It’s Lit
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Black Authors Will Be the Standouts at This Year’s (Virtual) National Book Festival
In 2001, when the Library of Congress’ inaugural National Book Festival kicked off in Washington, D.C., some 50 award-winning authors, illustrators and storytellers peopled the pop-up tents on the East Lawn of the U.S. Capitol to read excerpts of their work, sign their books and interact with fans. That was September 9. Two days later,…
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Sunny Hostin Says ABC Censored Her New Memoir, Which Details Discrimination Allegations
Did ABC execs insist on removing segments of The View co-host Sunny Hostin’s new memoir, I Am These Truths? As Hostin told Ronan Farrow in a candid conversation about her new book, which debuted today, September 22, yes, they did. The memoir, named in reference to the Constitution, apparently shares revealing insights about Hostin’s Afro-Latinx…
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Cole Brown's Greyboy Illuminates the Intersection of Being Young, Wealthy and Black
Cole Brown has lived his entire 24 years of life at the intersection of privilege and Blackness. The son of a Fortune 100 exec and the grandson of the first female senator in Ethiopia, he was born into the Jack and Jill, exclusive private school, summering in Martha’s Vineyard African American elite. That might be…
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Artist Denys Cowan Talks Static Shock and the Return of Milestone Media
Denys Cowan is a true legend of the comic book game. He was one of the original founders of Milestone Media, the legendary ‘90s comic imprint that birthed heroes like Hardware, Icon and Static, and it was announced earlier this year that Cowan, along with writer and 72nd Annual Emmy Awards director Reginald Hudlin would…
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A Promised Land: The First of Barack Obama's Two-Volume Presidential Memoirs to Be Published in November
If you’ve never stopped longing for the simpler, kinder, more rational time and place that was Barack Obama’s presidency, you are far from alone—and can soon take a deeper dive into the beloved president’s remarkable rise from civic-minded civilian to the highest office in the land. On Thursday, Penguin Random House announced that Obama’s highly…
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Turning a New Page, the Schomburg Literary Festival Is Going Virtual—and Global—for 2020
OK, so let’s articulate the obvious: There will be no tents or stages at the Schomburg Literary Festival this year. There will be no road-tripping or traveling to New York City’s beloved Harlem or electric anticipation in the line for in-person author signings. There will be no flipping through the fresh, crisp pages of a…
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Christian Cooper Releases It's a Bird Comic Book Inspired by Viral 'Central Park Karen' Incident
Y’all remember Christian Cooper, the Central Park bird watcher who gave us the Watergate of viral Karen stories? (Karengate? Beckygate? Hey-Blacky-get-the-hell-away-from-my-gate? I’m sure we’ll settle on a name eventually.) Well, he’s back with a new comic book partially inspired by his encounter with Amy “Central Park Karen” Cooper, the woman who lost her job, dog…
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Netflix Announces Family Book Series Hosted by Marley Dias; Cast Includes Lupita Nyong'o, Marsai Martin, Tiffany Haddish and Common
Turn the page and get into this news! Netflix has announced it will debut Bookmarks: Celebrating Black Voices, a new young children and family series hosted by author and activist Marley Dias! The 2019 Young Futurist honoree and founder of 1000 Black Girl Books will also executive produce the 12-episode series, which will feature “prominent…
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Oprah's Latest Book Club Pick Is Isabel Wilkerson's Caste: 'A New Way of Seeing Racial Inequality'
“This might be the most important book I’ve ever chosen for my book club,” said Oprah Winfrey of Isabel Wilkerson’s Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents. The latest from the Pulitzer Prize-winning historian and author of The Warmth of Other Suns was released on Tuesday on Apple Books, among other booksellers. The highly anticipated release…
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Here's Some Books I Love So Much That I Hate the Authors of Them
Book: Heavy Author: Kiese Laymon. Why I hated that nigga for like three hours: Wrote about that already. Don’t want to re-write it and start hating that nigga again. Book: I’m Telling the Truth, But I’m Lying Author: Bassey Ikpi Why I was like “Man, fuck Bassey” for a day: I thought I was all…