In urban fiction, an industry where seemingly the more profanity, violence and error filled your book is, the more the public excepts you as authentic in your writing abilities or unworthy of shelf space; where seemingly having a “locked up” testimony is a pre-requisite to grab the attention of reporters, Haitian born author/publisher Richard Jeanty hopes that his college degrees, the absence of a criminal record, his multi-genre catalog, his ability to own and operate a successful small press with more than 300,000 titles in print will be enough to get the attention and respect of his community, colleagues and expand his readership beyond the expected demographic.

Jeanty has penned and published more than a dozen literary works of his own spanning the genres of erotica, non-fiction, urban and contemporary fiction. He is determined, via his work, to improve urban America’s minds, souls, spirits and condition, to assist in ameliorating the circumstances that too often befall them.

Founder and President of his own RJ Publications, Jeanty turns words into vivid images, painting well-formed characters that compel the reader to become involved in their sagas. A well traveled renaissance man, Jeanty takes readers of his books around the world with settings in Boston, Haiti, Jamaica, New York, Bahamas, Barbados and other places that he has personally traveled.

The prolific New York City-based contemporary wordsmith and visionary founded his publishing company after a vanity press held back his royalties from an earlier title, thereafter he worked diligently to both publish his own works and to provide an invaluable conduit for talented writers of color to have their works published. His stories predominantly include well educated men of color living and learning about love, money, family and the woes of life. All of his stories have messages that shed light on such topics as safe sex, understanding your ancestry, faithfulness, police brutality and more.

RJ Publications does publish urban fiction novels, but to Jeanty it is important for readers to know that he would not title himself as an urban fiction author. His most recent title HoodFellas II which is urban fiction is just the second book in that genre that he has written. The first installment of this sequel, HoodFellas was published in 2009. In Neglected Souls the sequel to Igorant Souls, the two main characters in that book basically raised themselves from the age of fourteen, and that's exactly what Jeanty did.

He left home at fourteen years old and was not expected to finish high school much less graduate from college. He was able to accomplish that all on his own. Jeanty says, “The world was my canvas for experience, I drew what I could positively and "Neglected Souls" was born. The rest of the story came from my days of working as a social worker, teacher, and program director.” Anyone who reads the story can figure out where the title came from.

The neglected souls in the story are not just the characters. They are the community, the people, the environment, the lack of resources and everything that have been neglected in the urban neighborhoods by mainstream society.

An astute business man Jeanty has taken self-publishing to an impressive level garnering national distribution with Borders, Barnes & Nobles, Books-a-Million and major chains across the country.

He provides encouragement and support to his fellow writers, assisting them with stretching their creative souls and making their own indelible mark on the literary landscape. Says Jeanty, “I want to give each author or artist the exposure they deserve.”

Social activist as much as he is a literary crusader, Jeanty’s mission is to foster change in people and society as a whole. That is always his motivation in all his undertakings. Jeanty’s most meaningful project tackled police brutality and the devastating state of Black men in his release of The Most Dangerous Gang in America: The NYPD (non-fiction).

While attending the University of Massachusetts, Richa