“I want to be remembered as a truth-teller. I’m kind of obsessed with honesty and being forthright with things. The world would be a much better place if everyone would say what’s on their minds.”

New Jersey native and honesty advocate, Akim Bryant has reached a point in his life where he is ready to share the truth of his story. “There can be a lot of misconceptions about what it means to be black and gay, especially in America,” said Akim.

His new book, Stuck Pages Vol. 1: Exposing the Heart of a Heartbreaker, aims to show exactly what it means to be a gay, black man in the 21st Century and remind readers that love is love, no matter who the subject is. “It all boils down to the fact that we all want to be loved, we are all seeking love and love is the same across the board,” Akim notes.

Raised by his mother, spending weekends with his father and paternal grandmother, the greatest cook Akim has ever known, Akim’s path to writing was not expressly clear. Although he started writing a book at age 10, Akim admits the debut novel was left uncompleted as he became a popular, fashionable teen. While studying at William Patterson University in Wayne, NJ, Akim pursued a career in the music industry, where he found much success.

At 18, Akim interned for Perfect Pair Recording Studios in New Jersey, where he witnessed recording sessions by hip-hop legend Naughty-By-Nature and their R&B protégé Next. Just months before college graduation, Akim landed his next internship at Music Choice, adigital cable network of more than 50 music channels.

Through the years, he was promoted up to management and programmed both the R&B Hits and R&B Soul channels. In addition to his booking recording-artist duties, he also hosted a number of internal music meetings with artists including Seal, Brian McKnight, Elle Varner and Keri Hilson.

In 2007, Akim got his first gig writing album reviews for soultracks.com. That same year, he was appointed lifestyle editor for Bleu magazine. Since then, Akim has written for GIANT, The Source and The Advocate magazines. He has done numerous in-depth interviews with artists such as Jasmine Sullivan, Evelyn Champagne King and Tank for the online portal soulmusic.com.

When Akim realized his passion for writing must be pursued, he dove head-first into his novel. “I am the type of person who tries to never say never; I’m an ebb and flow type of person,” Akim said about his choice to change careers and pursue his novelist dreams.

Although writing is currently the only thing in his heart, he did hold back on releasing the first volume of Stuck Pages, unsure of what public reaction would be. Ultimately, keeping true to his beliefs, Akim knew that his novel was too important not to share, and Stuck Pages Vol. 1: Exposing the Heart of a Heartbreaker was released in March 2015, by independent publisher Lulu.com.

The Stuck Pages series is the coming-of-age and coming-out journey of a heart-broken heartbreaker, Quincy Simmons, who graduates college and gets a dream job in the music industry, only to realize the life he has may not be the life he really wanted. He’s so caught up in trying to fulfill his heart that he can’t see the people in front of him for who they really are.

Stuck Pages is a snapshot into the life and times of a young black-gay man in the early 2000s who is a hopeless romantic in a rather hopeless place. “The series is a fresh perspective on my lifestyle. What I wanted to show is the complete view of being a young, cosmopolitan, gay, black man, from family life, to friends, to career. I show Quincy in a 360 degree way, so people can get past the stereotypes,” said Akim.

When not writing his follow-up Stuck Pages novels, Akim enjoys spending time with his many close friends, crafting poetry and occasionally attempting to cook his grandmother’s stewed chicken (“but hers is much better,” Akim admits). Akim lives in Jersey City, NJ, where he is currently working on his second novel and second in the Stuck Pages series, Stuck Pages Vol. 2: The Pleasure Principle.