Regional Fiction

Tess Chakkalakal gives listeners the first comprehensive biography of Charles W. Chesnutt. A complex and talented man, Chesnutt was born in 1858 in Cleveland to parents who were considered "mixed race." Though light-skinned, Chesnutt remained a member of the black community throughout his life. He studied among students at the State Colored Normal School who were formerly enslaved. He became a teacher in rural North Carolina during Reconstruction. His life in the South of those years, the issue of race, and how he himself identified as Black informed much of his later writing.

Widowed as a young wife, Cara Cargill turned her head for business and love of romance into a successful mail-order-bride enterprise. She’s never had a problem matching couples until one mule-headed man continues to refuse to wed the women she sends to meet him in Grass Valley, Oregon. In an effort to make a match that he’ll keep and uphold her sterling reputation, Cara is desperate to find the perfect bride.

In a world beset by amassing forces of darkness, one organization - the Regional Office - and its coterie of superpowered female assassins protects the globe from annihilation. At its helm, the mysterious Oyemi and her oracles seek out new recruits and root out evil plots. Then a prophecy suggests that someone from inside might bring about its downfall. And now the Regional Office is under attack.

The Regional Office and its band of superpowered female assassins protect the world from annihilation. But a prophecy suggests that someone from inside might bring about its downfall. And now the Regional Office is under attack.... Rose is a young assassin leading the assault, eager to stretch into her powers and prove herself on her first mission. Defending the Regional Office is Sarah - who may or may not have a mechanical arm - fiercely devoted to the organisation that took her in as a troubled young woman.