If You Knew My Name: A Novel in Verse

Lisa Roberts Carters debut, If You Knew My Name, is a novel-in-verse telling the story of 17-year-old Mason Tyndall an aspiring rap artist whose mother is a BLM activist. She saw fatal officer-involved shootings as senseless tragedies. He viewed them as trending hashtags that is, until he almost became one.

Mason ZyAire Tyndall has big dreams. Dreams of sick beats, epic mic-drops, sold out stadiums. Masons going to be a rap starand you dont become a rap star by hitting up BLM protests with your mom or sitting at a desk. Mason wants to get out there and make a name for himself, but hell have to graduate high school first. And he cant do that if he fails his senior year.

Convinced his poetry class is a waste of time, Masons teacher helps him see just how valuable a couplet and a rhyme can be. But when an unarmed Black man is killed by the police in his city, tensions start to riseamong the cops, the community, and even Masons peers. 

Caught in the middle of increasingly violent conflicts, Mason will have to find a way to use his voice for changeand fast.  See more