Mara Brock Akil Prepares Debut Novel ‘The Revelation of Dionne Daphne’

Award-Winning Showrunner, Writer, Producer, Mara Brock Akil,

Enters the Fiction Space with Debut Novel

“The Revelation of Dionne Daphne”

Crown Publishing Imprint, Storehouse Voices,

to Release Book June 30, 2026

Pre-orders Available Now

NEW YORK, February 24, 2026/ Mara Brock Akil, the acclaimed, award-winning showrunner, writer, producer, and creator of iconic shows such as Girlfriends, Being Mary Jane, Love Is__ and Forever, expands her storytelling legacy with the release of her highly anticipated debut novel, The Revelation of Dionne Daphne.

With the same narrative voice that made her on-screen projects cultural touchstones, Mara Brock Akil delivers a page-turner poised to captivate her devoted television audiences while inviting an entirely new readership into her world. The novel will be released on Storehouse Voices, an imprint of Crown Publishing on June 30, 2026. Pre-orders are available now.

The novel sees Dionne Daphne, a magnetic heroine navigating a whirlwind of emotions, buried secrets, and profound personal awakening. Dionne has everything a modern, thirty-something NYC woman in the 90s could dream of. She is the beauty editor at a prestigious magazine, with a social life of the upper echelon, and a boyfriend that could have been plucked out of its pages. But all of this comes crashing down, when he arrives at her Brooklyn doorstep with life-threatening news that creates a crack in the facade of her picture-perfect life.

The pressure to face this new reality spins Dionne into her past, unearthing a dark secret that she has hidden since childhood. What follows is an emotionally enthralling novel about enduring love, world-shattering revelations, and self-awakening. The Revelation of Dionne Daphne is at once a deeply moving and provocatively gripping novel that shows when you dig deep enough into the shadows of your life, light can be revealed. It’s a novel of broken lovers, fractured family, and distant friendships all making their way back to one another.

This landmark debut represents a significant expansion of rich, diverse storytelling across mediums. As one of television’s most influential and celebrated creators, Brock Akil has introduced audiences to complex, memorable characters such as Mary Jane from Being Mary Jane, Joan from Girlfriends and most recently Keisha from the hit Netflix show, Forever. With The Revelation of Dionne Daphne, she brings that same layered authenticity and depth to the literary world, further cementing her impact and broadening the landscape for dynamic diverse narratives in publishing.

“I wrote this novel with the intention of taking the reader through a story that may be familiar.  One of isolation, shame, resilience and the redemptive power of love,” said Mara Brock Akil.  “My hope is that readers will see themselves in Dionne and recognize the weight they’ve been holding and feel permission to release it. Stepping into fiction as a novelist has been a beautiful journey for me, expanding my storytelling into a new form and discovering what revelation looks like on the page and I am so grateful to have Storehouse Voices alongside me on this new journey.”

“Mara Brock Akil has shaped the emotional landscape of a generation through television,” said Tamira Chapman, Publisher of Storehouse Voices. “With The Revelation of Dionne Daphne, she brings that same depth, vulnerability, and cultural insight to the page. Mara is a master storyteller claiming her literary space and reminding us that Black women’s interior lives deserve permanence in literature.”

“Being both a lover of books and longtime admirer of Mara’s storytelling, I’d always wondered what a novel from Mara Brock Akil would look like,” said Chelcee Johns, Executive Editor at Storehouse Voices “I reached out with hopes she’d been thinking the same and after a few years of working behind the scenes, what has come is beyond anything I’d imagined. This debut novel wrestles with themes of sexual awakening and acceptance, family trauma, sudden love and evolving friendship through a character with as much bite as she has tenderness. We’re proud to publish Mara’s debut at Storehouse Voices and can’t wait for fans and newcomers alike to join us on the release.”

Mara Brock Akil’s body of work has shaped culture for more than 25 years, delivering stories that uplift, inspire, and spark meaningful dialogue and community. In 2025, she received the African American Film Critics Association TV Honors Legacy Award and will be honored with the Producers Guild of America’s Norman Lear Achievement Award on Saturday, February 28, 2026, in Los Angeles. Alongside the release of her debut novel, Brock Akil’s hit Netflix series, which reached No. 1 on the platform last year, is set to return for a second season.

Storehouse Voices Publicity Contact: Jenn Valentin; jvalentin@penguinrandomhouse.com

Frank PR Contact: Clare Anne Darragh; clareanne@frankpublicity.com

ABOUT THE REVELATION OF DIONNE DAPHNE

What happens when one knock at your door sends your entire world into chaos?

When a stranger becomes a lifeline…when the reality you’ve meticulously curated seems to be a mirage?

Dionne Daphne has everything a modern, thirty-something NYC woman in the 90s could dream of. She is the beauty editor at a prestigious magazine, has a boyfriend that could have been plucked out of its model pages, and the social life of the upper echelon. But all of this comes crashing down, when he arrives at her Brooklyn doorstep with life-threatening news that creates a crack in the facade of her picture-perfect life.

The pressure to face this new reality spins Dionne into her past, unearthing a dark secret that she has hidden since childhood. What follows is an emotionally enthralling novel about enduring love, world-shattering revelations, and self-awakening.

The Revelation of Dionne Daphne is at once a deeply moving and provocatively gripping novel that shows when you dig deep enough into the shadows of your life, light can be revealed. It’s a novel of broken lovers, fractured family, and distant friendships all making their way back to one another.

About Mara Brock Akil

Mara Brock Akil has written and produced over 400 episodes of television, leaving her mark on Hollywood. She’s received Essence Magazine’s Visionary Award and the prestigious Brandon Tartikoff Legacy Award by NATPE, and has been named in Variety and The Hollywood Reporter’s Showrunner Power Lists, as well as The Hollywood Reporter’s Women in Entertainment Power100 multiple times. In 2020, Brock Akil entered into a deal with Netflix to exclusively produce television shows for the streaming platform under her new banner, story27 Productions.

Her credits include writing and producing the hit show Girlfriends (2000-2008), The Game (2006-2015), Being Mary Jane (2013-2019), and executive producing Netflix’s STAMPED FROM THE BEGINNING which was on the Academy Awards® Documentary Feature Shortlist. Brock Akil’s most recent project was the critically acclaimed Netflix series adaptation of the 1975 Judy Blume novel FOREVER, starring Karen Pittman, Wood Harris, Lovie Simone, Michael Cooper Jr., and more. The series was renewed for a season 2 and premiered to rave reviews.

In 2021, Mara expanded her passion for non-profit work and started her very own non-profit writing residency in Los Angeles, the Writers’ Colony. The mission is to support up-and-coming underrepresented writers/creatives. The impact of the Writer’s Colony is something Mara’s very proud of. She is delighted to continue the colony’s commitment to nurturing emerging writers, and providing them with exposure, access, and the tools they need to continue on their journeys. At the 2026 Producer’s Guild Awards Mara will be receiving the prestigious Norman Lear Award, she was nominated for a WGA Award on behalf of her writing in season 1 of FOREVER, and FOREVER was nominated for 4 awards at the Film Independent Spirit Awards.

ABOUT STOREHOUSE VOICES

Storehouse Voices is a publishing imprint under Crown Publishing at Penguin Random House, focused on elevating cultural voices across fiction and nonfiction. Led by founder and Publisher Tamira Chapman, the imprint combines editorial excellence with community-powered discovery and a publishing platform designed for scale, inclusion, and innovation.

THE REVELATION OF DIONNE DAPHNE

By Mara Brock Akil

On Sale from Storehouse Voices

June 30, 2026

288 pages

Hardcover 978-0-593-59777-4 ($30.00)