It’s Lit
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On Juneteenth: Pulitzer Prize-Winning Historian Annette Gordon-Reed Explores the Origin of an American Holiday
Gordon-Reed's book of essays put a personal lens on the day commemorating the emancipation of Texas' enslaved population on June 19, 1865.
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'I Grew a Sense of Wonder': The Root Presents: It's Lit! Mines the Miracle of A Little Devil in America With Hanif Abdurraqib
The author's latest book celebrates the rich and nuanced history of Black performance in America.
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PageTurners: Loving, Losing and Learning in Literature
This week's releases center around a common theme: growth. But where that growth is found comes from within the author's delivery and the reader's perspective
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Like a Boss, Tiffany Haddish Is Reportedly Fielding Multimillion-Dollar Offers for Her Next Memoir
Another bestselling memoir from The Last Black Unicorn? She ready! Better yet, she’s ready to get paid for her next tell-all; well before its completion, the follow-up to her 2017 release is reportedly already fetching offers between $2 and $3 million. That’s right, she’s nobody’s fool. From Page Six: Insiders tell us that Haddish, 41,…
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'I Want to Make Readers Think Twice': The Root Presents It's Lit! Does a Double Take With Zakiya Dalila Harris and The Other Black Girl
In the minefield of microaggressions, marginalization and outright racism that can plague the modern office environment, it’s often a relief to see another Black face amid a predominantly white world of cubicles. But as editor-turned-author Zakiya Dalila Harris deftly reminds us in her much-buzzed-about debut, The Other Black Girl: A Novel, all skinfolk ain’t kinfolk.…
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PageTurners: Let's Go!! A Plethora of Summer Reads to Add to Your #TBR
Dear every single Black author who dropped a book today, As an avid reader, I gracefully thank you for giving me material to make up the longest summer to be read (TBR) list in the history of summer TBRs. The wide variety of books that started off the month is not only compelling but absolutely…
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'It’s a Cautionary Tale of What Happens if You Don’t Get Free': The Root Presents: It’s Lit! Talks The Secret Lives of Church Ladies With Deesha Philyaw
Amid a year with very few things to celebrate, one of its most celebrated books was Deesha Philyaw’s The Secret Lives of Church Ladies. To date, the short story collection has been a 2020 National Book Award finalist, won the 2020 Story Prize, a 2020 L.A. Times Book Prize for first fiction, and the 2021…
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Roxane Gay Is Launching Her Own Imprint at Grove Atlantic
If you’ve been hungry for more work from Roxane Gay, you are soon to be sated. Via a press release provided to The Root, publisher Grove Atlantic has entered into a partnership with the bestselling author of Hunger, Bad Feminist, Difficult Women and other incredible works (as well as meriting her own MasterClass) to form…
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VSB Co-Founder Damon Young Wins the Thurber Prize for American Humor
Once you’ve been a part of The Root family, we will forever claim you (because Black excellence deserves Black pride). So, despite his recent departure from the daily grind of our beloved news and opinion site, we are collectively overjoyed that one of our closest homies, Very Smart Brothas co-founder Damon Young was awarded the…
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'We Need to Be Listening to Black Girls': The Root Presents: It’s Lit! Talks Black Girl Boundaries and Raising a Shady Baby With Gabrielle Union and Dwyane Wade
Of the handful of celebrity families who continue to capture our imagination —including the Carters, the Wilsons, and the Williams-Ohanians—as well as our attention each time they post pictures of their adorable broods on social media, perhaps the most refreshing is the blended and beautiful Union-Wade clan. Whether having open chats with their kids about…