In the tradition of Claudia Tate’s classic book, re-envisioned for the 21st century, Khadijah Queen showcases fifteen leading Black women writers who are influencing the cultural and literary future
These writers, like the luminaries Tate interviewed forty years ago, demonstrate how their identities are integral to their creative processes in craft, thought, and imagination. Queen explores the impacts and influence of social media, artificial intelligence, disability, the business of writing, and other subjects crucial to imaginative and intellectual production of Black women writers at work today.
These poets, scientists, comic book artists, nonfiction writers, novelists, researchers, and playwrights provide a window into the connections between their lives and their art, offering an account of why and for whom they write.
Featuring conversations with: Elizabeth Alexander, Mahogany L. Browne, Rita Dove, Camille T. Dungy, Eve L. Ewing, Vievee Francis, Kaitlyn Greenidge, alexis pauline gumbs, Jzl Jmz, Morgan Parker, Imani Perry, Deesha Philyaw, Chanda Prescod-Weinstein, Treasure Shields Redmond, and Jesmyn Ward.
Khadijah Queen holds a PhD in English from the University of Denver. She is the author of eight books of poetry and prose, including her Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea: A Veteran’s Memoir (Hachette, 2025) and I’m So Fine: A List of Famous Men & What I Had On:Poems. Her verse play Non-Sequitur (Litmus Press 2015) won the Leslie Scalapino Award for Innovative Performance Writing, and was performed by The Relationship Theater Company in New York City. She is a Cave Canem alum, a 2023 Civitella Ranieri Foundation Fellow, and a 2022 United States Artists Disability Futures Fellow. In 2025 the Foundation for Contemporary Arts recognized Queen’s work with the Cy Twombly Award in Poetry. She divides her time between Los Angeles and Blacksburg, Virginia.
Publication date: February 2, 2027
Praise for Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea
“[Queen’s] narration glimmers with humor, frankness, and vulnerability. She beautifully balances empathy for her past self with a trenchant analysis of the systems that shaped her life story. A poetic page-turner of a memoir about a Black woman’s time in the Navy.”
―Kirkus
"Prepare to be stunned. From the first few pages to this books’ roaring end, Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea grabs readers by the throat and doesn’t let go."
―Miami Times
“A large-hearted, compulsively readable memoir shot through with courage and razor-sharp intelligence. Moreover, Queen’s magnificent personal reckoning helps me to ponder what new forms of relation might be possible between ourselves, our nation, and the many institutions charged with stewarding the common good.”
―Tracy K. Smith, Pulitzer Prize winning poet
"This book is a gift.”
―Hanif Abdurraqib, author of There’s Always This Year and A Little Devil in America
"This isn’t just a memoir—it’s a reckoning.”
―Lara Love Hardin, New York Times bestselling author of The Many Lives of Mama Love