Queen of Hip Hop Lit: Nicki Turner !!!

NIKKI TURNER has been crafting novels that speak the truth about the streets, the struggle and surviving since 2003′s A Hustler’s Wife. Since producing  over a dozen books and landing on best-seller lists for Essence, USA Today, and New York Times, she’s been crowned the Queen of Hip Hop Lit. Now, Turner’s back with yet another page turner as the editor of Street Chronicles: A Woman’s Work.

Turner took some time to chat with Juicy about her new book, her most memorable characters, and how she feels about the title Queen of Hip Hop Lit.

JUICY: Tell us about your latest release “A Woman’s Work?”

NIKKI TURNER:  Well, Girls in the Game was a book that was well received. It was another Street Chronicles; girl stories by girl writers with girl characters. That book was received really well so I wanted to do something similar. I decided to come up with A Woman’s Work, four stories by four amazing writers just about women and the struggle and the highs and the lows.

JUICY:  How did you go about picking these writers?

NT:  I chose who I thought would make great contributions to the story.

JUICY: A lot of women relate to your novels or identify with a character…

NT: Right, because sometimes you think you’re the only one going through something, but you’d be surprised who’s already been through it and you don’t know. You talk to a girlfriend and the girlfriend is like, ‘I’ve got something crazy to tell you,’ and you hear her and say, ‘Chile please I’ve been through that, let me tell you how to deal with that.’

JUICY: You’ve been called the Queen of Hip Hop Lit. When did that title come about and how do you feel about it?

NT: I was flattered. Initially, I was the  princess. Urban Trendsetter Magazine said I that was the princess of hip hop fiction. Then I think after Forever The Hustler’s Wife they started calling me the queen after that.

JUICY: Do you use Twitter and Facebook  to connect to your fans?

NT: Oh yeah, I love, love Twitter. I love talking to them. I always tweet back to my readers.  ’Cause they say, ” oh I read this, or “oh you’re a Taurus, I’m a Taurus too” and you get to know who’s reading your books. What’s inspiring and interesting is you get to see pictures of these people. On one tweet someone may be fifteen reading my books and on one tweet somebody may be fifty-five that may be reading my books. So you get to see the diversity of the people who read the books.

JUICY: What’s next?

NT: I just finished writing the sequel to Project Chick which will be out in the spring. I’m launching my blog which will talk about a lot of topics I want to bring to the forefront. I want my site to be a wealth of information.

For updates and more information about Nikki Turner visit her blog, iamnikkiturner.com and follow her on twitter @iamnikkiturner. 

Donyel L. Griffin As an educator, freelance writer, and former online show host, it would be an understatement to say Donyel L. Griffin has a love for words. For the last five years Griffin has write about hip-hop, celebrities, pop culture, beauty and education for VIBE, AllHipHop.com, Examiner.com, and UChic. Word lovers follow her @donnyd1va

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