An elderly woman stranded in the woods encounters a mysterious legless man sitting under a tree. The man has no memory of how he got there or who he is—but he is able to recall the woman over the thousands of years he has known her, and together they take a journey through many lifetimes over the many lives the woman has lived. Lives she was unaware of.
The Passenger is a layered, historical-spiritual novel that moves across continents, centuries, and states of consciousness to explore memory, ancestry, love, guilt, and the unfinished business of history. It blends historical fiction, speculative metaphysics, and intimate human drama, insisting that time is not linear and that the past is never truly past—it lives in bodies, relationships, and unresolved truths.
At its heart, the novel asks a single, persistent question:
What happens when people are forced to carry what history refuses to hold?
Available at all bookstores, in e-book, and audiobook at Audible Audiobooks
The Passenger is a layered, historical-spiritual novel that moves across continents, centuries, and states of consciousness to explore memory, ancestry, love, guilt, and the unfinished business of history. It blends historical fiction, speculative metaphysics, and intimate human drama, insisting that time is not linear and that the past is never truly past—it lives in bodies, relationships, and unresolved truths.
At its heart, the novel asks a single, persistent question:
What happens when people are forced to carry what history refuses to hold?
Available at all bookstores, in e-book, and audiobook at Audible Audiobooks
A brutal murder is committed, and pregnant 13-year-old Ella and her boyfriend are at the center of the murder. Years later, middle-age Ella, now a mother, and married to a pastor, is haunted by the murder— and the ghost of the murdered man.
Spanning four decades, Ella Pruitt is a sweeping, intimate literary novel that explores the long shadows of family violence, secrecy, faith, and inherited guilt across generations of a Black American family. Moving fluidly between past and present, the novel traces the life of Ella Pruitt, a woman shaped by a traumatic youth in a small Ohio town and by the choices she makes in her efforts to escape it.
At once tender and unflinching, Ella Pruitt is a meditation on memory and moral responsibility—on what it means to protect a child, to belong, to forgive, and to tell the truth. It asks whether healing is possible when justice arrives too late, and whether love can endure once the lies that sustained it are finally exposed.
~ 2016 Phillis Wheatley Book Award Finalist ~ Available at all bookstores, as well as in ebook, and in audiobook at Audible Audiobooks
Spanning four decades, Ella Pruitt is a sweeping, intimate literary novel that explores the long shadows of family violence, secrecy, faith, and inherited guilt across generations of a Black American family. Moving fluidly between past and present, the novel traces the life of Ella Pruitt, a woman shaped by a traumatic youth in a small Ohio town and by the choices she makes in her efforts to escape it.
At once tender and unflinching, Ella Pruitt is a meditation on memory and moral responsibility—on what it means to protect a child, to belong, to forgive, and to tell the truth. It asks whether healing is possible when justice arrives too late, and whether love can endure once the lies that sustained it are finally exposed.
~ 2016 Phillis Wheatley Book Award Finalist ~ Available at all bookstores, as well as in ebook, and in audiobook at Audible Audiobooks
A collection of short stories by Doug Cooper-Spencer
~ A man finds the mother who abandoned him as a child and learns the truth behind why she left.
~ In 1976, a carefree night for a circle of Black gay friends unravels into tragedy, reshaping their lives and revealing truths they sought to escape.
~ Tragedy strikes a marriage leaving the couple to look at what happens to love when life goes wrong.
~ A spiritual leader wrestles with her conscience, then makes a worldly decision that changes her life.
~ The summer of 1963 was a milestone in the Civil Rights Movement, just as it is for a boy growing up black and gay.
~ A Black woman's desire for a more privileged life strains her connection with her twin brother, exposing how far she's willing to go to escape her racial identity.
These are just some of the stories in Gather the Bones. They are stories that touch on themes such as: family and trust; negotiating identity and privilege; aging, race and sexuality; and confronting one's own humanity in the face of adversity.
~ In 1976, a carefree night for a circle of Black gay friends unravels into tragedy, reshaping their lives and revealing truths they sought to escape.
~ Tragedy strikes a marriage leaving the couple to look at what happens to love when life goes wrong.
