Wahida Clark

Four-time New York Times bestselling author Wahida Clark has become one of the most sought after Urban Lit authors of this generation and is one of only 4 Urban (Street) Lit authors to appear on the New York Times bestseller list. Wahida began writing her first novel while serving a 9 1⁄2 year prison sentence, including 9 months in solitary confinement, at the Lexington Prison Camp in Lexington, Ky. While behind bars, Clark inked a publishing deal with a major publishing house, wrote and released 7 novels and laid the groundwork for her publishing company, Wahida Clark Presents Publishing. Released in June of 2007, today Clark is signed to Cash Money Content, the publishing arm from iconic record label Cash Money Records, home to multi-platinum hip-hop recording artists Nicki Minaj, Lil' Wayne and Drake. To date she has released 13 successful novels including Four New York Times bestsellers. Her own publishing company, Wahida Clark Presents is one of the fastest growing independent publishing houses in the country. WCP has 46 titles currently in stores across the country and has a roster of 19 established urban authors. Wahida Clark has sold more than 700,000 novels to date including Four New York Times bestsellers with Cash Money Content. Her latest novel, the CMC release, "Honor Thy Thug", made its debut on the New York Times bestsellers list at #23. It is the follow up to her New York Times bestselling title "Justify My Thug" (2011, CMC) which debuted on the list at #19, only two weeks after release. "Payback Ain't Enough" (also from CMC), made its debut on the New York Times Extended Bestseller List at #27 in 2012 and is the follow up to Payback With Ya Life" (2008). Payback With Ya Life was one of only four urban fiction releases to appear on the New York Times list. In 2005, Wahida Clark was crowned the Queen of Thug Love Fiction by the reigning Queen of Hip-Hop Fiction, Nikki Turner. She has since become known as the Queen of Street Literature. Per Professor Vanessa Irvin Morris of Drexel University School of Library Science's Readers Guide to Street Literature, "Wahida Clark is the creator of the Thug Love Fiction genre which is a sub-genre of street lit. She is also the first street lit author to pen a series, thus establishing the trend. Wahida's style of writing has become the template for urban literature. When you read her novels, they are so real you are convinced that you either know the characters; you want to know the characters; or you are one of the characters!" Clarks bestselling novels include: Thugs and the Women Who Love Them (Part 1 of the "Thug Series"), Every Thug Needs a Lady (Part 2), Thug Matrimony (Part 3), Thug Lovin' (Part 4), Justify My Thug (Part 5), Payback is a Mutha (Part 1), Payback With Ya Life (Part 2), The Golden Hustla and Sleeping with the Enemy. She has also edited her first anthology, What's Really Hood!: A Collection of Tales from the Streets.