In this episode of Black Women Amplified Podcast, Monica sits down with award-winning author Vanessa Riley for a conversation that moves beyond storytelling and into history, power, and truth.

Vanessa Riley joins the show to talk about her latest novel, Fire, Sword & Sea, a sweeping historical fiction story inspired by the real-life pirate Jacquotte Delahaye. Set in the 17th-century Caribbean, the book brings a hidden woman back into the conversation and places her where she belongs.

This is not the version of history most of us were taught.

Together, Monica and Vanessa unpack the realities of piracy, the transatlantic slave trade, and how entire economies were built on power, currency, and human lives. They also explore what it means to tell stories about women who were not waiting to be saved, but were making decisions, ta ...