Bright Red Fruit

＂Bad girl. No matter how hard Samira tries, she can’t shake her reputation. She’s never gotten the benefit of the doubt-not from her mother or the aunties who watch her like a hawk. Samira is determined to have a perfect summer filled with fun parties, exploring DC, and growing as a poet-until a scandalous rumor has her grounded and unable to leave her house. When Samira turns to a poetry forum for solace, she catches the eye of an older, charismatic poet named Horus. For the first time, Samira feels wanted. But soon she’s keeping a bigger secret than ever before-one that that could prove her reputation and jeopardize her place in her community＂--

Safia Elhillo is an award-winning poet and author. Her debut YA novel-in-verse, Home Is Not a Country, was longlisted for the National Book Award and received a Coretta Scott King Book Award Author Honor and Arab American Book Award. Sudanese by way of Washington, DC, Safia is a Pushcart Prize nominee, co-winner of the 2015 Brunel International African Poetry Prize, and listed in Forbes Africa’s 2018 ＂30 Under 30.＂ She lives in Los Angeles.