Discover the rich stories of The People of Russell's Knob in the 20th and 21st centuries in "Alive Nearby,” a novel that explores Russell's Knob, a hidden and marooned town in New Jersey's highlands, a town that preserved its existence and vibrant history despite slavery, war, and Jim Crow. Grief-stricken following her son's death, Amarantha “Amy” Douglas accepts the responsibility to marshal the Williams-Murtaugh Institute’s books, documents, and objects into their best future. And in the face of a natural disaster, she stays true to her legacy as an archivist as she records events through letters to her late son. “Alive Nearby” ponders the intersection of past life, afterlife, and present in a gently ruminative epistolary work.

ANGELS MAKE THEIR HOPE HERE is set in an imagined community in a mountainous area roughly north and west of Paterson, New Jersey in the 19th century. Russell’s Knob is a hidden, secretive place settled by people who might be described today as bi-racial or tri-racial. The inhabitants describe themselves as runaways and stay-aways. Russell’s Knob maintains a tradition of harboring fugitives from enslavement and is home to the legendary Underground Railroad conductor, Duncan Smoot. The residents of Russell’s Knob are people who reject the limiting definitions of racial identity and character of 19th century, mid-Atlantic, North America and live outside of the “white” towns. They are spoken of derisively as “amalgamators” and “race mixers” though their true history is as complex as is the history of settlement in the region

River, Cross My Heart, my debut novel, is a very personal narrative. It is based on my parents' recollections, especially my mother's, of growing up in the African American community of Georgetown, in what is now a very affluent neighborhood. Young Johnnie Mae Bynum, coming of age in the segregated, racially prejudicial Washington, D.C. of the early twentieth century, is coping with the drowning death of her younger sister, for which she feels responsible. Selected by Oprah's Book Club in November 1999, River, Cross My Heart was also named one of the essential books about Washington, D.C.

Published in 2008, Stand The Storm has recently become more personal to me and my family. Through the efforts of an intrepid family genealogist, I’ve discovered an ancestor who is documented as having been emancipated under the District of Columbia’s Compensated Emancipation Act of April, 1862. He was a ten year old boy at the time.

I’m Speaking Now. Black Women Share Their Truth in 101 Stories of Love, Courage, and Hope.