Black Buck is one of our most anticipated debuts of 2021 and we are so excited to host Mateo Askaripour for an event! Mateo will be in conversation with Danielle Presod, and they will be joined by special guest Superfi¢ial. This event will be held digitally via Crowdcast. Click here to register for the event with a donation of any amount of your choice. Donations will go to Black Lives Matter DC. You can order the book on our website and there will also be an option to buy the book during the event.

“Askaripour closes the deal on the first page of this mesmerizing novel, executing a high wire act full of verve and dark, comic energy.”
—Colson Whitehead, author of The Nickel Boys

For fans of Sorry to Bother You and The Wolf of Wall Street—a crackling, satirical debut novel about a young man given a shot at stardom as the lone Black salesman at a mysterious, cult-like, and wildly successful startup where nothing is as it seems.

There’s nothing like a Black salesman on a mission.

An unambitious twenty-two-year-old, Darren lives in a Bed-Stuy brownstone with his mother, who wants nothing more than to see him live up to his potential as the valedictorian of Bronx Science. But Darren is content working at Starbucks in the lobby of a Midtown office building, hanging out with his girlfriend, Soraya, and eating his mother’s home-cooked meals. All that changes when a chance encounter with Rhett Daniels, the silver-tongued CEO of Sumwun, NYC’s hottest tech startup, results in an exclusive invitation for Darren to join an elite sales team on the thirty-sixth floor.

After enduring a “hell week” of training, Darren, the only Black person in the company, reimagines himself as “Buck,” a ruthless salesman unrecognizable to his friends and family. But when things turn tragic at home and Buck feels he’s hit rock bottom, he begins to hatch a plan to help young people of color infiltrate America’s sales force, setting off a chain of events that forever changes the game.

Black Buck is a hilarious, razor-sharp skewering of America’s workforce; it is a propulsive, crackling debut that explores ambition and race, and makes way for a necessary new vision of the American dream.

Mateo Askaripour was a 2018 Rhode Island Writers Colony writer-in-residence, and his writing has appeared in Entrepreneur, Lit Hub, Catapult, The Rumpus, Medium, and elsewhere. He lives in Brooklyn, and his favorite pastimes include bingeing music videos and movie trailers, drinking yerba mate, and dancing in his apartment. Black Buck is his debut novel. Follow him on Twitter and Instagram at @AskMateo.

Danielle Prescod is a 15 year veteran of the beauty and fashion industry. She is currently working on her first book for Little A Publishing and she co-founded a DEI consulting firm with Chrissy Rutherford in June 2020. She is a lifelong fashion obsessive who spent her formative years in uniforms at prep school and relished in the opportunity for self-expression (and attention) that fashion provided. Danielle has always been an avid reader and writer. She primarily dedicates her time to researching how subjects like feminism and social justice intersect with pop culture. She considers a decent amount of bad taste to be healthy. She loves Tik Tok, the arts and staying active. You will probably find her exercising at any hour of the day and on the weekends, she horseback rides. Danielle graduated from NYU's Gallatin School of Individualized Study.

ABOUT THE SPECIAL GUEST

Superfi¢ial, hailing from New York & currently residing in the District of Columbia, is a Howard University alum & recording artist/producer who composes his own music and directs his own visuals. With his BARmaggeddon series gaining traction, & his newest album Keep Calm available on all streaming platforms, Superfi¢ial is on track to become one of the East Coast’s most promising upcoming artists to look out for.

Please note Loyalty has a zero tolerance policy for harassment or intimidation of any kind during this virtual event.

Mateo Askaripour and Danielle Prescod for BLACK BUCK