The legendary urban lit author returns with a new character, a new city, a new series, as AUWA Books makes its first foray into fiction. Toussaint Batiste is returning home to the City of Brotherly Love hoping he can, for once in his life, outrun his Trouble. Toussaint has been in prison, but before that he was a Philadelphia police officer. He’s returning home with few friends on either side of the law, but with a little apartment in Chinatown and a vested interest in taking care of the family restaurant downstairs, he expects to have enough to keep himself busy. But as ever, Trouble has other ideas. K’wan made his name publishing urban crime fiction series like Animal and Hood Rat and rose to the top ranks of the genre, creating his own literary Harlem as rich as anything out of Mario Puzo or Elmore Leonard. Now, he is teaming up with Questlove to take on a whole new territory—a whole new jawn—with Troubleman, the beginning of a brand new series that brings Philadelphia to literary life in a way that’s never been done before. Trouble.
Author
In 2002 K'wan hit the scene with his debut novel Gangsta, under Triple Crown Publications. It was the first novel released by the budding house and would eventually become the building block for what is now a multimillion dollar company. What started as a therapeutic release went on to become a part of urban-lit history and an Essence bestseller, as well as drawing rave reviews overseas. After penning his second novel, Road Dawgz (2003), K'wan drew the attention of St. Martins press. The literary powerhouse quickly signed K'wan to a multi-book deal, the first of which being Street Dreams (2004). In 2008 he received the Black Author of the year award from Black Press Radio for the novella Blow. Since his insertion into the publishing world K'wan has been featured in Vibe, Pages, King, Felon, Big News, The Library Journal, Entertainment Weekly, The New York Press, Clutch and most notably Time Magazine, to name a few. He was also interviewed by MTV News for a feature on Hip-Hop fiction, and a guest on Power 105s morning show as well as NPR (national public radio). In addition to being an accomplished author, K'wan is also a motivational speaker, mentor to at risk children and the C.E.O of Black Dawn, Inc. K'wan currently resides in New Jersey where he is working on his next novel. http://us.macmillan.com/author/kwan
