Thai Williams is walking a thin line between two worlds. On one side he has his job as a filing clerk for the Washington, D.C., Department of Public Works, his girlfriend Sierra, and his plans for going to college. But on the other, darker side there are his friends Snowflake and Ray Ray, men who run the neighborhood streets dodging the dangers of the criminal life and its after-effects. But that thin line disappears when Thai walks in on Sierra with another man, whom he eventually kills in a haze of jealousy and confusion. From there Thai finds himself on the run and away from the five-block stretch where he’s lived for all his life. He finds his way to Charlotte, where Enrique, his closest friend of all, has moved in search of a better life. In the course of the week that follows, Thai encounters a series of men and women who show him aspects of life he never dreamed of in his narrow ghetto existence. All of them are looking for answers, but it is Thai who must find his own path out of the dark and into the clear light of moral responsibility and repentance for his actions. In his first novel, Kenji has written a haunting portrait of his own urban generation, shadowed (and often erased) by violence, but determined to make their own mark on the world.

Dark: A Novel

Literature & Fiction

Jasper, Kenji

Dramas & Plays

Crown

From the author of the acclaimed debut novel Dark, a searing and authentic new novel about the mano a mano feud between a famous rap artist and an intrepid, won’t-back-down hip-hop journalist. Dakota Grand is a young music journalist who’s left his Southern roots behind and moved to the Big Apple to cover the rough-and-tumble world of rap. He’s part of the star-making machinery, spinning the web of interviews, reviews, and “inside stories” that move the CD’s off the racks. He’s good at this, but what it’s gotten him so far is an apartment in deepest Brooklyn, a check-to-check freelancer’s existence, and a hit-and-run love life. Then the break of his career comes: the opportunity to interview one of his rap heroes, Mirage, one half of the legendary group Arbor Day, for a cover story for The Magazine. Puffing on a spliff, Mirage spills plenty of beans to Dakota Grand, but he’s less than pleased by the resulting article. In fact, he has his boys assault Dakota in a midtown elevator and send him to the hospital. What ensues is an increasingly tense and violent duel between Mirage and Dakota Grand, with the young writer determined to fight back for his own honor and that of his fellow journalists. As gripping as the best “Behind the Music” episode, Dakota Grand is a vivid and provocative study of a young writer and the multiplatinum, chart-topping culture that has begun to consume him--a significant step forward for a rising young star in the African-American literary world.

Dakota Grand: A Novel

Comics & Graphic Novels

Graphic Novels

Harlem Moon

The thrilling new novel of crime, music, and redemption from the acclaimed author of Dark and Dakota Grand. Benjamin Baker knew love for the second time when his eyes met Salamanca Mitchell’s. The first time was at age 11, when he’d sat down at a piano to play his first original composition. But both of those loves are nearly destroyed when he goes to work for Alfonse Mitchell, Salamanca’s father and a prominent soul-food restaurant owner with a secret criminal life. Seduced by the lure of easy money, Ben joins Mitchell’s den of thieves, only to earn seven years in prison when the burglary ring falls apart. As his singing group goes on to stardom without him, and Salamanca struggles to raise Ben’s daughter while on the run from her own father, he can only dream of a waiting family just beyond prison’s doors. Ben and Salamanca must each travel different roads to get back to each other, fighting against their own fears and against Alfonse Mitchell, the most tenacious enemy of all. Told in gritty, poetic prose, Seeking Salamanca Mitchell follows two passionate hearts through the trials that keep them apart. It is an exciting story of love and danger that cements Kenji Jasper’s reputation as one of the finest writers of his generation.

Seeking Salamanca Mitchell: A Novel

Romance

In this vivid and piercing memoir of his grandfather, noted novelist Kenji Jasper captures the story of his family and sheds a keen light on the urban and rural experiences of Black America. Author Kenji Jasper only knew his maternal grandfather, Jesse Langley Sr., as a quiet man who smoked too many cigarettes, drank too much liquor and quoted the Bible like it was the only book he’d ever laid eyes on. Jesse’s children rarely hugged him, and his nearly sixty years of marriage to Sally seemed cold and complicated. But when the man who declared himself “The Lone Ranger” passed away in late 2002, Kenji began a long and life-changing journey to learn more about the grandfather he barely knew. From the streets of his native Washington, D.C., to rural Virginia, North Carolina, and his home in Brooklyn, Jasper’s journey to find the truth leads him through three generations of stories, through tales of love and loss, loyalty and betrayal, addiction and redemption. The House on Childress Street examines life, love, and survival through the eyes of one little family on one little block that somehow manages to speak for us all.

The House on Childress Street: A Memoir

Biographies & Memoirs

Community & Culture

Jamison “Kango” Watts was once known as an invisible man, a quiet “fixer” who always got the job done with clean hands and cash in his pocket. Now he’s living the quiet life in DC, running a soul food restaurant and doing the occasional job to scratch his old itch. All that changes when Jelly, his old yoga teacher, blows into town with the ultimate score, one that will take Kango first to London and then back to Brooklyn to face old enemies and ghosts from his past. After a rain of gunfire, Kango’s retirement ends, and he’s back in the game. Caught between a crew of arsonists who go after Brooklyn historical landmarks, and flashbacks of his time with the love of his life he lost to his own demons, Kango stands face to face with the forces that led him into exile. But there is still an enemy in New York that Kango still doesn’t see, one who after fifteen years has become the unexpected foe at the center of it all . . . Praise for Kenji Jasper “With Dark Kenji Jasper lays waste to the genteel façade of the Washington, D.C. where dignitaries skirt around the lives of those actually born in the city. From the first page Jasper guns the engine, whipping the reader from pole to pole.” —Victor LaValle, author of The Changeling, on Dark “The House on Childress Street is a deep meditation on family, love, and remembrance, and a tough valentine to the real Washington, D.C. Kenji Jasper is an extraordinary young talent.” —George Pelecanos, award-winning writer and producer

Nostrand Avenue

United States

Dafina

Jamison “Kango” Watts was once known as an invisible man, a quiet “fixer” who always got the job done with clean hands and cash in his pocket. Now he’s living the quiet life in DC, running a soul food restaurant and doing the occasional job to scratch his old itch. All that changes when Jelly blows into town with the ultimate score, one that will take Kango first to London and then back to Brooklyn to face old enemies and ghosts from his past. After a rain of gunfire, Kango’s retirement ends, and he’s back in the game. Caught between a crew of arsonists who go after Brooklyn historical landmarks and flashbacks of his time with the love of his life, Kango stands face-to-face with the forces that led him into exile. But there is still an enemy in New York that Kango still doesn’t see, one who after fifteen years has become the unexpected foe at the center of it all . . . Praise for Kenji Jasper “From the first page Jasper guns the engine, whipping the reader from pole to pole.” —Victor LaValle, author of The Changeling, on Dark “Kenji Jasper is an extraordinary young talent.” —George Pelecanos, award-winning writer and producer

Once a promising young student, Snow, a career criminal one step ahead of both the cops and the competition, must choose between the streets and family when his baby daughter is born, which leads to a final confrontation with his arch enemy Kamau. Original.

Snow

Vibe Street Lit

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Jasper, Kenji. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Jasper, Kenji

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Jasper, Kenji. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Dark: A Novel

Dakota Grand: A Novel

Seeking Salamanca Mitchell: A Novel

The House on Childress Street: A Memoir

Nostrand Avenue

Nostrand Avenue

Snow