Odie Hawkins: 29 books

The deeply personal story of Odie Hawkins’s journey, from “the poorest of the poor” childhood in Chicago to Hollywood screenwriter—and the people who deeply mattered. A tough, touching autobiography.

In the post–Watts Rebellion 1970s, Chester L. Simmons takes up the study of martial arts—Hapkido and Tae Kwon Do. Author Odie Hawkins, using his special blend of wry humor, incisiveness, and sensitivity, takes alter ego Simmons through that experience, as well as a series of misadventures writing movie and television scripts for Hollyweird studios.

Odie Hawkins utilizes the same thrust, power, and creativity that made Ghetto Sketches his first bestseller. He has moved the focus from Chicago to Los Angeles; and once again, he has populated his stories with unforgettable characters—the telephone freak, the tenants of Mrs. Solomon’s apartment...

Kwanzaa for Conrad & The Survival Tango offers a gritty, sometimes funny picture of a brilliant man who manages to swim out of schizophrenia into a normal creative life as a writer.

Hawkins delivers a novel that mixes the streetwise lingo of vintage pimp fiction together with scathing satirical commentary about the spread of global capitalism, the Hurricane Katrina disaster, and the AIDS crisis in West Africa. A classic worthy of the Sweets series. Dr. Justin Gifford, Professor...

Chester L. Simmons, nicknamed “The Great Lawd Buddha” by his hip constituents because of his almond shaped eyes and his generous tummy, is one of those delightfully free spirits that life gives the world now and then. With his storytelling he sometimes fuses reality and creativity into a seamless...

Monday evening comn’ down—the dreariest day of the week anywhere, but especially in the ghettos (yea, y’all, they still there) where people have taken their hangovers and other symptoms of a fast weekend to their individual plantations around town (if they’re lucky enough to have one) return...

An enchanting intro to a collection of unforgettable characters—Elizabeth, “Queen of the Projects”; the girl “Billie” who sings like Lady Day; young Randolph who, to his family’s embarrassment, grows a second head for a while; Dean Dale Jackson, talented writer, sculptor, auto mechanic,...

Chicago, the center of America’s heartland, from its founding in the late 1700s by Jean Baptiste Point du Sable, a French-educated black man, to the modern day Gypsies who live on Maxwell Street. It’s a city steeped in Black History. This is the story of a city where a unique African American...

The Matador Negro Azucar (Black Matador, Sugar), is the story of a young African-American man, born and raised on the Southside of Chicago, who is obsessed by the idea of becoming a matador. Chester Simmons is opposed by his parents. Bullfighting!? Get serious about yourself, Chester! Dondisha Phillips,...

Let Chester take you on a journey through Spain in his search to find himself—and write about it. He hooks up with “El Encanto”, a star-crossed matador. Then back to the States, where he meets and marries the love of his life. A honeymoon in West Africa leaves them yearning for a place they’ve never known, but feel is their home . . .

I lit my fire, I greased my skillet with virgin pressed olive oil, and I cooked. Thats one of the statements Chester L. Simmons, Jr. made about his career as a Novillero/Matador in the art of bullfighting. Its really weird that it should be called bullfighting. No reasonable person would ever think...

"Black, White & Brown On The Blue Line" is an invitation to join a collection of strangers on an emotionally adventurous trip, from Long Beach, California to Downtown Los Angeles, California -- and back.

An enchanting intro to a collection of unforgettable characters. Bobo, Burks, Leo (sometimes, when into imaginative self-hatred, alias Tony De Medrow), Billy Woods, Herb Cross, Bruce, Mooney, Johnny Fox, Bernard Kelly, and a few others who lived in the same neighborhood and hung out on the...