The Winston-Salem author’s debut joins a festival conversation stretching from Black identity and storytelling to education and access to books.
By Derwin L. Montgomery
WS Chronicle
Abrea Armstrong has helped Winston-Salem preserve and tell its Black history. Now, the hometown writer is introducing a novel about a Black woman searching across the Atlantic for a fuller understanding of her own.
Her debut, “Ferry Tales,” arrives as Bookmarks prepares to bring authors and readers downtown for its 21st Festival of Books & Authors. Armstrong’s book-tour schedule lists a Thursday, Sept. 24, Bookmarks appearance with author Tolani Akinola, ahead of the free street festival Saturday, Sept. 26. Red Hen Press lists the novel’s publication date as Sept. 29.
For local readers, Armstrong offers a familiar connection to a weekend filled with visiting writers. Her work with Triad Cultural Arts has included sharing Black history through cultural programming, tours and preservation efforts. A Winston-Salem native who attended Salem Academy and earned a graduate management degree at Wake Forest University, she has built a career across journalism, communications and community work.
“Ferry Tales” takes that interest in identity and memory into fiction.
The novel follows Anana, a Black millennial whose outward comforts conceal questions about who she is and where she belongs. An invitation to a wedding in West Africa sets her on a journey that challenges the life she has built and her understanding of her heritage. Red Hen’s description places romance, humor and the pressures of corporate America alongside that search for self.
Armstrong’s description traces the story through Harlem, Lisbon and Dakar. The geographic distance is matched by the character’s effort to understand the connections between her present life and an ancestral past shaped by slavery and displacement. About “Ferry Tales”
The manuscript earned the 2024 Ann Petry Award, which supports previously unpublished prose by Black writers. Red Hen Press established the award with the Peauxdunque Writers Alliance.
According to her publisher’s biography, Armstrong drew inspiration from her own experiences. She studied Spanish language and literature at St. John’s University in New York and contributed to outlets including XXL Magazine and Revolt TV. Her personal reconnection with Africa continued beyond the manuscript: Armstrong’s biography says she became a Ghanaian citizen in November 2024.
Her debut gives this year’s festival a local entry point into questions that run through several parts of the program: whose stories readers encounter, how those stories reach a community and what conversations follow.
Bookmarks says the festival features more than 50 authors and describes it as the largest annual book festival in the Carolinas. Saturday’s free downtown event is scheduled for 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Black storytelling will also be represented in a 10 a.m. Saturday panel at Calvary Moravian centered on “Breakout,” the collaborative novel by Dhonielle Clayton, Tiffany D. Jackson, Nic Stone, Angie Thomas, Ashley Woodfolk and Nicola Yoon. The book follows elite teenagers whose private-island spring break becomes a murder mystery. Wake Forest’s Center for Literacy Education is sponsoring the game show-style discussion.
At the same hour, food writers Toya Boudy and Spring Council are scheduled for “Feed the Body, Nourish the Soul” at the Milton Rhodes Center for the Arts, with support from the North Carolina Writers’ Network.
The weekend’s education discussion reaches beyond the author panels.
Bookmarks selected Bettina L. Love’s “Punished for Dreaming: How School Reform Harms Black Children and How We Heal” for its 2026 Book With Purpose program. Love is scheduled to appear at the festival Saturday, concluding a program built around community reading and discussion.
In the book, Love examines four decades of education reform and argues that policies involving school policing, closures and funding have harmed Black children. She calls for educational reparations and changes aimed at repairing that harm. Those arguments give families and educators a framework for discussing how schools treat children and how communities define educational opportunity.
The summer program set a goal of distributing 5,000 copies throughout Winston-Salem, according to Visit Winston-Salem’s announcement. That figure is a target, not a confirmed distribution total.
Bookmarks’ program page advertises free bookstore copies and a request process for book clubs and community organizations. Love’s website also provides a study guide and materials for readers interested in continuing the discussion together.
The nonprofit’s literacy work continues outside festival weekend. Bookmarks says its Authors in Schools program serves more than 8,000 students annually across the region. It also describes the festival as its largest volunteer event, with hundreds of community members helping with book sales, author hospitality, directions and children’s activities.
Downtown businesses are part of the weekend’s setting, too. Saturday’s footprint includes Poplar Street, Spruce Street and Holly Avenue.
Readers planning their weekend should distinguish the free Saturday festival from separately ticketed events. Bookmarks lists John Green’s Friday, Sept. 25, opening keynote at 7 p.m. at Wait Chapel as sold out. Jodi Picoult and Winston-Salem author Virginia Evans are scheduled for the closing keynote there Sunday, Sept. 27, at 3 p.m.
The festival website provides session and signing schedules, a map and parking information. Readers looking specifically for Armstrong should consult her tour listing, which places her Bookmarks appearance on Thursday, rather than assume she is appearing during Saturday’s street festival. Festival guide