Mara Brock Akil, the creator of the classic sitcom Girlfriends, is releasing her first novel on June 30, 2026.
According to Deadline, Crown Publishing’s imprint Storehouse Voices will release Akil’s fiction novel. The book chronicles a woman maneuvering through “emotions, secrets, and a profound personal awakening as a thirty-something NYC woman in the 90s.”
“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 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,” Akil continued. “Expanding my storytelling into a new form and discovering what revelation looks like on the page. I am so grateful to have Storehouse Voices alongside me on this new journey.”
The synopsis reads, “Daphne 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.”
In her illustrious career, Akil has written and produced nearly 400 episodes of television. At the age of 30, she became the youngest Black woman to serve as a showrunner on broadcast network television with the debut of Girlfriends (2000–2008). She also created the hit series The Game, which broke records as the most-watched scripted premiere in ad-supported cable history at the time. Also, she created Being Mary Jane, BET’s first-ever hour-long scripted drama.
Akil is the 2026 recipient of the Norman Lear Achievement Award in Television from the Producers Guild of America. She is only the second Black recipient in the award’s history.
In 2025, she launched the critically acclaimed Netflix series Forever, based on the Judy Blume novel.