Black Girl How to Black Girl to the pod! We talk about her new essay collection, reclaiming "Black girl" as a verb and not just a noun, turning wash day from a rushed chore into a rest-day ritual, and unlearning the good-girl church conditioning that taught us to be ashamed of our bodies. Perfect for readers who appreciate stories centered on Black womanhood and self-definition, natural hair journeys, body liberation, faith deconstruction, reality TV as cultural anthropology, and Black girl joy as an act of resistance. Make sure you pick up Never Tell a Black Girl How to Black Girl from where you get your books! Follow Us: @butmakeitbookspod | @thebookishhottie | bookishlyhealing.com Follow & Find Amena Brown: amenabrown.com | @amenabee Shop With Us: Use our Mahogany Books link with code BMIB Don't forget to rate, subscribe and review! Mentioned in this episode: The Seven Daughters of Dupree Pre-Order Offer Nikisha Elise Williams, the host of the Black and Published podcast, is celebrating the release of her forthcoming novel, The Seven Daughters of Dupree. This historical fiction novel is about the secrets kept between mothers and daughters over the course of seven generations and is told backwards in time from 1995 to 1860. The Seven Daughters of Dupree will be released on January 27th, 2026, but is available for pre-order now at MahoganyBooks.com. Please consider pre-ordering The Seven Daughters of Dupree today. African Ancestry We are the pioneers of genetic ancestry tracing for Black people globally, reconnecting you to your specific African roots–the country and the people. Our scientists compare your DNA markers to the largest African reference database in the world in order to find your African origin up to 2000 years ago. African Ancestry African Ancestry We are the pioneers of genetic ancestry tracing for Black people globally, reconnecting you to your specific African roots–the country and the people. Our scientists compare your DNA markers to the largest African reference database in the world in order to find your African origin up to 2000 years ago. African Ancestry

Join Niccara as she welcomes Amy DuBois Barnett — former editor-in-chief of Honey and Teen People, and now the debut novelist developing If I Ruled the World into a Hulu series with Lee Daniels — to the pod! We talk about her late-90s New York media and music world, why she catapults readers straight into the mess of Nikki Rose's journey, and the reckoning threaded through it all — misogyny, sexual coercion, and the complicity of silence. We get into Nikki's hair as a whole race conversation, being "too much over here and not enough over here," the men who love an idea of you instead of the real you, and how forgiveness — of your friends, and of yourself — becomes the work. And yes, it's still a fun, sexy, glamorous page-turner and a love letter to the city, to hip hop, and to ambitious women. Perfect for readers who appreciate stories centered on Black women's ambition, self-reclamation, grief and healing around the choices of our twenties, institutional critique, and the courage it takes to take your power back. Make sure you pick up If I Ruled the World from where you get your books! Follow Us: @butmakeitbookspod | @thebookishhottie | bookishlyhealing.com Follow & Find Amy DuBois Barnett: @amyduboisbarnett Shop With Us: Use our Mahogany Books link with code BMIB Don't forget to rate, subscribe and review!

Join Niccara as she welcomes DJ (Dominique), founder of Black & Brown Book Designers, to the pod! We talk about what a book designer actually does — covers, jackets, interiors, and why illustration is a whole separate job most readers assume is the same person. She takes us back to being the only Black cover designer on her team, learning what a 401k even was at her first corporate publishing job, and how that isolation turned into a 501c3 in 2020 after a post she almost didn't make. We get into the difference between having a seat at the table and actually being valued once you're sitting in it, the "golden handcuffs" of publishing, and why she started saying no to a freelance queue that was 80–90% trauma and slavery titles when what she wanted was Black love, Black joy, and Black greatness on the shelf. Plus: the wins BNB has already put on the board — two volunteers placed full-time at a Big Five, a 22% placement rate from their 2024 portfolio review — and what's next as the org expands from Brooklyn to the DMV. Perfect for readers who appreciate conversations about creative labor behind the books we love, being the only one in the room, the difference between diversity and belonging, mentorship as a form of community care, and the everyday greatness that doesn't always get a byline. Curious about book design for yourself, your kid, or your second act? Follow Black & Brown Book Designers, check out the freelance directory, and come through to a Book Lovers Hike or community hour! Follow Us: @butmakeitbookspod | @thebookishhottie | bookishlyhealing.com Follow & Find Dominique: Black & Brown Book Designers: bnbbookdesigners.com | @bnbbookdesigners (IG, Threads, YouTube) Shop With Us: Use our Mahogany Books link with code BMIB Don't forget to rate, subscribe and review! Mentioned in this episode: African Ancestry We are the pioneers of genetic ancestry tracing for Black people globally, reconnecting you to your specific African roots–the country and the people. Our scientists compare your DNA markers to the largest African reference database in the world in order to find your African origin up to 2000 years ago. African Ancestry The Seven Daughters of Dupree Pre-Order Offer Nikisha Elise Williams, the host of the Black and Published podcast, is celebrating the release of her forthcoming novel, The Seven Daughters of Dupree. This historical fiction novel is about the secrets kept between mothers and daughters over the course of seven generations and is told backwards in time from 1995 to 1860. The Seven Daughters of Dupree will be released on January 27th, 2026, but is available for pre-order now at MahoganyBooks.com. Please consider pre-ordering The Seven Daughters of Dupree today. African Ancestry We are the pioneers of genetic ancestry tracing for Black people globally, reconnecting you to your specific African roots–the country and the people. Our scientists compare your DNA markers to the largest African reference database in the world in order to find your African origin up to 2000 years ago. African Ancestry

Join Niccara as she welcomes Sedona Rose, indie romance author and booktuber celebrating Black love on every page, to the pod! We talk about her small-town rom-com Cute, Meet, Love, Kataleah asking her neighbor for a bag of sugar at midnight (and the sparks that followed), grief and legacy as she honors her grandmother's memory through Frosted Feelings, why some Black women brace for the other shoe to drop instead of letting love flow, writing Jayceon as a man who moves with patience and intention (medium pace, not slow burn!), relationships that end without going up in flames, getting your house in order before love finds you, and manifesting the love you want through the characters you write. Perfect for readers who appreciate Black romance, small-town meet cutes, soft life energy, boss women building their dreams, and intentional men who move at your pace. Make sure you pick up Cute, Meet, Love from where you get your books! Follow Us: @butmakeitbookspod | @thebookishhottie | bookishlyhealing.com Follow & Find Sedona Rose: thesedonarose.com | @sedonarosewrites (IG & Threads) | @authorsedonarose (TikTok) Don't forget to rate, subscribe and review! Mentioned in this episode: African Ancestry We are the pioneers of genetic ancestry tracing for Black people globally, reconnecting you to your specific African roots–the country and the people. Our scientists compare your DNA markers to the largest African reference database in the world in order to find your African origin up to 2000 years ago. African Ancestry The Seven Daughters of Dupree Pre-Order Offer Nikisha Elise Williams, the host of the Black and Published podcast, is celebrating the release of her forthcoming novel, The Seven Daughters of Dupree. This historical fiction novel is about the secrets kept between mothers and daughters over the course of seven generations and is told backwards in time from 1995 to 1860. The Seven Daughters of Dupree will be released on January 27th, 2026, but is available for pre-order now at MahoganyBooks.com. Please consider pre-ordering The Seven Daughters of Dupree today. African Ancestry We are the pioneers of genetic ancestry tracing for Black people globally, reconnecting you to your specific African roots–the country and the people. Our scientists compare your DNA markers to the largest African reference database in the world in order to find your African origin up to 2000 years ago. African Ancestry