NABJ Authors Showcase Update: I’m a Sellout

CLEVELAND — As you grow in the craft, you experience at the annual National Association of Black Journalists Convention and Career Fair evolves, too.

When you’re young, you slash your sleep budget in half so you can stay on for 20 hours out of every 24. By day you’re sweaty and desperate — networking, spreading your name among decision-makers, pressing your résumé into the hands of any editor willing to give it a glance. And by night, you party. It’s all productive, but it’s not sustainable past a certain age.

Whatever that number is, I’m well beyond it.

So now my daytime NABJ experience is more like a family reunion. Of course, I sit in on some sessions and do some fly-bys through the career fair, but mostly I’m catching up with people I don’t need to impress. It’s all hugs and fist bumps and face-to-face conversations with people I usually only see on WhatsApp or the socials.

And nighttime?

There is no no night time NABJ. Not anymore. Not for me. My vocal chords and lower back aren’t set up for that. I drop in on a dinner-hour reception, then I wander back to the hotel and go to sleep.

It’s a concentrated schedule these days, but I still levelled up.

This year I made my NABJ Authors Showcase debut, with my memoir My Fighting Family: Borders and Bloodlines and The Battles That Made Us, and I’m thrilled at how it all unfolded. I got to present my work in to some of my favourite people in the industry, and we took a big step toward gaining some long-overdue traction in the US market.

Because this is NABJ, an event dedicated to community-building, solidarity and teamwork, I had some high-profile help. As we’ve discussed in previous posts, my good friend Coley Harvey, whom most of you know from the do-it-all role he’s held at ESPN the last few years, stepped up to moderate my author talk, which you can view below, or by clicking this link.

As for feedback, it’s been overwhelmingly positive with one glaring complaint: too short. The people wanted more than 30 minutes, and I empathize. Whether it’s a vacation, a work trip to Montreal, or a sit-down with the author of your Next Favourite Book, it feels like there’s never quite enough time.

We’re working on a solution to that problem, in the meantime I got to return to the NABJ’s pop-up book store — operated by the incredible team at Third Space Reading Room — and watch my stack of books dwindle until just one copy remained. I tried to save it for Monique Jones at the Baltimore Banner, but fellow author and family historian Lee Hawkins scooped it first.

A minor disappointment, but we’re focused on the positive here. We sold out our inventory, and left the people wanting more.

To that end… nothing’s final yet, but we’re working on something in Chicago this fall. The South Side LitFest is on hiatus this year, so I we’re looking at 2026 for that event. But discussions are already underway for a separate event, little deeper into the season. When we finalize it, I’ll let you all know right away.

It’ll be an hour long, too. Because the people asked for it, and we like to give the people what they want

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