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“What is a Love poem if not a declaration of the ways we love ourselves through others? In This is not about Love, Krystal A. Smith does just that, showing us pain and healing and lovin’ on yourself. Smith writes, “Forgiveness is not a weapon / it is a learning, it is a lesson / to give to yourself” and this is so true and evident in this collection. This is not about Love is not about shame, it’s not about holding grief, it’s not about sorrow; Krystal is writing about forgiveness and we all needed that.” —Jason B. Crawford, author of Summertime Fine
“The poems in author Krystal A. Smith's debut collection, This is Not about Love, are everything we need in this moment of isolation. They examine loneliness and togetherness in all their forms -- by choice, by necessity, and by force of circumstance. These poems' longing, desire, pettiness, humor, and devastation mirror all that it is being in and out of relationship.” —Jason Herndon

COMING APRIL 6, 2021!

This is Not About Love: Poems explores the complexities of human emotion and relationships via memory, experience, and imagination. Smith reminds us that love is not a singular emotion, and romantic relationships are not paramount to happiness.

BLF Press is an independent Black feminist publishing house dedicated to amplifying the work of Black women and women of color. Our goal for this press is to create a space for forward thinking, creative women of exceptional talent. We embrace difference, and envision BLF Press as an outlet for the expression of various types of writing that exemplifies the experiences of Black women and women of color in the United States.

“HELPED are those who create anything at all, for they shall relive the thrill of their own conception, and realize a partnership in the creation of the Universe that keeps them responsible and cheerful.”
— The Gospel According to Shug, Alice Walker

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How to Dispatch a Human: Stories and Suggestions

“Stephanie Andrea Allen’s story collection embraces the acerbic complexity of Joanna Russ, the practical science of James Tiptree Jr., the moral center of Rod Serling along with the finger-popping, sister sense of your local black beauty shop. Not a combo you want to pass up.”—Jewelle Gomez, author of The Gilda Stories.

Now Available!

In this daring collection of speculative fiction, Stephanie Andrea Allen attends to the lives of Black women, mostly lesbian or queer, all keenly aware of the forces seeking to consume them.

A Black lesbian working the gig economy runs into a trio of motorized scooters and helps them escape from Earth. An enchanted sleep mask gives a woman the gift of slumber, but what will it cost her? A suburban housewife is framed for murder by her homophobic neighbor. And in the follow up to “Luna 6000,” a young woman investigates her mother’s untimely death, and learns the truth about her family.

Stephanie Andrea Allen’s How to Dispatch a Human: Stories and Suggestions is an unapologetic, often humorous, foray into the quotidian magic that envelops Black women’s lives. The eleven stories in this collection are filled with characters who will entice and delight readers as they traverse the worlds around them. With a mix of fabulism, near future, and speculative fictions, Allen reminds us in exquisitely nuanced prose that the fantastical can be found amongst the ordinary.