(Sorry, I had to take a walk. I almost ripped up what I wrote so far, but I want you to get all of this if the letter gets to you. I’m sorry. I can’t keep you from doin what you need to do. You fightin your fight is inspirin me and all. But you know what too? It’s like the songs say: if you love somethin, you gotta be able to let it go. I just…I just don’t want you to die, homie. On the set, you the best thing that ever happened to me and I don’t know that this coulda happened if I didn’t wind up here in solitary. Someone catches me shittin out a whole piece of paper they gon take me straight to the hospital, you feel me? Haha. But you a real nigga for what you doin. That’s on the set. Out there, niggas die over all sorts of petty shit and it’s like we don’t see the bigger things that’s above us, you know? Like the homie who got asthma because his house is right by that coal plant and that’s why the property value low enough for black families to buy it in the first place. And his mama and em was always tellin him to sleep with the window shut but he liked the breeze on his face so he’d always open it every night till one night he fell outta bed and couldn’t breathe and they took him to the hospital and told him he had asthma. See, I wasn’t thinkin bout none of that before I got in here. I was seein it. I was seein kids get jammed up over ridin trains without payin the fare then windin up behind bars over that shit and I just figured it was normal, but I wasn’t seein the bigger thing hangin over it. I don’t know. You opened my eyes to thinkin that kind of way. And that’s why I’ma get out. That’s right. I’ma get outta here. I’ma get outta the Box and I’ma beat my case and I’ma be clean on probation and I’ma make it so kids don’t be gettin locked up over bullshit fare evasion and so kids don’t get asthma from living to close to the coal plant and so ppl stop getting shot over bullshit. I’ma get out.)
And when I get out, I’ma find you, and we’re gonna go swimmin.
And I’m gonna ask you what that last word meant. Habibi. It sounded important but it didn’t translate in my brain when I read it. I hope that don’t mean my powers is fading. Haha. Cuz I still gotta make it to you. And I think Gaza’s a long way from Cali.
There’s another reason I need to see you. And I wasn’t even sure I was gonna write this, but whatever.
When you were talkin about my hands…I felt…I don’t know. I felt Good. Like, Good good. Ain’t nobody ever told me about my hands like that. And it ain’t feel weird either. It felt right. I don’t know. I just wanted you to know that.
Quincy—
Beloved. Habibi means beloved. I hope this letter gets to you in time.
Find me.
Habibi—
I’m coming.
Samira Ahmed is the New York Times bestselling and award-winning author of Love, Hate & Other Filters; Internment; and Mad, Bad & Dangerous to Know. Her poetry and short stories have appeared in anthologies including Take the Mic, Color Outside the Lines, Ink Knows No Borders, Who Will Speak for America?, and Vampires Never Get Old. She was born in Bombay, India, and grew up in Batavia, Illinois, in a house that smelled like fried onions, spices, and potpourri. A graduate of the University of Chicago, Samira has taught high school English in both the suburbs of Chicago and New York City, worked for education nonprofits, and spent time on the road for political campaigns.
samiraahmed.com
When she was in high school, Jenni Balch decided she wanted to grow up to be a physicist, like her grandfather, and an author, like her favorite storytellers. So she did. Jenni double-majored in physics and history, and wrote her first novel-length story while writing her honors thesis in physics. She earned a master’s in mechanical engineering and now lives and works in western Massachusetts. While in college, Jenni was diagnosed with immune thrombocytopenic purpura, an autoimmune disorder where platelets are targeted as foreign antibodies. One of the main characters in her story shares this diagnosis.
jennibalch.com
Libba Bray is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of the Diviners series, the Los Angeles Times Book Prize finalist Beauty Queens, the Printz Award–winning Going Bovine, and the acclaimed Gemma Doyle trilogy. She divides her time between Brooklyn, New York, and Los Angeles, California.
libbabray.com
Dhonielle Clayton is the New York Times bestselling author of The Belles and the coauthor of the series Tiny Pretty Things, on which the Netflix show is based. She is the COO of the nonprofit We Need Diverse Books and CEO of the diversity-focused story kitchen Cake Literary. She’s a former elementary and middle school librarian. She earned an MA in children’s literature from Hollins University and an MFA in writing for children at the New School.
dhonielleclayton.com
Zoraida Córdova is the author of many fantasy novels for kids and teens, including the award-winning Brooklyn Brujas series, Incendiary, Star Wars: A Crash of Fate, and The Way to Rio Luna. Her short fiction has appeared in the New York Times bestselling anthology Star Wars: From a Certain Point of View, Come On In, and Toil & Trouble. She is the co-editor of Vampires Never Get Old. Zoraida was born in Guayaquil, Ecuador, and raised in Queens, New York. When she’s not working on her next novel, she’s finding a new adventure.
zoraidacordova.com
Tessa Gratton is the author of the science fiction fantasy titles The Queens of Innis Lear and Lady Hotspur for adults, as well as several YA series and short stories that have been translated into twenty-two languages. Her most recent YA novels are the original fairy tales Strange Grace and Night Shine. Though she has lived all over the world, she currently resides alongside the Kansas prairie with her wife.
tessagratton.com
Kwame Mbalia is a husband, father, writer, New York Times bestselling author, and former pharmaceutical metrologist, in that order. His debut middle-grade novel, Tristan Strong Punches a Hole in the Sky, received a Coretta Scott King Author Honor award. A Howard University graduate and a midwesterner now living in North Carolina, he enjoys impromptu dance sessions and Cheez-Its.
kwamembalia.com
Anna-Marie McLemore (they/them) is the queer, Latinx, nonbinary author of The Weight of Feathers, a William C. Morris YA Debut Award finalist; Stonewall Honor Book When the Moon Was Ours, which was longlisted for the National Book Award for Young People’s Literature; Wild Beauty, a Kirkus Reviews, School Library Journal, and Booklist best book of the year; Blanca & Roja, a New York Times Book Review Editors’ Choice; Dark and Deepest Red, an Indie Next List title; and The Mirror Season.
author.annamariemclemore.com
Tochi Onyebuchi is the author of the young adult novel Beasts Made of Night, which won the Ilube Nommo Award for Best Speculative Fiction Novel by an African, and its sequel, Crown of Thunder; Locus Award finalist War Girls; and his adult fiction debut, Riot Baby. He holds degrees from Yale, the Tisch School of the Arts, L’institut d’études politiques, and Columbia Law School. His fiction has appeared in Asimov’s Science Fiction, Omenana, Uncanny, Lightspeed, and elsewhere. His nonfiction has appeared on Tor.com and in Nowhere Magazine and the Harvard Journal of African American Policy, among other places.