Social justice activist and author Frederick Joseph has published numerous works--essay collections, poems, and a picture book--about being anti-racist, teaching anti-racism, and enabling anti-racist communities. Joseph makes his fiction debut with the powerfully empathic, deeply emboldening young adult novel This Thing of Ours.

Six months ago, Ossie Brown was the nation's third-ranked high school basketball player, headed for the state championships as part of white, wealthy Braxton Academy's team in tony Scarsdale, N.Y. Ossie, from nearby Yonkers, knows exactly why he was recruited and given a full ride by Coach Ryan. In the last three minutes of the game, Braxton is down seven points, and Ossie is getting increasingly frustrated: "These white boys are trying to hurt me, and the refs are either blind or racist, 'cause they haven't been calling anything!" Ossie points out. Coach Ryan retorts, "You know I support most of the Black Lives Matter stuff, Ossie. But not everything is about race." Seconds before what should have been a victory, Ossie is shoved hard into the camera crew and onto "the cold, unforgiving floor." That violence ruins Ossie's knee and ends his basketball dreams, with Syracuse University rescinding his admissions offer; at only 17, he's gone "from the next Lebron to what could have been."

Yet life goes on. It's been "five months and twenty-eight days since the doctors told [him he'd] never play again." He finished junior year remotely to avoid the relentless media, then "spent the entire summer hidden alone in the pages of a story nobody really wanted to read." His girlfriend, Laura, promptly disappeared, having started dating entitled Matthew (a classmate whom they had disliked as a couple) while on vacation. Ossie's teammates--who "claimed to be [his] brothers"--have long gone silent, except for Tommy, the only one still reaching out, although Ossie continues to ghost him. "None of y'all have to worry 'bout making the Black kid feel comfortable anymore," Ossie maintains.

Thoughts of disappointing his late, legendary father plague Ossie, who was "supposed to continue his legacy." Talking to his mother is never easy; she made herself "distant" as Ossie's resemblance to his father grew over the years. It's Grandma Alice who comes to all his games and is his greatest cheerleader. She's equally adamant in her support off the court: "Basketball doesn't define Ossie Brown," she reminds him. She's always urged him to prioritize academics and what she recognizes as Ossie's writing talent; she's unapologetically vocal about "cursing that damn coach and that godforsaken school." With Ossie's senior year looming, Grandma Alice is resolutely candid: "when you walk through those school doors tomorrow, you won't be the six-five basketball star anymore. To everyone there, you'll just be another Black kid," she warns. "But remember... you've been bigger than a ball and rim from the moment you took your first breath."

Without sports, Ossie learns he's quite a talented writer. Boosted by English teacher Ms. Hunt, one of Braxton's few Black teachers, he reluctantly applies to the prestigious Mark Twain Creative Writing Program. His subsequent rejection "nearly breaks [him] in half." Then he overhears a conversation between Ms. Hunt and Dean Blackburn: "It's not just unfair.... It's unethical," Ms. Hunt insists. The truth is that Ossie was unanimously voted in by the selection committee but was nevertheless passed over to allow for less qualified students with legacies and significant family net worth. Quickly realizing Ossie has both seen and understood the situation, Dean Blackburn's damage control is instant: with "a wide, teeth-baring smile," she's the first to congratulate Ossie on his sudden acceptance.

The program is affirming, empowering, and life-changing for Ossie. Other BIPOC students also benefit, such as poet/photographer Luis Martinez, with the type of glowing olive skin that "many Braxton kids spend way too much time in tanning beds trying to get," and "Lauryn Hill kinda brown" will-be journalist Naima Johnson. A first assignment brings the trio together, and despite their socioeconomic divides ("from Yonkers to Scarsdale feels like slipping from one world into another") their shared experiences of being "other," of too often being unheard and unseen, quickly become a foundation from which to build meaningful friendships, and maybe more. When Ms. Hunt's diverse curriculum comes under attack by racist students, shockingly backed by parents and faculty, Ossie knows he can't stay quiet. Defending their teacher and safeguarding her inclusive classroom becomes paramount. In the era of ubiquitous, unforgiving social media, good intentions are not enough. While fighting back against privilege, classism, and ever-present racism, Ossie will also need to figure out how to mend myriad relationships.

Joseph has undoubtedly drawn on his own anti-racist social justice encounters and experiences in creating his main characters: "real life" is woven throughout his fiction, including repetitive microaggressions; race-, class-, gender-based stereotypes; book bans; anti-"woke" attacks; and authoritative parent-led school groups repressing diversity and equity. Difficult conversations are many, and BIPOC readers will likely recognize and appreciate the too familiar scenarios of being overlooked, dismissed, and disrespected. Joseph deftly inserts possible reactions to adapt and emulate in challenging situations--supporting others, speaking out--while also demonstrating what not to do, particularly overstepping boundaries even with the most well-meaning motivations. Non-BIPOC readers, too, might well recognize their actions on the page, whether as antagonists or allies--or both. Joseph carefully crafts a safe space for all readers to reflect, interrogate, and ultimately, (hopefully) to learn to do the right thing. --Terry Hong

Frederick Joseph (photo: Natiah Jones)

Social justice activist, philanthropist, DEI consultant, poet, and essayist Frederick Joseph is arguably best known for his anti-racist, bestselling treatise, The Black Friend: On Being a Better White Person. Joseph adds debut novelist to his growing achievements list with This Thing of Ours (Candlewick Press, May 6, 2025), about Ossie Brown, a Black basketball star at an elite, predominantly white private high school. Sidelined by injury in his senior year, he suddenly needs to learn who he is off the court. Here Joseph reveals a few of the facts that have made it into his fiction, as well as what moves him to write.