~ A spiritual leader wrestles with her conscience, then makes a worldly decision that changes her life.
~ The summer of 1963 was a milestone in the Civil Rights Movement, just as it is for a boy growing up black and gay.
~ A Black woman's desire for a more privileged life strains her connection with her twin brother, exposing how far she's willing to go to escape her racial identity.
These are just some of the stories in Gather the Bones. They are stories that touch on themes such as: family and trust; negotiating identity and privilege; aging, race and sexuality; and confronting one's own humanity in the face of adversity.
A River Runs Beneath Us (Voices & Writings of The Griot Book Project) opens with a powerful timeline documenting Black LGBTQ people in the Americas from 1591 to the present. From there, readers are guided through an intimate journey shaped by the voices and writings of Afro-American LGBTQ (“distinctive”) elders born before 1960.
These griots came of age Black and gay in the 1930s, ’40s, and ’50s—decades marked by profound social restriction and danger. Their lives began in places as varied as coal-mining towns and inner-city neighborhoods, eventually carrying them to New York City, Paris, Hollywood, and, for some, prison. Wherever life led them, they bore witness.
Through interviews, memoir, fiction, essays, and poetry, A River Runs Beneath Us gathers their stories into a collective oral and literary history. Within these pages, readers encounter personal connections to cultural and historical figures such as Martin Luther King Jr., Ashford & Simpson, Phylicia Rashad, Debbie Allen, Hugh Hefner, Prince, Glynn Turman, and others whose lives intersected with these griots.
These narratives emerge from eras when policies governing race, gender, and sexuality were especially oppressive. Yet the griots lived openly—with persistence, visibility, and extraordinary resilience.
Both deeply moving and historically essential, A River Runs Beneath Us: Voices and Writings of The Griot Book Project is not only a work of storytelling—it is a vital book of record.
These griots came of age Black and gay in the 1930s, ’40s, and ’50s—decades marked by profound social restriction and danger. Their lives began in places as varied as coal-mining towns and inner-city neighborhoods, eventually carrying them to New York City, Paris, Hollywood, and, for some, prison. Wherever life led them, they bore witness.
Through interviews, memoir, fiction, essays, and poetry, A River Runs Beneath Us gathers their stories into a collective oral and literary history. Within these pages, readers encounter personal connections to cultural and historical figures such as Martin Luther King Jr., Ashford & Simpson, Phylicia Rashad, Debbie Allen, Hugh Hefner, Prince, Glynn Turman, and others whose lives intersected with these griots.
These narratives emerge from eras when policies governing race, gender, and sexuality were especially oppressive. Yet the griots lived openly—with persistence, visibility, and extraordinary resilience.
Both deeply moving and historically essential, A River Runs Beneath Us: Voices and Writings of The Griot Book Project is not only a work of storytelling—it is a vital book of record.
The This Place of Men Trilogy is a sweeping three-novel series that spans decades in the lives of two Black gay men. Beginning with a high-school romance in the 1970s, the trilogy follows Otis and Terrell as they move from youth into manhood and ultimately middle age—each shaped by love, loss, ambition, and the changing world around them.
As their lives diverge and intersect across time, the novels explore identity, masculinity, intimacy, and survival within Black distinctive (queer) life.
The trilogy includes This Place of Men, People Like Us, and Leaving Gomorrah.
As their lives diverge and intersect across time, the novels explore identity, masculinity, intimacy, and survival within Black distinctive (queer) life.
The trilogy includes This Place of Men, People Like Us, and Leaving Gomorrah.
Book 1
THIS PLACE OF MEN (Book One)
Sentenced to prison at eighteen and released into a life shaped by poverty and exile, a young gay man returns to his hometown to confront the minister, family members, and townspeople whose betrayal destroyed his future—and to reclaim the truth that was taken from him.
Sentenced to prison at eighteen and released into a life shaped by poverty and exile, a young gay man returns to his hometown to confront the minister, family members, and townspeople whose betrayal destroyed his future—and to reclaim the truth that was taken from him.
