Saving Our Sons

MaritaGolden is an accomplished author of dozens of critically acclaimednovels and nonfiction works, including The Strong BlackWoman (Mango 2021). She is also the co-founder of The Hurston/WrightFoundation, an American literary nonprofit organization that providesworkshops, classes, support, and community for talented and successful Blackwriters. During her teaching career, she has taught creative writing atnumerous colleges and universities, including Johns Hopkins University andVirginia Commonwealth University. Marita is therecipient of many esteemed writing and literary activism awards, such as theInternational Literary Hall of Fame of Writers of African Descent Inductee(Gwendolyn Brooks Center at Chicago State University), the Barnes and NobleWriters for Writers Award (Poets and Writers), and the Distinguished ServiceAward (Authors Guild). Currently, as a masterfulcreative writing coach and literary consultant, Marita spends her time coachingburgeoning and seasoned authors through the necessary stages of fear andanxiety in the creative process.Nathan McCall served as a reporter for several newspapers, including The Washington Post, where he worked until taking a leave of absence to write his bestselling memoir, Makes Me Wanna Holler: A Young Black Man in America. Makes Me Wanna Holler was a New York Times bestseller and won the Blackboard Book of the Year Award for 1995. McCall's second publication, released in 1997, is a series of personal essays titled What's Going On. Nathan made his fiction debut with Them, a timely and penetrating story that explores the complexities of gentrification. Them was cited by Publishers Weekly as one of the best books of 2007. In 2008, the novel reached No. 1 on the Essence magazine bestseller list. Also, the Georgia Center for the Book nominated Them as one of ten finalists for the 2008 Townsend Prize for Fiction, awarded to an outstanding novel or short-story collection published by a Georgia writer during the past two years. McCall also served as a visiting lecturer in the African American Studies Department at Emory University in Atlanta. Born in Port-au-Prince, M.J. Fievre, B.S. Ed, earned a bachelor’s degree in education from Barry University. A seasoned K–12 teacher, a creator of safe spaces, and an initiator of difficult conversations, she spent much time building up her students, helping them feel comfortable in their own skin, and affirming their identities. Her close relationships with parents and students led her to look more closely at how we can balance protecting a child’s innocence with preparing them for the realities of life. She has taught creative writing workshops to children and teens at the O Miami Poetry Festival and the Miami Art Museum, as well as in various schools in Santa Cruz de la Sierra (Bolivia), Port-au-Prince (Haiti), and South Florida. She’s also been a keynote speaker at Tufts University (Massachusetts), Howard University (Washington, DC), the University of Miami (Florida), and Michael College (Vermont) and has served as a panelist at the Association of Writers & Writing Programs Conference (AWP).M.J.’s publishing career began as a teenager in her native Haiti. At nineteen years old, she signed her first book contract with Hachette-Deschamps for the publication of a YA book titled La Statuette Maléfique. Since then, M.J. has released nine YA books in French that are widely read in Europe and the French Antilles, and she is the author of the award-winning Badass Black Girl book series for tweens and teens (in English). One Moore Book published M.J.’s first children’s book, I Am Riding, as part of a special limited series edited by Edwidge Danticat. A middle-grade book, Young Trailblazers, and picture book, Sam Is Afraid of Christmas, are both set to be released by DragonFruit in the fall of 2021.As the ReadCaribbean program coordinator for the prestigious Miami Book Fair, M.J. directs and produces the children’s cultural show Taptap Krik? Krak! For her podcast, MJ has interviewed many literary legends, including Edwidge Danticat, Alice Randall, and Nikki Giovanni.

• ContentsAuthor’s PrefaceAcknowledgementsCalling My NameTrouble the WatersAn Acquaintance with GriefSoon One MorningEpilogueThe Dead Call Us to RememberAbout the Author

“Marita Golden’s Saving Our Sons was revelatory when first published and remains so today. Saving Our Sons is a superb mother’s, artist’s, teacher’s, and community activist’s love story of her son and by extension, all Black sons. This is a book that provides life lessons for our daughters too.  Saving Our Sons is critical as a guide, motivator, love-note, and an avenue into lifesaving discussions of the heart for all Black children.”—Haki R. Madhubuti, founder of Third World Press and author of Black Men: Obsolete, Single, Dangerous (1991) and Taught By Women: Poems As Resistance Language New and Selected (2020)It is always heartening to see women step up to the writer's table. When the results are as adroit and affecting as Marita Golden's work, it is more than satisfying; it is a cause for celebration.”—Toni Morrison, Nobel Laureate“Marita Golden has captured the special pain that shadows the joy of Black parenthood in these turbulent times. Elegantly written, this book is a breakthrough.”—Chicago Tribune“A wonderful storyteller, an uncompromising mind, Marita Golden explores theAfrican-American experience in a completely original way.”—Newsweek“In this book, Marita reminds us why every black parent should be vigilant and intentional in considering how to steer young black boys—and girls as well—through the precarious passage to adulthood. Saving Our Sons is disturbingly relevant in this, the twenty-first century. It’s a compelling read.”—Nathan McCall, author of Makes Me Wanna Holler: A Young Black Man in America"One of the most important pieces of literature for Black parents."—MJ Fievre, author of Raising Confident Black Kids