Congratulations to Serendipity Literary Agency author Will Packer and illustrator Gordon C. James on their bestselling books! Who Better Than You?: The Art of Healthy Arrogance & Dreaming Big, a hilarious, straight-talking account of Packer’s meteoric career in Hollywood and his tips for success, landed on the New York Times and USA Today bestsellers lists, and…
Will Packer, the groundbreaking producer behind the films “Girls Trip”, “Stomp the Yard” and many more, is hitting the road to promote his new book: Who Better Than You?: The Art of Healthy Arrogance & Dreaming Big! Catch him live on tour: February 17th: At the Strand Bookstore in Manhattan, in conversation with Sunny Hostin February 19th: At…
Award-winning producer and journalist Shirley Neal’s book, AfroCentric Style: A Celebration of Blackness & Identity in Pop Culture, has been nominated for an NAACP Image Award in the category of Outstanding Literary Work By a Debut Author. In AfroCentric Style, Neal explores the Black community’s ongoing influence on the world of pop culture, enhanced by more than 100…
Serendipity Literary Agency CEO and AALA President Regina Brooks is one of five publishing professionals chosen by Publishers Weekly as a 2024 Notable. “Drawing on her first career working at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Regina Brooks is bringing the innovative spirit of an engineer to the publishing industry… Since joining the Association of American…
Moore Black Press, originally founded in 1997 by Detroit Poet Laureate jessica Care moore, has relaunched as an imprint of Amistad/HarperCollins, celebrating its first publication: Every Where Alien by poet Brad Walrond. Now co-run by moore and Regina Brooks of Serendipity Literary Agency, MBP is committed to publishing revolutionary works by leading and emerging Black…
Diane Richards, executive director of the Harlem Writers Guild, was celebrated with a cover feature in Publishers Weekly in honor of her new book Ella. The book, a novel based on the life of Ella Fitzgerald, also received a Publishers Weekly starred review and was chosen for the “Sarah Selects” book club by Amazon Books Editorial Director Sarah Gelman.
The New Brownies’ Book: A Love Letter to Black Families, compiled by Dr. Karida L. Brown and Charly Palmer, is the 2024 NAACP Image Award winner in the “Outstanding Literary Work: Non-Fiction” category. Inspired by W. E. B. DuBois’ Brownies’ Book magazine from the 1920s, this collection of art and writing by more than 50 contributors…
Former president Barack Obama, A.K.A. “Skinny Santa”, surprised children at a Chicago school with a live holiday reading of Santa’s Gotta Go, a hilarious new picture book written by Serendipity Lit author Derrick Barnes and illustrated by Courtney Lovett! The event was covered by CBS, NBC, and MSNBC. Look for your own copy of Santa’s Gotta…
The New Brownies’ Book by Dr. Karida L. Brown and Charly Palmer was recommended by Oprah Daily as a perfect 2023 holiday gift! This acclaimed anthology of Black creative work that “consoles, explains, entertains, and inspires” has also been featured in Essence, CNN, The New York Times, School Library Journal, Publishers Weekly, The Philadelphia Tribune, and The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.…
Shitty Craft Club by Sam Reece, with photography by Lizzie Darden, has been named one of Barnes & Noble’s best books of the year, in the “Best of Being Creative” category. This hilarious crafting/mindfulness book about rejecting perfectionism and doing what makes you happy, based on the author’s viral TikTok account, has also been spotlighted…
A new article in the New York Times spotlights both The Brownies Book– W.E.B Du Bois’s publication from the 1920s which sought to counter racial stereotypes and empower Black children with positive representation– and The New Brownies’ Book compiled by Serendipity Lit’s Dr. Karida L. Brown and Charly Palmer. Like the original, The New Brownies’ Book: A…
Serendipity author Victoria Scott-Miller founded Liberation Station Bookstore with her family as a pop-up shop at the North Carolina Museum of Art in 2019, after struggling to find books for her sons featuring Black characters in other local bookstores. On Juneteenth, the store finally found a permanent brick-and-mortar home in downtown Raleigh, making history as the first Black-owned children’s…
Denise Rosario Adusei, Serendipity client and author of the forthcoming picture book Cesaria Wears No Shoes, is now the Executive Director of the newly refurbished Bronx Children’s Museum. Her efforts to create a magical space for the children of the Bronx, which has already been visited by First Lady Dr. Jill Biden and native Bronxite U.S.…
