Black writers celebrate the complexity, power, danger, and glory of love in all its many forms: romantic, familial, communal, and sacred. Editor Marita Golden recounts the morning she woke certain that she would meet her soul mate, memoirist Reginald Dwayne Betts writes stirringly about serving time in prison, New York Times bestselling author Pearl Cleage is at her best in the delicate, touching Missing You, award-winning author David Anthony Durham enraptures readers with An Act of Faith, New York Times bestselling author L. A. Banks is both funny and wise in her beautiful essay of discovering love as a child. And the poetry of love is here, too—from Gwendolyn Brooks to works by Nikki Giovanni, E. Ethelbert Miller, and Kwame Alexander.

Marita Golden is the author of works of both fiction and nonfiction. Her books include Migrations of the Heart, Saving Our Sons, and most recently, Don’t Play in the Sun. She is the founder of the Hurston/Wright Foundation, an organization that supports African American writers. She lives in Mitchellville, Maryland.