“I could not have told this story in my 20’s. Now, I’m so sure of who I am. The strength and dignity of my mother, how incredible our family is, even though it’s messy and not perfect, I’m proud of that. I’d rather tell a story about our humanity and our truth, than ever give anyone a sanitized version that paints us to be something that we are not.” - Perdita Felicien, author of My Mother’s Daughter: A Memoir of Struggle and Triumph.

Given is the debut novel from Nandi Taylor, a Black Caribbean and Canadian writer and fantasy-enthusiast. Nandi Taylor first started weaving the tale about a young Yirba princess back in 2017 on Wattpad, an online storytelling platform.

I think I have potential. I say this knowing exactly how much of an arrogant so and so it makes me sound. As a full-time freelance writer, my work has popped up in publications of all sizes and influence, in which I’ve expressed political opinions from a critical perspective, along with a rare smattering of nuanced art and book reviews.

We have a responsibility as black writers to share our stories. That’s the new narrative for writers of colour.