Upstairs, Downstairs meets Parasite: The acclaimed author of The Talented Ribkins deconstructs painful African American stereotypes and offers a fresh and searing critique on race, class, privilege, ambition, exploitation, and the seeds of rage in America in this intricately woven and masterfully executed historical novel, set in the early twentieth century that centers around the black servants of a down-on-its heels upper-class white family.

Ladee Hubbard is the author of The Talented Ribkins, which received the 2018Ernest J. Gaines Award for Literary Excellence and the Hurston/Wright Legacy Award for Debut Fiction. Her writing has appeared in Guernica, the Times Literary Supplement, Copper Nickel, and Callaloo.  Born in Massachusetts and raised in the U.S. Virgin Islands and Florida, she currently lives in New Orleans with her husband and three children.

Nicole Blades is a novelist, speaker, and freelance journalist who covers women's health, race and culture, books and publishing, and stories of reinvention for various national print and digital magazines. She lives in New England with her husband, son, dog, and a sky-high stack of books by her bedside that she calls Mount Nightstand. Her latest book, Have You Met Nora?, along with her previous novels, The Thunder Beneath Us and Earth's Waters, are available wherever books are sold.

Ladee Hubbard and Nicole Blades discuss The Rib King