Many of your previous titles have been nonfiction. How did you decide to write a YA novel?

I've always focused primarily on poetry and fiction in my personal writing, and never imagined I'd be best known as a nonfiction writer or essayist. So working on a YA novel was sort of like coming home. I'm most comfortable storytelling and building my own little worlds.

In The Black Friend, you write: "I like to think of the high school version of myself as the original Black Power Ranger: well-meaning but extremely problematic." That might describe Ossie as well. How much of your own experiences are integrated into Ossie's story?

That might describe Ossie for sure. He is just trying his best with what he knows. He's less based on my own experiences and more on the experiences I saw some of my friends have as men and boys, and the gaps in their actions at times. Although, his relationships in the book--namely with his mother and grandmother--largely parallel mine.

Part of Ossie's "well-meaning but extremely problematic" actions involve attempting to engage his followers on social media. That doesn't go so well. What might be three things you could advise teen/youth social media moguls on how to best leverage influence for change?

Oh, that's such a good question. That experience of his came largely from me thinking about my own experiences, albeit not having millions of followers but having hundreds of thousands, and the ways in which I've needed to be considerate about using said platform. The first thing I would say is to build up a trusted group of people who you can talk things through with when you plan on posting, especially if they are about important issues. The second thing I would advise is to consider other people's agency, and by that, I mean think about how they're going to experience this, especially if you're talking about someone you're trying to support. The last thing is to imagine all the people who follow you in a room and the sort of power that holds, to have access to reach the minds and hearts of potentially three million people or 300 people, and whether you are accessing those hearts and minds in the best way possible.

Might you consider continuing Ossie's--and Naima's and Luis's--stories on the page? 

I've considered writing a book specifically about Naima in college but the book that's really on my heart to write at some point is about Ossie's parents' love story back in the early 2000s. I have a second YA novel that publishes in 2027 that doesn't have to do with these characters, but it takes place in the same universe and Ossie makes a bit of a cameo.

Did you have a teacher/mentor like Ms. Hunt? 

I had a few teachers who were stellar, but a specific Black teacher who comes to mind is Ms. Stephens. She was one of my high school English teachers and was the first person to introduce me to Alice Walker. A huge moment in my love for Black literature.

Now I gotta ask... Grandma Alice as in Walker? 

Ahh! Yup! That's a little Fred Joseph Easter egg. I try to be very connective and intentional in my writing, so that was my way of honoring Alice Walker while also writing a character that reflected my grandmother. Also, one of the books Ms. Hunt's students read, Robert Jones Jr.'s The Prophets, is by one of my closest friends. A lot of connections.

You said that Ossie's relationship with Grandma Alice parallels your own, and that your maternal grandmother, Thelma Ford, was a writer. She remained unpublished because she was a Black woman growing up in the 1930s and 1940s--might you consider enabling a posthumous publication of her work?

Yes, my grandmother was a writer, but sadly I don't have much of her work other than a few short children's books. What I may do is help finish a few of them as somewhat of a collaboration. In reality, I see most of my work as a collaboration with her, as she is the person who taught me how to write.

Who's your ideal audience for Ours?

I forgot who I was speaking to recently--it might've been Jacqueline Woodson--and the conversation was basically that whether a book is YA or not, a book is still a book, so I think my audience is anyone who enjoys what I hope is a lovely story that helps activate people and remind them of the importance of books and community. I mean, personally, I read a ton of YA. In fact, after rereading Toni Morrison's Beloved last week, I reread Jenny Han's To All the Boys I've Loved Before series.

BIPOC and white readers will likely have different reactions to This Thing of Ours. What might you like to tell them before they start reading? What might you want to share after they've finished?

I think for BIPOC readers, I hope that they feel seen and loved. For white readers, I hope that they feel called to be their best selves, as is the case in most of my books. I'll say that before they read. Now, as far as after they read, I hope that everyone has a better sense of what we can all accomplish together through books and community.

You're a writer, activist, consultant, philanthropist, and more. How do you balance your multiple selves?

I choose who I am depending on the day. For the last few weeks, I've more so been wearing my philanthropist hat. I'll be working on a third YA novel, starting the end of January, so I'll have my writer hat on for a few months.

New novel number two, as mentioned above, continues in Ossie's universe (with just his cameo). Could you share a bit more about these upcoming novels? 

YA novel number two, titled You Got Me, is about two teenage girls who are bipolar and navigating their lives as such. One of them is a Black girl from Harlem named Ella, and the other is a Vietnamese girl from Queens, named Binh. That book will be published by Viking Children's Books. YA number three doesn't have a home yet as I've not given it to an agent, but my outline is finished. The title is When the Sun Spoke Our Names. It's a YA romance that harkens back to the film Before Sunrise.

And then, will you write Ossie's parents' love story? 

I already have a high-level idea of that story, but I want to see how people respond to this universe before I dive too deep into it. --Terry Hong