Vividly rendering the sights, sounds, and scents of struggle, Yearning is a collection of short stories about ordinary Black folks' bittersweet endeavors to matter.

Set across the world, from urban Philaelphia to the villages of West Africa, the characters are interconnected as they orbit around a human craving for validation. Ten-year-old Anel and twenty eight year old Vera Jenkins mutually wrestle inside a culture of injustice, while Maria and Emily both grapple with insuperable loss and shame.

All of the short stories reveal the lives of people who have suffered...