Author: Kathya Alexander

Kathya Alexandar discusses her debut novel, Keep A'Livin' (Aunt Lute, 2024), as part of our recurring event, the Sistah Scifi Series. 

In the small town of Uz, Arkansas, Mandy Anderson wakes up on July 4th, 1963, her mother’s birthday, to the sweltering Southern heat, a pounding headache and the distinct thumping of her mother, Belle, kneading biscuit dough. In the raw heat, only made worse by Belle’s baking, Mandy questions why the white woman her mother works for wouldn’t want to give Belle the day off for her birthday. So begins Mandy’s journey of questioning the structures that define her world, a path that carries her through tragedy, mystical encounters, and her own spiritual and familial legacy. 

This beautifully lyrical novel explores the reality of activism as more than just a handful of speeches given at protests, it attests to the costs to those who dedicate themselves to activist work, and the passion that drives us ever onward to a better, more just future. 

Kathya Alexander is an author, playwright, storyteller, and teaching artist. She was a Writer-in-Residence at Hedgebrook Writer’s Retreat and won the Fringe First Award for Black to My Roots: African American Tales from the Head and the Heart in Edinburgh, Scotland. Other awards include 4Culture, Office of Arts and Culture, Artist Trust, and Seattle Parks and Recreation. She has been published in The Pitkin Review, Arkana Magazine, Pontoon Poetry, Colors NW Magazine, the South Seattle Emerald and Native Skin Magazine, and in anthologies by the African American Writers Alliance and Raising Lily Ledbetter: Women Poets Occupy the Workplace. Her playwriting credits include The Negro Passion Play; Black D*ck Matters; David & Jonathan: A Modern Day Retelling of the Biblical Story; and emotionalblackmale. She is the author of Angel In The Outhouse.

Sistah Scifi is the first Black owned bookstore focused on science fiction and fantasy in the United States. 

Kathya Alexander - Website