Dr. Daniel Black is an award-winning novelist, professor, activist, mentor and public speaker. His published works include They Tell Me of Home, The Sacred Place, Perfect Peace, Twelve Gates to the City, The Coming, Listen to the Lambs, Don’t Cry for Me, and Black on Black. He will be the recipient of the NBCC’s Terrie M. Williams Inspiration Award in 2025. In 2014, Daniel won the Distinguished Writer’s Award from the Mid-Atlantic Writer’s Association. The Go On Girl! National Book Club

Bernice McFadden, the award-winning author and creative writing professor at Tulane University, offers an intimate and powerful memoir exploring inherited trauma, family secrets, and the enduring bonds of love between mothers and daughters. A memoir of many threads, Firstborn Girls is an extraordinarily moving portrait of a life shaped by family, history, and the drive to be something more. On her second birthday in 1967, Bernice McFadden died in a car crash near Detroit, only to be resuscitated after her mother pulled

Brenda Jackson, New York Times and USA Today Bestselling author of over 140 books and novellas, and 15 million books in print, earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration from Jacksonville University.  She worked in management for State Farm Insurance where she retired after thirty-seven years.  Forty-nine years ago, she married her high school sweetheart, Gerald and they have two sons, Gerald Jr. and Brandon, ages forty-three and forty-one, respectively.  She is a member of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority,

Brian W. Smith is the award winning, best selling author of thirty-three novels to include the best-sellers: QUAGMIRE, DEADBEAT, The Delusion of Inclusion, and If These Trees Could Talk. His novels have appeared on numerous best sellers list to include: Amazon, Dallas Morning News, Target, and Black Expressions. When Brian is not writing novels and appearing at literary events, he serves as an Adjunct Professor of Creative Writing, at two colleges in the Dallas, Texas area. Brian is a native of New Orleans, La., and currently resides in the Dallas, Texas area. Visit www.authorbrianwsmith.com 

Alice Randall, award-winning professor, songwriter, and author presents “a celebration of all things country music” (Ken Burns) as she reflects on her search for the first family of Black country music. Country music had brought Alice Randall and her activist mother together and even gave Randall a singular distinction in American music history: she is the first Black woman to cowrite a number one country hit, Trisha Yearwood’s “XXX’s and OOO’s (An American Girl)”. Randall found inspiration and comfort in

ReShonda Tate is the national bestselling author of more than 53 books who has the credentials, and the passion, to bring stories to life. ReShonda writes both adult and teen fiction, as well as nonfiction. Her sophomore novel, Let the Church Say Amen, was made into a film directed by actress Regina King, and produced by TD Jakes and Queen Latifah. ReShonda made her on-screen movie debut in the film, which was one of BET’s highest-rated programs. Her book, The