PRE-ORDER FROM OUR BLOOD
Out august
3rd, 2027
From Our Blood is a smoldering, fang-sharp debut that combines the social critique of The Other Black Girl with the occult academia of the Ninth House series.
Old money, older evil.
Ari Gnight does not belong at Easton College. A Black transfer student with a mysterious past and an empty bank account, Ari is a conspicuous misfit among Easton’s white and famously wealthy student body. But Ari is determined to outrun her past and secure the future she deserves—even if that means compromising her morals and keeping her true self hidden.
When a body is found on campus, Ari uncovers a trail of missing Black students and a sinister pattern woven into Easton’s history. The administration will do anything to keep it buried, but the deeper Ari digs, the darker the truth: A hunger has fed on Black students for generations, and now it’s turned its attention to her.
From Our Blood is a smoldering and critical debut about the legacy of prestige, the rot at the heart of elite institutions, and the cost of tearing them down.
Smith’s “prose is exacting, in a way that cuts to the quick: a blade, sharpened by years of keen observation. It’s no small feat to turn trauma into art.”
— TAYLOR GROTHE, author of Hollow
“This is, truly, an excellent opening...that is beautifully written, daring, complicated, fraught, and very compelling.”
— NATHAN OATES, author of Flaw in the Design
ShaRDAI smith
Shardai Smith holds B.A.s in creative writing and political science and an M.A. in creative writing from Seton Hall University. She’s a graduate of NYU's Summer Publishing Institute and currently works in book publishing at W. W. Norton & Co. Her novella, Fondle, was a 2025 Clay Reynolds Novella Prize Finalist.
Her first novel, From Our Blood, is forthcoming from Bindery Books in 2027. She can be found online @shardai_smith/h
Agent: Eric Smith @ Neighborhood Literary
