What We Pass Down: A Conversation with Nikesha Elise Williams on Seven Daughters of Dupree

Join Niccara as she welcomes award-winning author, journalist, and two-time Emmy Award-winning television producer Nikesha Elise Williams to the pod! We talk about her sweeping debut with Simon & Schuster, Seven Daughters of Dupree : a multigenerational saga tracing seven generations of Black women from 1860 to the present day, bound together by legacy, love, loss, and a curse that only a daughter can break.

We get into the enslaved ancestor whose story sets everything in motion, why hair is both inheritance and survival in this novel, what secrecy truly costs the women of this bloodline, the intimacy Black people have always had to carry about white folks just to stay safe, and the quiet call of the land pulling Black people back to the South. Plus Nikesha reads from the prologue and we spiral beautifully into hot combs, Saturday nights, and every Black girl's sensory memory.

Perfect for readers who love multigenerational Black family sagas, stories rooted in the Black South, and honest reckoning with what we carry, what we keep secret, and what we dare to pass on differently. Make sure you pick up The Seven Daughters of Dupree wherever you get your books, and run it up!

Follow & Find Nikesha Elise Williams: @nikesha_elise | | Black & Publish Podcast Follow Us: @butmakeitbookspod | @thebookishhottie | Shop With Us: Use our Mahogany Books link with code BMIB The Seven Daughters of Dupree Don't forget to rate, subscribe and review! Keeping it real...but make it books.

Peace y'all Mentioned in this episode: African Ancestry We are the pioneers of genetic ancestry tracing for Black people globally, reconnecting you to your specific African roots–the country and the people. Our scientists compare your DNA markers to the largest African reference database in the world in order to find your African origin up to 2000 years ago.

African Ancestry The Seven Daughters of Dupree Pre-Order Offer Nikisha Elise Williams, the host of the Black and Published podcast, is celebrating the release of her forthcoming novel, The Seven Daughters of Dupree. This historical fiction novel is about the secrets kept between mothers and daughters over the course of seven generations and is told backwards in time from 1995 to 1860.

The Seven Daughters of Dupree will be released on January 27th, 2026, but is available for pre-order now at . Please consider pre-ordering The Seven Daughters of Dupree today.

African Ancestry We are the pioneers of genetic ancestry tracing for Black people globally, reconnecting you to your specific African roots–the country and the people. Our scientists compare your DNA markers to the largest African reference database in the world in order to find your African origin up to 2000 years ago.

African Ancestry