Black History Month is generally the time readers challenge themselves to read and learn with books centered around the theme of Black History Month. Books such as HIDDEN FIGURES by Margot Lee Shetterley, and the upcoming SHINE BRIGHT by Danyel Smith, shed light on the accomplishments of various black people. Graphic novels such as WAKE by Rebecca Hall, and the MARCH trilogy by John Lewis, offer us a glimpse into the various tribulations black people have encountered in their quest for true equality. More recent books such as STAMPED by Jason Reynolds and Ibram X. Kendi, BETWEEN THE WORLD AND ME by Ta-Nehisi Coates, and THEY CAN’T KILL US ALL by Wesley Lowery speak more on the issues we are still tackling even today in 2022. There are quite a few splendid nonfiction books about black history, but I’d like to challenge readers to start incorporating more black fiction authors into their reading throughout the year. I recently saw a statistic which indicates that nearly 90% of people don’t have a close friend of another ethnicity or race, and perhaps reading both fictional as well as nonfiction books written by people of color may be a starting place for some. …

Danielle: Welcome to Fresh Fiction, Kaia, and congrats on the release of SISTERS IN ARMS. Can you tell us a little bit about yourself and where the idea for this book began?   Kaia: I am a lifelong history geek who whose fascination with World War II began early. The aspects of that war that interest me most are the French Resistance and the U.S. Women’s Corps (WAC). Intellectually, I knew that Black women had served in the WAC. But I had never seen a picture of them until a picture of the 6888th marching in France floated down my Twitter timeline almost 10 years ago. I immediately googled “Black women WW2 France” and the rest is history. Personally, I have family who attended Bethune Cookman University (many years ago!), so I was familiar with Dr. Mary McLeod Bethune—an amazing educator who had a major part in developing the Six Triple Eight, the only all-Black battalion of the Women’s Army Corps. What did your research reveal about this incredible woman?   Dr. Mary McLeod Bethune was basically the godmother of the Black WAC soldiers. She positioned herself as advisor to WAAC/WAC leadership early on to ensure that Black women would…