Dr. Jenny Wang, clinical psychologist, Serendipity client, and author of the book Permission to Come Home, has offered mental health guidance and support on her Instagram page @asiansformentalhealth since 2019. This work, and her ongoing mission to improve mental health resources for the AAPI community, is being celebrated by Nordstrom with a feature on the front…
Victory. Stand!: Raising My Fist for Justice by Dr. Tommie Smith, Derrick Barnes, and Dawud Anyabwile Kirkus Best Books of 2022 | Horn Book Magazine “Fanfare” Best Books of 2022 | School Library Journal Best Books of 2022 | Center for the Study of Multicultural Children’s Literature Best Books of 2022 | Kirkus Best Books of 2022 | Booklist Editors’ Choice 2022 | Publishers Weekly Best Books of 2022 | NPR “Books We Love” 2022 | Washington…
Congratulations to Serendipity clients Dr. Tommie Smith, Derrick Barnes, and April Harrison, whose books were honored at this year’s ALA Youth Media Awards! Victory. Stand!: Raising My Fist for Justice by Dr. Tommie Smith, Derrick Barnes, and Dawud Anyabwile earned Coretta Scott King Author and Illustrator Honors, as well as the YALSA Award for Excellence…
The series where we break down the ins-and-outs of the publishing industry is back! In this episode of “Books by the Numbers”, Serendipity Lit Senior Agent Charles Kim discusses how many illustrations go into making a picture book with Kim Taylor, expert quilter and debut author/illustrator of the new book A Flag for Juneteenth. Click…
We are honored that Victory. Stand! by Serendipity authors Tommie Smith and Derrick Barnes and illustrator Dawud Anyabwile is among the five finalists for the 2022 National Book Award in Young People’s Literature! “With collaborators Barnes and Anyabwile, Smith details his childhood leading up to his historic Olympic protest—and its aftermath—in this compelling graphic memoir… Anyabwile’s…
Showtime’s “The One and Only Dick Gregory”, directed by Andre Gaines, has been nominated for an Emmy! This documentary, which was a finalist for an NAACP Image Award, celebrates the extraordinary life and continuing legacy of the late comedian, civil rights activist, and author. And don’t miss The Essential Dick Gregory, a collection of his…
Submissions are back! For the next few months we will be opening our submission boxes on Saturdays only to successfully manage the influx of queries. We want to make sure we give each submission the attention and care it deserves! Submission boxes will be open starting THIS SATURDAY (August 13) through the end of October.…
Serendipity is proud to be a leader in African American children’s books, and we are thrilled that our clients’ books are currently filling the top three spots on Amazon: The King of Kindergarten and The Queen of Kindergarten by Derrick Barnes and Vanessa Brantley-Newton, and the new picture book Just Like Jesse Owens, written by…
Showtime’s “The One and Only Dick Gregory”, directed by Andre Gaines, has been nominated for an Emmy! This documentary, which was a finalist for an NAACP Image Award, celebrates the extraordinary life and continuing legacy of the late comedian, civil rights activist, and author. And don’t miss The Essential Dick Gregory, a collection of his…
Permission to Come Home by Dr. Jenny T. Wang, founder of Asians for Mental Health, takes Asian Americans on an empowering journey toward reclaiming their mental health and offers permission to return closer to home, a place of acceptance, belonging, healing, and freedom. For Asian Americans and Diaspora, this book is a necessary road map for the journey…
In 2016, Lawrence Jackson accepted a new job in Baltimore. His new neighborhood, Homeland—largely White, built on racial covenants—is not where he is “supposed” to live. But his purchase, and his desire to pass some inheritance on to his children, provides a foundation for him to explore his personal and spiritual history and Baltimore’s untold stories. Shelter: A Black…
Serendipity poet jessica Care moore read her new poem “Her Crown Shines” at a Win With Black Women prayer gathering in honor of Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson’s Supreme Court appointment. Oprah was in attendance and shared a video of the reading on Oprah Daily.
Serendipity Literary Agency is very proud that our client, legendary filmmaker Will Packer (Girls Trip, Straight Outta Compton), is the producer of the 2022 Oscars ceremony. Catch the big event on ABC this Sunday, March 27th, at 7pm CT/8pm ET!
Katrina Brownlee’s ex-fiancé—an officer with a badge—nearly killed her. Police failed to protect her, so she got her own badge. Click here to watch Michelle Miller’s “48 Hours” coverage of her remarkable story, also available for viewing on Paramount+. (Graphic by CBS “48 Hours”)