In celebration of Black History Month, we are honored to share the work of many celebrated African American and Black authors who have contributed to our magazine over the years. We thank you for your voice, your work, and your willingness to share your pieces with us.

 

Contributors to Solstice  (alphabetical order by first name):

Afaa M. Weaver
In Shin Lin Night Market with my Lover
Noodles in Guan Gong with Grandfather
Tea Plantations and Women in Black

 

 

Alysia Nicole Harris

Stephen Dunn Prize in Poetry Winner: Crow’s Sugar

 

Eli Reed

Mozambique

 

 

 

Elizabeth de Souza

THE KNOTTY ONE: Obscurity and the Black Male Artist 

 

 
 

 Danez Smith
 

 

Character Work: Family (for Uganda)

Eric Charles May

An American Family 

 

 
 

Helen Elaine Lee

Pomegranate
This Kind of Red

 

Jabari Asim

• Color Him Father 

 

 

 

Joy Priest

The Young Just Live
Perigee

 

 

Karima Grant
Fiction Second Runner Up: The Education of Aicha
The Chameleon
Kings and Teggins

 

Kent Foreman
Right Now (It’s About Time)
Testimony
Suffragette

 

Kim McLarin

Border Dance

 

 

Lou Jones

Final Exposure: Portraits from Death Row

 

Marlon Carey

• When I Love You Next 

 

Major Jackson

Night Steps 

 

 

Rae Paris

The Hanging Tree 

 

 

Regie O’Hare Gibson

Eulogy of Jimi Christ
Creation Myth

 

Ross Gay

Burial
Patience

 

Sean DesVignes 

• Lumpy, American Sonnet 

 

 

Terri Sutton

Am I Ugly?

 

Trent Masiki

Whiskey Under the Mattress, Playboy on the Porch

 

 

Valerie Wilson Wesley

Long Gone, A Tamara Hayle Mystery – Chapter One

 

 

 

 

Wesley Brown

Too Young for the Blues

Zazz Zu Zazz