The Academy For Mythical Creatures discussion

Afro-Bougie Blues is a gripping collection of short stories that pulls you into the emotional lives of everyday Black men and women navigating heartbreak, trauma, healing, and hope. These aren’t stories of easy victories or neat endings they’re raw, real, and deeply human portraits of people learning to survive and sometimes even thrive despite the weight of their past and the uncertainty of their future.

Meet Alexis, finally finding love after 17 years of loneliness only for life to test her all over again. Walk beside Rodney, a Gulf War veteran numbing his pain with alcohol, haunted by memories that refuse to fade. Watch Bessie, overlooked and underestimated, choose herself and set out on a journey that will change everything. And listen to young Aisha, just thirteen, asking her father the kind of question that makes a man rethink everything he thought he knew about love.

Through themes of depression, PTSD, addiction, colorism, abortion, abuse, and forgiveness, these stories challenge stereotypes and shine a light on the quiet strength it takes to keep going when the world doesn’t make it easy.

Told in intimate, first-person narratives, Afro-Bougie Blues will make you feel seen, crack your heart open, and maybe even shift the way you see others. It’s not just a book it’s an emotional experience.