In this American Book Award winning short story collection, J. California Cooper brings to life thirteen moving short stories that explore the threads and nuances of all kinds of love--whether romantic, familial or friendship. Written in the literary folk tradition associated most often with Zora Neale Hurston and Langston Hughes, Homemade Love draws a vivid picture of Black characters finding love in the most unlikely of places.
 
"Cooper's work reminds us of Langston Hughes and Zora Neale Hurston." --Alice Walker
 
"[Cooper] tells stories that move and dance about people who pop off the page to lodge themselves firmly in the reader's affection." - Publishers Weekly

"Cooper knows how to 'talk' her stories to us, as though each of them is told by a kindly and concerned friend. The sound of them is lovely, memorable, haunting." -- San Francisco Chronicle
 
"Gutsy and familiar...Cooper's power comes from sticking to her instinct, which is to tell a story, plain and simple." -- The Washington Post
 
"Ms. cooper is as down-home as Zora Neale Hurston, thank you, and blooming into as skilled a storyteller. Cooper's characters are the folk heroes of black culture...Tales of triumph that give you reason to keep reading." -- Essence
 
"These stories are jazzy, clubby, folksy, small towny, populist, perky, and if you don't like them, you must be in an absolutely unshakeable bad mood..." -- Carolyn See, Los Angeles Times
 
"Both men and women are treated with such bemused love that these tales of passions gone astray are transformed into celebrations of life." -- MS.