K'WAN | Intellectual Ink

INTELLECTUAL INK IS NOMINATED FOR
LITERARY MAGAZINE OF THE YEAR AT THE 17TH ANNUAL AFRICAN AMERICAN LITERARY AWARD SHOW

K'wan needs no introduction. Able to command a room simply by walking in, he is now highly recognizable and well admired. With countless novels penned under his name and other secret pen names, his catalog grows frequently. I was able to have an intimate sit down with one of the most prolific authors in Urban Fiction. Here are his thoughts...

Q: If you could talk to the teenage version of yourself, what would you advise yourself?

A: You don't need the approval of others to be great.

Q: You recently ended your most popular series, "Animal". How hard was it to put this character to rest?

A: Yes and no. Animal has been with me a long time, through 12 novels and roughly thirteen years. I'm notorious for killing off main characters, but he's one that I previously hadn't been able to pull the trigger on. In most of the previous novels he's been featured in, I wrote a death scene but could never use it. That's when I realized that I had become emotionally attached to him.

Allison Grace
interview with
Steven Anthony King

HERE'S A PEEK INSIDE OUR AUGUST ISSUE

Hey Hey and Mo hey, How are you, Closet Crew? The Dog days of August are upon us.

I’m uber excited about this exclusive edition of Intellectual ink.

For the first time in print, I’m sharing the cover with my husband. He is the man, the myth, the legend, the prolific crime novelist of over 40 novels, and the ghostwriter of so many more that can’t be named. He is my potna (no typo) in love and life; K’wan Foye.

In honor of this momentous occasion, I decided that I wanted the layout to tell our story through fashion. Being married for fifteen years, K'wan is overly familiar with Charlotte's Closet. Most of the time, he

loves it until it starts spilling over into his space, then he hates it. So I'm claiming my absolute dream closet with nothing but clear glass mirrors and stones where I and my things can razzle-dazzle in peace.

Tell us a little about yourself and how Write 2 Be Magazine came to be.

I am a writer, and I have been writing since I was little, about ten years old, but I've known that I would be a writer since I was six. I want to do so many other things with my writing as well and for other authors in general, and that's actually how Write 2 Be came about.

It started as a newsletter by a different name, Free Fall. I sent it by email for a few years, including others' work, short stories, poetry, and other writing, in the newsletter. I was so tired of getting rejected from bigger literary outlets, not because I wasn't any good but because I didn't have a platform for myself.

This incredibly sunny Saturday afternoon finds me sliding into “Chocolate City” to interview an amazing Wordsmith and mentor. This multi-faceted jewel of the DMV area is an established spoken word artist and entrepreneur that is poised to take 2022 by storm. After parking my vehicle and trekking half a block in the birthplace of Go-Go music, I step into my destination. Busboys and Poets, located at 2004 Martin Luther King Jr. Ave. S.E., Washington, D.C. The venue seemed to embrace me and welcome this poet home, even though it is my very first time here. I notice Lady Reign seated along the wall, ironically under an amazing abstract canvas displaying multiple purple hues. Once exchanging pleasantries and ordering an array of appetizers, we begin our interview.