Ben Burgess Jr.
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Ben Burgess Jr. is the author of the award-winning novels "Monster," "Wounded," "Love and Happiness," " A Father's Sacrifice: Daddy's Girl," "Defining Moments: Black and White," and the new novel, "Mothers Vol. 1." He is an active performer of spoken word poetry. Ben Burgess Jr uses his love of writing to inspire and influence youths to strive for what they believe in and to never give up on their dreams. His novels "Monster" and "Wounded" are currently used in schools on the lower east side of Manhattan. Ben Burgess has a BA in Business Management and an MA in Educational Leadership. He is the proud father of his daughters Jaelynn, Jaclyn and Jocelyn, and he actively tries to improve urban neighborhoods and communities.
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Mothers Vol. 1
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Literary Fiction/ Drama/ African American Fiction/ Urban Fiction
In 1995, tragedy struck when Maurice Wilson returned home from the grocery store and was killed by a stray bullet, leaving his wife, Juanita, a widowed single mother of two. Having no life insurance and barely any savings, Juanita is forced to sell what few valuable items she has to give her husband a decent burial. With her husband no longer around as the primary breadwinner and without his salary, Juanita struggled to financially keep her and her children's heads above water, but she managed to survive. Tragically, two years following the death of her husband, her youngest child is diagnosed with cancer, leaving Juanita deeply in debt due to copayments for treatments, surgeries, prescriptions, and transportation to and from her job and doctors' visits. Overworked and underpaid, Juanita works a job she hates at the prestigious law firm of Wayne, Rothstein, and Lincoln to provide for her children. When her oldest child, Jalen, begins to feel neglected because his mother cannot afford to buy him the things he wants, constantly works overtime, and is always taking care of his younger brother, he is lured by the streets and a local drug dealer named Drastic. Will Jerami, Juanita's youngest son, survive cancer? Can Juanita endure being drowned in debt and working a stressful job? Will her eldest son, Jalen, continue to be drawn to and consumed by the streets? Mothers, Vol. 1, is the riveting prologue to the award-winning novel, Defining Moments: Black and White, about a mother's bravery and fortitude to do whatever is necessary for her children. 
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