PRETTY GIRL COUNTY | A Busboys and Poets Books Presentation
Date and Time
Jul 7, 2025 6:00 pm
Location
Hyattsville
5331 Baltimore Ave, Hyattsville, Maryland, 20781
Jul 7, 2025 6:00 pm
Hyattsville
Join author Lakita Wilson to dive into a charming and hilarious story of ex-BFFs from PG County, Maryland alongside author Nikki Payne
Girls like Reya Samuels always come from Prince George’s County. Reya is rich and she’s not afraid to show it—she wears designer clothes, drives a custom pink Audi, and lives in a neighborhood tucked behind a fancy cast iron gate. She works hard, but she can get anything she wants with a snap.
Sommer Watkins is from Seat Pleasant, where the cast iron gates are significantly smaller—and attached to the windows, where most folks are still trying to make ends meet. Every day for Sommer is a hustle, working at her dad’s bookstore, and using her art skills to scrounge up enough scholarship money for her dream school, Spelman.
Reya and Sommer used to be BFFs—back when Reya lived in Seat Pleasant, too. Now the girls are from different stratospheres—but when Reya desperately needs help to prove to FIT admissions officers that she has what it takes to make it in fashion, the only person who can help is Sommer. Reya promises to help Sommer in return—she’ll pay her for her services, helping Sommer afford the school her parents can’t.
As the girls work together, slowly they begin to trust each other again. But when new relationships push them both, and Sommer’s dad’s bookstore is suddenly in danger of closing, old wounds bubble up. Can the girls find a way to repair their friendship and stay true to themselves along the way?
Lakita Wilson is joining us on the Busboys stage to share more alongside author Nikki Payne about this “luminous showcase of community, friendship, love in all its complexities, and the ways we blaze our own paths” (Julian Winters, award-winning author of Right Where I Left You). Copies of the book will be available for purchase during and after the event, and Wilson will be signing following the program.
This event is free and open to all. Our program begins at 6:00 pm, and will be followed by an audience Q&A. Copies of PRETTY GIRL COUNTY will be available for purchase before and after the event. Please note that this event is in person and will not be livestreamed.
We ask that guests RSVP in order to receive direct updates about the event from Busboys and Poets Books
Lakita Wilson is the author of several novels and nonfiction projects for children and young adults, including What Is Black Lives Matter? a part of the New York Times bestselling Who HQ Now series, the middle grade novels Be Real, Macy Weaver and Sparkle, and YA romance Last Chance Dance.
Lakita was born in Washington, DC, and grew up in Prince George's County, Maryland. A 2017 recipient of SCBWI's Emerging Voices Award, Lakita received her MFA in writing for children and young adults from Vermont College of Fine Arts. She is currently on faculty at Prince George's Community College in the education department. Lakita lives in Prince George's County, Maryland, with her two children. She can be found online at lakitawilson.com.
By day, Nikki Payne is a Civic anthropologist building accessible government services for vulnerable populations, by night she dreams of ways to subvert Canon literature. Hailed as "incandescent" by the Washington Post, Nikki Payne's debut novel Pride and Protest was a Phenomenal Book Club pick And was selected by the Library of Congress to represent the District of Columbia for the National Book Festival. Her latest princess and the Pi is a steamy murder mystery set in Prince George's county MD. featured in the New York Times, NPR, Elle, Oprah Daily and BuzzFeed, Nikki Payne is writing black women into their happily ever after.
