FIRST ACQUISITION OF 2020: THE HALF-CLASS, BY KAYVION LEWIS

"Escape your class; define yourself."

Today, The Parliament House Press is proud to announce its first acquisition of the season: THE HALF-CLASS is the first installment in a fantasy trilogy featuring a timely message of inclusion, equality, and perseverance.

Louisiana-based author Kayvion Lewis tells the #OwnVoices tale of a girl torn between two classes in a race-divided empire. Seventeen year-old Evie's complexion is too rich to belong to the illustrious White Class, and too fair to blend with the lowly Dark Class. By day, she's forced to keep her head down—but by night, she rebels.

View her submissions video below!

“The Half-Class is a story not just featuring a biracial main character, but about the struggles and conflicting, complicated problems that so many of us who can’t be categorized face. It’s still its own story, one with romance and rebellion, kings and courts, but introduces an interplay with race and discrimination too. If I had to simplify things, I’d call it a complicated love story with some heavy real-world implications, which I wrote because I wanted to see more fiction not just with a character who looked like me, but whose struggles because of that race I could relate to.”

- Kayvion Lewis, The Half-Class

The Half-Class, by Kayvion Lewis

By day, Evie is an outcast—a Half-Class. Complexion too rich for the illustrious white class, and too fair for the lowly dark class, she is forced to keep her head down and her paperwork ready. But by night, she rebels, burning down municipal buildings and raiding shops with her fellow half-classes by her side. It's a dangerous life, but it's simple. At least, it used to be.

But when Prince Cass walks into her aunt's brothel, life gets complicated. She and the awkward prince inadvertently hit it off, and her fellow rebels see a golden opportunity to find out exactly what the king is planning for the half-class.

Day by day, Evie grows closer to Prince Cass, who's a thousand times more charming than he should be, while the rebels use her information to strike back against his father. But the half-classes are getting ravenous in their retaliation. Soon, they'll want blood—the blood of someone Evie might be starting to love.

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About the Author:

Kayvion Lewis is a part-time student, part-time librarian, part-time author, and a full-time day-dreamer. When she's not writing, working, or doing other important things, she's throwing knives, reading, and occasionally jumping out of airplanes. She doesn't have a spouse or a cute dog or a residence in the suburbs she can mention, just a fat cat and a pair of parents. If you want to search for her, you can find her somewhere in Louisiana.

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The Half-Class is a moving series starter that will encourage young readers of every background to "escape their class, and define themselves."

This submissions season, Submissions Director Amanda Wright and her Acolytes have been seeking "novels with greater messages" and "stories that are memorable in their own right."

Evie's story is highly unique, though her reality is one of discrimination and division. Like Evie and her team of half-classes, The Parliament House Press stands behind our Black authors, readers, bloggers, and community. We are openly against unlawful, unjust acts of harm performed by those in positions of authority who choose to misuse their power. We are against racism and the persecution of the Black community, and wish to encourage a world in which the voices of acceptance and unity are louder than those of divisive hate. Perhaps a small facet of this can be achieved through literature; we are honored to have Kayvion, Evie, and her unruly prince on our team.