Georgetown alumnus Rasheed Newson takes his Hollywood noir on a November festival tour

By Helena Thorncroft

WASHINGTON — Rasheed Newson, the Georgetown business graduate who became a Hollywood showrunner and then a bestselling novelist, is heading into a November run of literary festivals with his second novel, a noir about a closeted Black movie star in 1950s Los Angeles.

Newson is scheduled to appear at WeHo Reads in West Hollywood on Nov. 4, at Palm Springs’ Pride on the Page festival on Nov. 14 and at the Miami Book Fair on Nov. 22, where he shares a session with Marlon James, according to the events page on his website.

The book, “There’s Only One Sin in Hollywood,” was released by Flatiron Books on June 2 and has since become a national bestseller, according to Newson’s website and Georgetown Magazine’s fall 2026 profile. It follows Xavier C. Barlow, a young Black star groomed by a fictional studio as a rival to Sidney Poitier, and the backlot fixer who sets out to expose who was responsible for his death.

From The Hoya to Bel-Air

Newson (B’01) told Georgetown Magazine that his writing education began as a movie reviewer for The Hoya, the student newspaper. “The Hoya was my first experience working with an editor,” he said. “It was the start of my writing education.”

After graduation he worked in Washington writing for the Coalition for Juvenile Justice before moving to Los Angeles, where, he told the magazine, “there were six years where it wasn’t clear where my career was going” before he was hired as a staff writer. He went on to work as a writer, producer and showrunner on series including Bel-Air, which he co-developed, The Chi, Narcos, The 100 and Shooter.

His debut novel, “My Government Means to Kill Me,” was a Lambda Literary finalist for gay fiction and was named one of The New York Times’ 100 Notable Books of 2022, according to his website.

‘Find and tell their stories’

Newson told Georgetown Magazine that he writes historical fiction to fill gaps in the record. “Nonfiction requires letters, diaries, and first-person accounts. Of course, you’re not going to find an abundance of material for people whose sexuality was made illegal,” he said. “There have always been Black queer people around. I’ve just made it my duty to find and tell their stories.”

The Los Angeles Times called the new novel “historically significant,” in a review excerpted on his website. The book’s audiobook won a Kirkus Earphones Award, and the novel was a finalist for the California Independent Booksellers Alliance’s Martin Cruz Smith Award, the site says.

The Inquisitor is seeking comment from Newson through his publisher, Flatiron Books. This story will be updated with any response.

Photo: Rasheed Newson at the Library Foundation of Los Angeles’ Young Literati event, June 2023 (cropped). Rash NS, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.