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Give Someone a Good Read With 1 of These 26 Best Books by Black Authors
Looking for a great book? Looking for a great gift? Here are 26 of the best books by black authors published in 2016. They are realistic stories, science fiction and fantasy stories, mystery thrillers, investigative journalism and histories. Ranging from fiction to poetry, short stories to essay collections, there is something here for every taste.…
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In ‘They Can’t Kill Us All,’ Journalist Wesley Lowery Captures the Birth of a Movement
“There are few things as exhilarating as parachuting into an unknown place with a bag full of pens and notebooks in pursuit of ‘the story,’” Washington Post journalist Wesley Lowery writes in the opening of his book ‘They Can’t Kill Us All’: Ferguson, Baltimore, and A New Era In America’s Racial Justice Movement. Lowery—who had…
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In Colson Whitehead’s Imaginative The Underground Railroad, the Train to Freedom Is Real
Previously nominated for the Pulitzer Prize and the recipient of a Guggenheim fellowship and a MacArthur “genius” grant, Colson Whitehead has now been nominated for a National Book Award for his latest novel, The Underground Railroad, itself already selected as an Oprah’s Book Club pick for 2016. Whitehead is also the author of John Henry…
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The Story of 10 Young People Killed in a Day by Guns Should Make You Rethink American Gun Culture
In America, “Every day, on average, seven children and teens are killed by guns; in 2013 it was 6.75 to be precise,” writes Afro-British journalist Gary Younge in the introduction to his upcoming fifth book, Another Day in the Death of America: A Chronicle of Ten Short Lives. “Gun violence is the leading cause of…
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Luvvie Ajayi Is Only Judging You Because She Wants You to Do Better
“Clearly, we need a playbook, a guide to help people get a bit of common sense and some behavior as they navigate today’s hyper-obsession with pop culture, social-media sharing and outright navel gazing,” writes Luvvie Ajayi in the introduction to her new book, a collection of essays titled I’m Judging You: The Do-Better Manual. Ajayi…
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Black Lotus Is a Woman’s Search for Racial Identity in a Racist World
“‘Passing’ describes the choice to identify as a member of another racial group rather than face social prejudice,” writes Sil Lai Abrams in her memoir, Black Lotus: A Woman’s Search for Racial Identity. “Today the term is used almost exclusively to describe black people who consciously adopt a white identity.” But for Abrams, born to…
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A Black Man’s Coming of Age in the Age of Obama
In the title of his first book, Invisible Man, Got the Whole World Watching: A Young Black Man’s Education, The Nation contributing writer Mychal Denzel Smith calls to mind three works: Ralph Ellison’s classic Invisible Man, Mos Def’s “Hip-Hop” and Lauryn Hill’s seminal album The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill. With the eloquence and beauty of…
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Insurrections: Rion Amilcar Scott’s Debut Short Story Collection Hits All the Right Notes
First-time writers are often pushed into writing novels, rather than short story collections, in the belief that novels sell better. But the craft of the short story is an art form unto itself: the ability to create a whole world, rich in plot, characters and a satisfying conclusion, in a confined space. It is not…
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The Fire This Time: Anthology Features a New Generation of Authors Speaking Out on Race
In 2011 Jesmyn Ward won the National Book Award for her novel Salvage the Bones, an exploration of one black family’s experience during the 12 days leading up to, and after, Hurricane Katrina. Ward is also the author of the novel Where the Line Bleeds and the memoir Men We Reaped, a deeply felt accounting…
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Young-Adult Author Jacqueline Woodson on Writing Stories That Appeal to All Ages
Jaqueline Woodson is the author of Brown Girl Dreaming, which won both the 2014 National Book Award and an NAACP Image Award. She is also a two-time winner of the Coretta Scott King Book Award, a four-time winner of the Newberry Honor Award and the recipient of the American Library Association’s Margaret A. Edwards Award. In…
Black News and Black Views with a Whole Lotta Attitude
