Cree Myles returned to her hometown of Milwaukee at 20 years old from the University of Kentucky to raise her newborn.
“I instantly saw social media as a way to give me access to the world despite the fact that I was in a smaller city,” she says.
In 2018, she combined social media savvy with a knack for literary curation by reviewing books on YouTube and Instagram. Four years later, after Myles had built a following, Penguin Random House asked her to curate its new Instagram platform, which she branded All Ways Black.
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The platform celebrates and promotes the work of Black authors, both contemporary and historical, with interviews, book recommendations, funny skits and more.
“We’re working to be the authority, the go-to space, for Black literature,” Myles says.
Last year, she also hosted “The Baldwin 100,” a Penguin Random House podcast about renowned author James Baldwin. And in August, she started a literary column, Cree’s Corner.
Despite Penguin’s New York headquarters, Myles plans to stay in Milwaukee for the foreseeable future. Her latest effort is an attempt to relaunch and host “Critique,” a television program the Milwaukee Public Library ran in the 1960s and ’70s, which featured interviews with seminal authors, including Myles’ own literary hero, Toni Morrison.
“I don’t think Milwaukee is thought about enough [in the literary world],” Myles says. “We’re a hidden gem. I die on that hill.”
