Outwrite Bookstore & Coffeehouse

Mike Warren is a graduate of Morgan State University with a Bachelors Degree in Mass Communication and a Masters Degree from Towson State University with a degree in Communications. Warren has been writing since his college years. His first book titled, "A Private Affair" came out in May 2007. Sweet Swagger is the sequel and dropped June 2009.

Dwayne Vernon grew up in Portsmouth, Virginia. After graduating from High School, he joined the United States Navy and completed six years of active duty service. After the military, Dwayne worked for twelve years at Xerox Business Services as a Human Resource Representative. Dwayne is now working for the Federal Government.
Dwayne believes in giving back to his community, thus leading him to volunteer for four years with the Big Brother/Big Sister Program, mentoring young children; and for two years in the Everybody Wins Project where he read weekly to third and fourth graders. In 1997, Dwayne started his modeling career. He won the Mr. and Mrs. Metropolitan modeling competition in 1998. He modeled in such events as For Sister's Only and The Barnum Brothers Hair Show in Atlanta.
Eventually he became the trainer of male and female models, instructing them with meticulous technique on the cat walk. Dwayne Vernon's writing started in 1992 with his creation of poetry. In 2007, his first novel, My Man, My Boyz was released with great reviews and became the best seller on several review boards across the country. In June 2009, Dwayne Vernon's sequel to My Man, My Boyz; Deception, Lies and Truth hit the shelves. Currently, he is working on his next novel "Roman" to be released in the spring of 2010

About The Author

Shawn Stewart Ruff is the acclaimed author of Finlater---winner of the Lambda Literary Award for Debut Fiction 2008 and finalist for the Edmund White Award for Debut Fiction 2008. He is the editor of the groundbreaking collection Go the Way Your Blood Beats: An Anthology of Lesbian and Gay Fiction by African American Writers. His novel Toss & Whirl & Pass debuts Spring 2010.

Synopsis

In this prize-winning first novel, the course of growing up in just-this-side-of-segregation 1970s Cincinnati, Ohio, seems predictable if uninspiring for Cliffy Douglas. That is, until the deadbeat father of this gifted 13 year-old black kid from the Findlater Gardens Projects appears out of nowhere. The real fun and trouble begin when Noah, a Jewish boy he meets in junior high school, takes him on a joyride to lust and love. Winner of the Lambda Literary Award for Gay Debut Fiction 2008, and a finalist for the Edmund White Award for Debut Fiction.

About The Author

G. Winston James is a Jamaican-born poet, short fiction writer, essayist and editor. A former fellow of the Millay Colony for the Arts, he holds an MFA in Fiction from Brooklyn College, City University of New York, and is the author of the poetry collection The Damaged Good: Poems Around Love and the Lambda Literary Award finalist collection Lyric: Poems Along a Broken Road. His poetry also appears in numerous anthologies and publications, including Black Ivy: A Literary and Visual Arts Magazine; Bloom Magazine: Queer Fiction, Art, Poetry and More; Kuumba: A Poetry Journal for Black People in the Life; Milking Black Bull: 11 Black Gay Poets; The Nubian Gallery; Role Call: A Generational Anthology of Social and Political Black Literature and Art; and the Lambda Literary Award winning anthologies, Freedom in This Village: Twenty-Five Years of Black Gay Men's Writing, 1979 to the Present; Sojourner: Black Gay Voices in the Age of AIDS, and The Road Before Us: 100 Black Gay Poets.

Described as thoughtful and reflective, Nikki Rashan uses her ability to tap into the depths of human nature to create emotionally honest and passionate stories of love and romance, mixed with bits of humor and suspense. In her writings, Nikki utilizes the energy she experienced through her journey of self-realization, as she openly shared on the Oprah Winfrey show in 2004. Born and raised in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Nikki is the loving mom of teenage twin girls.

Nikki Rashan brings a hip, realistic story of self-discovery in the revised novel Double Pleasure Double Pain. Double Pleasure Double Pain is the story of Kyla, a woman challenged by emerging affections toward Stephanie, a female classmate.

Having lived a rather charmed life, 26 year-old Kyla has remained undisturbed within the comfort zone of her supportive family, loyal sweetheart, and close-knit friends. But an unforeseen, yet heart-awakening physical attraction and emotional bond forms between Kyla and Stephanie. What will Kyla do?

Readers can relate to the comical conversations Kyla shares with her friends, connect with her thoughts as she silently questions life's everyday activities, and empathize with her as she struggles with the unfamiliar. The story's ending allows Kyla's character to blossom in future novels.

Rodney Lofton was born in Seaboard, North Carolina and raised in Richmond, Virginia. His life's journey has been detailed in his first title, a memoir, The Day I Stopped Being Pretty.
Lofton had a dream at an early age of becoming an actor. He remembers vividly the days of sitting in the movie theaters of downtown Richmond, to view the great actors and actresses on screen. From that moment, he began to lose himself in the great lives of the characters on screen.
At the age of ten, he auditioned for the television show, Palmerstown, USA. Although he lost out on the role, the acting bug had bitten. Throughout his high school years, he auditioned and landed roles in his high school productions of The Wizard of Oz, Don't Bother Me I Can't Cope, and a class project "Oh Freedom," in which he played the tragic mulatto son of a slave and slave master. During this time, he discovered he was different from the other guys in the neighborhood. He realized he was gay.

Written in beautiful, brutally honest prose, No More Tomorrows offers insight into the lives of two gay men as they love each other in the face of adversity and discrimination. When the HIV-positive Mark Jones awakens from a restless sleep that has plagued him for weeks, he realizes it is his last physical day on earth. After everything they've experienced together, Mark feels prepared to confront his mortality with the unshakeable support of Kevin Williams, his lover, best friend, and confidante.
Since the inception of the HIV/AIDS epidemic in the early 1980s, men who have sex with men constitute the majority of the demographic that has been hit the hardest by the disease. In spite of the successes of the gay civil rights movement and the recent advances of medical research relating to HIV/AIDS, society still places a harsh stigma on those living with the disease. No More Tomorrows is a riveting novel about living and loving in the age of AIDS.