Departure Story, is the first fiction novel to be published by Spoken Black Girl Publishing. We are proud to present coming of age stories by #ownvoices authors as a part of our commitment to diversifying publishing.

Departure Story by Rowana Abbensetts-Dobson

Love knows no borders and comes in the most unexpected packages. Celestine Samuels is making the biggest trip of her life, from Guyana to the United States for college. At first, she is relieved to get away from her primadonna sister, neglectful mother, and troublemaker brother and eager to embrace the new freedoms of the United States like Starbucks, bagels, and wild college parties. Reality sets in when she gets the news that her aunt and Uncle in Guyana have been shot in an act of political violence. Unable to go home, Celestine decides to find justice by championing the cause of an African Dance group on her small midwestern campus. Meanwhile, matters of the heart couldn't be more confusing. She finds herself entangled in a situationship with classmate and photographer, Richard Wirth, while she can't help her curiosity about the obnoxiously cocky football star Don Bradford who also happens to be her fellow student council representative. No matter how far she travels, "Home" keeps haunting her dreams, leading her to question unforgivable family secrets, and search for answers she may not want to know.