Recently there has been a new craze going around all over the place, and the new phenomenon is literature. The new genre is hitting the streets hard and getting mad love from the place it comes from: the streets.

The genre is called “Street-Life” literature because the topics of the books have mostly to do with inner-city trials and tribulations of ghetto youth put on paper for the world to see. These forms of writing have their roots in the late 1960’s.

The mastermind behind the genre is Donald Goines, the author of Crime Partners, Black Girl Lost, the Kenyatte’s Series, and Never Die Alone. Never Die Alone inspired the new Miramax film featuring DMX.

Goines began just writing his life story and it evolved unto the Street-Life genre we have today. Most of the books are fictional but have gritty facts that only people accustom to the “Street-Life” would understand.

These books have been released a long time now, but they have recently become more popular. Those who are not familiar with Goines may see some of the same themes in novels by Teri Woods, Terry McMillan, IceBerg Slim, and others.

These stories of pain and suffering, empty promises and hollow dreams are available at local libraries and bookstores.