For nearly 40 years, Walter Mosley has been producing genre-defying books that blend literary fiction and social commentary, and offer unvarnished perspectives on the world. One of America’s most popular mystery writers—known for his acclaimed Easy Rawlins series, about a Black hard-boiled private eye and WWII vet—Mosley also writes thrillers, science fiction and fantasy novels, coming-of-age tales, and westerns. “I’m very interested in genre,” the author says over Zoom from his home in Santa Monica, Calif. “I just keep coming at them one after another. There are many different ways to tell stories.”

Ghalen, Mosley’s latest, is a coming-of-age story with a romantic twist—and the author’s first foray into the romance genre. It concerns Ghalen, a brilliant young Black man living in Los Angeles, who must navigate family drama, heartbreak, and betrayal as he struggles to become his own person in an unforgiving and violent landscape. “I wanted to write a book about Black love, and about Black people being in love,” Mosley says. “My job is to create characters who are real and believable. And, you know, they don’t have to be real, but they do have to be believable.”

Mosley has written more than 60 books, including Devil in a Blue Dress, his 1990 debut and the first installment in the Easy Rawlins series; the writing guide This Year You Write Your Novel; and the thriller The Man in My Basement, which was made into a Hulu film. He’s also the creator and executive producer of the Apple TV+ series The Last Days of Ptolemy Grey, based on his 2010 novel, and a writer and producer on FX’s Snowfall. He has received the Mystery Writers of America’s Grand Master Award, PEN America’s Lifetime Achievement Award, and the National Book Foundation Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters. His books have sold more than 3.5 million copies, according to his agency, Watkins/Loomis, and have been translated into 25 languages.

Mosley favors stories that showcase strong Black male heroes, which he says he doesn’t always see in books and film. “With Black people, they’re a preacher, pimp, prisoner, or sidekick,” he says. “These are things that they can be because that’s what’s represented. I know Black men in so many different ways. They’re my heroes, my friends, my teachers.”

Ghalen, which will be published in May by Amistad, spotlights an array of heroes—some quiet, others unexpected. And while it’s not a swoony romance in the traditional sense, the book offers an examination of love in its various forms—from self-love to familial and romantic love—while also exploring racism, violence, and personal freedom. The novel opens in 1999, when Ghalen’s parents-to-be meet at a farmers market and fall in love. His father, Robert, is a cook who’s neurodivergent, and his mother, Jamilah, is an aspiring scientist. The pair get married, despite objections from Jamilah’s mother, and have Ghalen, who embodies their hopes for the future.

When Ghalen is in grade school, tragedy strikes the family, and he becomes his father’s de facto support system—a role that wears on Ghalen as he gets older. At 16, he heads off to college, but he grows disillusioned and burns to know the real world. When Ghalen falls for Lovely, his best friend’s girlfriend, his passion sets off a series of events that put his life in danger.

Abby West, editorial director at Amistad, is excited to publish Ghalen in the same year that the imprint—which is dedicated to amplifying Black voices—turns 40. “I fell in love with Ghalen immediately,” West says. “The characters are both familiar and unique, in that you don’t normally see them in our literature. I challenge anyone to get two chapters in and not be rooting for every single person in this book.”

An L.A. native, Mosley, 74, grew up in a time of counterculturalism and activism in the city. He was raised by a Jewish mother and a Black father, in a caring home where he was encouraged to succeed. “I’m an only child—I love everything I do,” he says.

Mosley graduated from Johnson State College in Vermont in 1977 with a degree in political science and worked as a computer programmer in the ’70s and ’80s. “I had to make money, and it was either become a nurse or a programmer,” he recalls. “I hate the sight of blood. Honestly, that’s what it came down to.”

Mosley put his computer programming career on hold in the late ’80s to pursue fiction and earned an MA in creative writing from the City College of New York in 1991. While there, he wrote Devil in the Blue Dress, a trailblazing novel about racial tension and corruption in L.A. in 1948 that sparked conversations about the representation of Black characters in crime fiction. “Before anybody reads a book, it doesn’t even exist,” Mosley says. “After you read it, you’re having a collaboration with other people.”

Mosley is also the founder of the Publishing Certificate Program at City College, which helps students from underrepresented communities find jobs in publishing. He wants readers to see themselves in modern fiction, particularly those who’ve historically been marginalized. “If you come from a culture that’s excluded from the mainstream, then all the things you know, feel, and see aren’t there,” he says. “It’s like you, your experiences, your history, doesn’t exist.”

Ruth Dickey, executive director of the National Book Foundation, describes Mosley as “an extraordinary literary citizen” whose contribution to literature reaches far beyond his books. “Walter is a steward of literary institutions—a supporter of other writers, and of publishing in the broadest possible sense,” she says.

Mosley, who divides his time between Santa Monica and New York City, devotes three hours a day to writing, a practice he established in the ’80s. Gloria Loomis, his agent, has been with him from the start of his career, and says his passion and work ethic are unmatched. “Walter’s energy is endless,” Loomis notes. “He’s helped move the needle in the culture. He has this font of characters and creativity within himself that he can call forth. A lot of writers wish they had that, but Walter does it every morning.”

When he’s not writing books, Mosley is working on scripts or drawing and painting. On a shelf in his office, next to a photo of his father, are tubes of paint. He likes to draw abstract, human-like figures that appear to be dancing—and will typically draw a dozen of them, all crowded together on a single page of his sketchbook. Each of the dancing figures appears to be moving to the beat of their own drummer, much like the author has done throughout his career.

Mosley keeps his sketchbooks on his desk, next to his computer, where he sits each day and writes mysteries, sci-fi epics, romantic tales—or whatever else moves him. “Writing is magic,” he says. “My books, I love them all.”

Elaine Szewczyk’s writing has appeared in McSweeney’s and other publications. She’s the author of the novel I’m with Stupid.