7/13 @ 7:00pm Crystal Smith Paul in Conversation with Jayne Allen

Join North Figueroa Bookshop in welcoming Crystal Smith Paul and Jayne Allen.

Crystal Smith Paul is a writer with over a decade of experience in digital editorial and e-commerce writing and marketing. Her debut novel is a multigenerational saga about the impact of racism on American families. The story is told through the lives of a celebrity family, unpacking the generational trauma from an act of racial violence that occured in the Jim Crow era. The novel is inspired by experiences growing up in the South with a diverse family, and attending a historically black college, which influenced her views on race, colorism, and social justice as a young black woman. She attended Spelman College, UCLA and NYU, and is originally from Charlotte, North Carolina.

Crystal Smith Paul’s writing has been featured by Salon, Jezebel, and The Huffington Post. Since obtaining her Master’s in Journalism from New York University, she has worked in digital media as an editor for a start-up where she edited the work of Marc Lamont Hill, music producer 9th Wonder, Keli Goff and Mark Anthony Neal. She also worked as a paralegal at the Department of Justice while working on her first novel.

Her book explores how racial violence can split apart American families, resulting in complex issues of colorism within a family tree. Currently, Smith works in e-commerce marketing for wellness and beauty brands in Los Angeles. She loves writing, dining, German Shepard dogs, and staying on top of pop culture. She is working on her second novel, which will also be published by Holt.

Jayne Allen, in her life outside of writing, is a serial entrepreneur, Harvard-trained attorney, and engineer. She dabbles in standup comedy, tries to learn one new thing a week, and relishes laughter and champagne bubbles with her girlfriends and family.

Originally from Detroit, when not writing "chocolate chick lit with a conscience," she's spending time with her friends and family, keeping one ear open for her next saucy tale.

Jayne writes fiction out of life experiences, calling every character "fragments of reality strung together by imagination" and strives to tell stories that stick to your bones. Her series Black Girls Must Die Exhausted she calls "chocolate chick lit with a conscience," touching upon contemporary women's issues such as workplace womanhood, race, fertility, modern relationships and mental health awareness. Her writing echoes her desire to bring both multiculturalism and multidimensionality to contemporary women's fiction with dynamic female protagonists who also happen to be black.

She has authored four non-fiction books, in addition to books one and two in the Black Girls Must Die Exhausted trilogy which has sold over 10,000 copies worldwide. She is most active on Instagram at @JayneAllenWrites, where she hosts a weekly Sunday live writer's workshop.

Jayne is also the founder of Book Genius, an online publishing course opening in Summer 2020.

Did Your Hear About Kitty Karr by Crystal Smith Paul

REESE'S BOOK CLUB MAY 2023 PICK

A multigenerational saga that traverses the glamour of old Hollywood and the seductive draw of modern-day showbiz

When Kitty Karr Tate, a White icon of the silver screen, dies and bequeaths her multimillion-dollar estate to the St. John sisters, three young, wealthy Black women, it prompts questions. Lots of questions.

A celebrity in her own right, Elise St. John would rather focus on sorting out Kitty’s affairs than deal with the press. But what she discovers in one of Kitty’s journals rocks her world harder than any other brewing scandal could―and between a cheating fiancé and the fallout from a controversial social media post, there are plenty.

The truth behind Kitty's ascent to stardom from her beginnings in the segregated South threatens to expose a web of unexpected family ties, debts owed, and debatable crimes that could, with one pull, unravel the all-American fabric of the St. John sisters and those closest to them.

As Elise digs deeper into Kitty's past, she must also turn the lens upon herself, confronting the gifts and burdens of her own choices and the power that the secrets of the dead hold over the living. Did You Hear About Kitty Karr? is a sprawling page-turner set against the backdrop of the Hollywood machine, an insightful and nuanced look at the inheritances of family, race, and gender―and the choices some women make to break free of them.

Black Girls Must Die Exhausted by Jayne Allen

“Black girls must die exhausted” is something that 33-year-old Tabitha Walker has heard her grandmother say before. Of course, her grandmother (who happens to be white) was referring to the 1950’s and what she observed in the nascent times of civil rights. With a coveted position as a local news reporter, Marc-- a “paper-perfect” boyfriend, and a standing Saturday morning appointment with a reliable hairstylist, Tabitha never imagined how this phrase could apply to her as a black girl in contemporary times – until everything changed.An unexpected doctor’s diagnosis awakens Tabitha to an unperceived culprit, threatening the one thing that has always mattered most - having a family of her own. With the help of her best friends, the irreverent and headstrong Laila and Alexis, the former “Sexy Lexi," Tabitha must explore the reaches of modern medicine and test the limits of her relationships to beat the ticking clock on her dreams of becoming a wife and mother.She must leverage the power of laughter, love, and courageous self-care to bring a healing stronger than she ever imagined - before the phrase “black girls must die exhausted” takes on a new and unwanted meaning in her own life.