His first book, Pimping Fictions: African American Crime Literature and the Untold Story of Black Pulp Publishing, is the first book on black street literature and was a finalist for the Edgar Allan Poe Award. His second book, Street Poison: The Biography of Iceberg Slim, was one of Amazon.com’s “Top 100 Books of the Year” in 2015. He is a fellow at the Leon Levy Center, where he is writing a book on Black Panther Party leader Eldridge Cleaver.