A Gathering of Voices Stories from The Longwood Writers Workshop

A moving Anthology containing a varied collection of personal, vibrant, introspective, and lyrical stories from a diverse and seasoned group of six dedicated writers. Their storytelling unfolds with grace, humor, and universal truths. These stories resonate with memories of struggles they've waged, of battles they've won and lost, and of their many experiences that illuminate their mature wisdom and their hard-won resilience.

The compelling narratives in this book speak to all ages of readers who are looking for confirmation that the challenges and adversity presented by life's struggles can be overcome with hard work, a never-ending belief in oneself and the willingness to persevere through every hardship.

Born and raised in St. Louis Missouri, Denise Billings earned a B.A. in Psychology at Lincoln University, Missouri. She's been a union representative, a fundraiser for non-profits and a bookstore owner. Previously, she contributed articles to several publications including Before, During & After the 'C' Word an anthology. Her recently published first book, Road Trip: A Memoir was a finalist for the 2024 Black Authors Matter TV Award.
She has a son, a bonus daughter and son-in-law and lives in Los Angeles with her fourth and final husband noted actor Earl Billings.
Currently she's working on her second book.
Charles Floyd Johnson is both a television and film producer with a career spanning five decades.
Among his many credits is the Award winning Red Tails, the motion picture that portrayed the incredible exploits of the Tuskegee Airmen, the famed African American pilots of World War II.
He also executive produced John Lewis: Get in the Way, the groundbreaking documentary about the life and career of Congressman John Lewis.
Charles began his career as a producer on the iconic 1970's television series, The Rockford Files. Following his Emmy award winning work on that program, he also produced such long-running shows as Magnum, P.I., Quantum Leap, JAG, andNCIS, on which he has been one of the Executive Producers for 21 seasons.
His many other credits include producing such notable programs as Simon and Simon, Bret Maverick, Hellinger's Law, Revealing Evidence, B.L. Stryker, First Monday and Voices of People, which garnered him two more Emmy Awards as both a producer and a performer. His extensive career encompasses over 1000 hours of television programming.
Nicholas' first novel, Freshwater Road, was voted a Best Book of 2005 by The Washington Post, The Chicago Tribune, The Atlanta Journal Constitution, The Detroit Free Press and Newsday. The novel was included in the October 2005 Book Sense Picks List, was awarded the 2005 First Novelist Award from the American Library Association's Black Caucus, received a stared review from Publishers Weekly and Booklist. The Washington Post featured the novel on the front page of its Book World.
Before becoming a full-time writer, actress Nicholas stared in three television series, Room 222, Baby, I'm Back and In the Heat of the Night, the last opposite the late Carroll O'Connor. She wrote six episodes for Heat all of which were produced for air. She also stared with Sidney Poitier and Bill Cosby in three films, Lets Do It Again, A Piece of the Action and Ghost Dad.
Denise Nicholas began her career with the Free Southern Theater in Mississippi and Louisiana during the Civil Rights Movement. She also was an original member of the Negro Ensemble Company in New York.
Denise is a graduate of the University of Southern California and also attended the University of Michigan. She lives in Lo
After 45 years of medical practice as an anesthesiologist in Los Angeles, Dr. Stallworth pursued his passion for writing beginning late in 2015, after being accepted into the Master of Fine Arts program at UCLA.
In 2018, Denise Nicholas, award-winning actress and author of the acclaimed book Freshwater Road, invited the doctor to join her Longwood Writers Workshop, where he conceived his memoir, "Are You a N****r or a Doctor?" and delivered it in February 2023.
Sunsets by Otto, Jr. (a book of sunset photographs) hit the shelves in December 2023.
Towards the end of 2024 or early 2025, he plans to publish a murder mystery novel titled "Murder at BeautyWorld."
In early 2022, Dr. Stallworth began a non-profit foundation, the Stallworth OhYes! Foundation, which awarded four-year full scholarships to students at Howard University in Washington, D.C., and Meharry Medical College in Nashville, Tennessee, his alma maters.
His goal is to award many more scholarships from donations to the Stallworth OhYes! Foundation.
**"Be a Rainbow in a Needy Student's Cloud!"**
GW Williams is a writer moving from working on the structuring of contracts to the freedom of creative writing. Her journey to date includes roles as Assistant General Manager for a major utility, as a Project Manager in Los Angeles and Tripoli, Libya for an engineering firm, and as Principal Consultant at her firm, WYSA & Associates where she worked on various project management projects. She is currently working on a multi-narrator novel inspired by memoir and completely agrees with Gwendolyn Brooks, that "Writing is delicious agony."
Hattie Winston, acclaimed actress, singer, producer, director and Broadway veteran continues to entertain audiences on film, stage and television, in a career that has spanned more than five decades. Currently Ms. Winston can be seen as Sister Pearlie, opposite Cedric the Entertainer and Niecy Nash in The Soul Man on BET. She is, perhaps, best known for her performance as Margaret on the hit CBS series Becker, where she starred with Ted Danson for six seasons. Some of her other TV credits include The Electric Company, Homefront, Castle, Girlfriends, ER, The Game, Scrubs, Reed Between the Lines, Cold Case, Mike and Molly and many more. Ms. Winston was a founding member of The Negro Ensemble Company in New York City and has acted both on and off-Broadway; The Tap Dance Kid, Two Gentlemen of Verona, Vagina Monologues, Scapino, Up the Mountain, Love, Loss and What I Wore are a few of the shows she has appeared in. She has strutted her stuff in Quintin Tarrantino's Jackie Brown and sparred with Clint Eastwood in his True Crime. Ms. Winston is wife of Harold Wheeler and mother of Samantha Wheeler, her proudest roles. Ms. Winston's memoir will be published in 2024.