Book 2
PEOPLE LIKE US (Book Two)
When a husband finally accepts that he is gay, his marriage comes to an end—forcing two people who once loved each other deeply to redefine family, faith, and respect. As they navigate separation, their greatest challenge becomes protecting their children from the weight of truth, heartbreak, and the world’s judgment.
When a husband finally accepts that he is gay, his marriage comes to an end—forcing two people who once loved each other deeply to redefine family, faith, and respect. As they navigate separation, their greatest challenge becomes protecting their children from the weight of truth, heartbreak, and the world’s judgment.
Book 3
LEAVING GOMORRAH (Book Three)
When a gay man learns he has a son conceived during a long-ago one-night encounter, his carefully constructed life is upended. As the young man—hardened by the streets—comes to live with him, father and son must navigate trust, responsibility, and the fragile possibility of redemption.
When a gay man learns he has a son conceived during a long-ago one-night encounter, his carefully constructed life is upended. As the young man—hardened by the streets—comes to live with him, father and son must navigate trust, responsibility, and the fragile possibility of redemption.
What began as a personal letter from the author to his boyfriend in 1999 evolved into a powerful meditation on homophobia and self-liberation. Confronting enduring tropes—including religious condemnation and the belief that homosexuality is “unnatural”--A Letter to a Friend challenges inherited assumptions and invites readers toward a more honest, compassionate understanding of identity and faith.
Photo by Greg Cooper Spencer
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Doug Cooper Spencer is a novelist and short fiction writer living in New York City. He is the author of eight books:
'This Place of Men', 'People Like Us', 'Leaving Gomorrah' (the three novels of the 'This Place of Men Trilogy'), 'A Letter to a Friend', 'Ella Pruitt', 'Gather the Bones', 'A River Runs Beneath Us: Voices and Writings of The Griot Book Project', and 'The Passenger'. |
I wonder if you realize how special you are. Thank you.
- Donna B.
- Donna B.
This Place of Men offers an interesting example of conflict resolution… There's a side story… which will probably surprise most readers. This Place of Men is a bittersweet love story and Doug Cooper-Spencer has a mature, seasoned voice. It will probably be enjoyable to readers who tire of the usual "we're gay and fabulous" storylines.
- Rod McCullom, ‘Rod 2.0’ website; journalist CNN, The Advocate
- Rod McCullom, ‘Rod 2.0’ website; journalist CNN, The Advocate
I finished reading the entire This Place of Men Trilogy, and must say I was sad to come to the end of the last book in the trilogy, ‘Leaving Gomorrah’ because the world I had come to share with Otis, Terrell, Antonio and the many wonderful characters that peopled the trilogy was one of intimacy; so intimate, in fact that I didn’t want to leave them behind. BRAVO for the This Place of Men Trilogy!
- Yvonne T.
- Yvonne T.
This is one of the most amazing letters I have ever read to say the least. It is so wonderfully put. I needed to read this today. Reading this has changed me today... to being more hopeful of tomorrow... less hurt about people's views of my life, ... and more connected to God's love. That is due to everyone. Thank you for sharing this!!
- Bridget
- Bridget
A great story and a core truth: The life you’ve been prepared for isn’t the one meant for you; sometimes it’s not even the life you’ve been given… The book doesn’t beat you over the head with that truth, but the writer puts it together artfully… you find yourself understanding it even though it’s never plainly stated…. the mark of a good story and a good writer.
- Amazon Reviews
- Amazon Reviews
Saw this book a few weeks ago… picked it up as the back cover caught my interest and I am so glad I did… I fell in love with this book as it is many wondrous things: love story, the Black family, and a story that (makes) one think… The characters are well written, some surprises, and again a wonderful read… I’ve never heard of the author and I feel that I know my Black Gay authors, but this one snuck under my radar.
- Amazon Reviews
- Amazon Reviews
The Griot Book Project
The Griot Book Project is collecting writings and audio recordings of and by Afro-American LGBTQ griots who were born before 1960. The writings will be used in an upcoming book.
Tap the button below if you would like to interviewed, or if you have an interview or other writings or digital audio recording to submit (fiction & non-fiction). Submit to:
Tap the button below if you would like to interviewed, or if you have an interview or other writings or digital audio recording to submit (fiction & non-fiction). Submit to:
