black authors
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'We're Not Some New Anomaly': The Root Presents It's Lit Talks Purpose, Process and Pronouns With George M. Johnson
When The Root first spoke to George M. Johnson (one of our longtime contributors) just ahead of the release of their debut book, All Boy Aren’t Blue: A Memoir Manifesto, we had a feeling they were on the cusp of something groundbreaking. Borne from their own reflections on growing up without the language and representation…
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The 'Costumes' We Wear
It’s the time of year where I try to decipher whether I’d prefer to channel my inner pumpkin or Catwoman. It’s always one of the two. I’ve never tried to dress up as anything else for Halloween. Though I’m in complete awe of people who get really creative and can make costumes, I’ve never been…
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How Two Black Women Sidestepped Corporate America to Build a Fierce, All-Star Literary Agency
On the social media surface, the country is engaged in a big embrace of Blackness. Companies vowing to hire and advance more Black staff. Philanthropists pledging hefty donations to Black organizations. Editors making space for Black stories in mainstream, notoriously vanilla publications. After years under indictment for its willful whiteness and undermotivated diversification, the publishing…
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'We Could All Serve to Be Less Patient Black People': The Root Presents: It's Lit! Talks About Race With Ijeoma Oluo
Triumph amid tragedy is always bittersweet—a unique type of survivor’s guilt many of us have become all too familiar with in recent months, as we reconcile profound loss with the rare but very bright spots that have occurred during this incredibly devastating year. It’s a dichotomy bestselling author and 2017 and 2018 The Root 100…
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Here’s an Exclusive Excerpt of Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s Newest Fiction (You’re Welcome!)
For Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie fans, it’s been a long seven years since Americanah, her last novel, and winner of the 2013 National Book Critics Circle Award for fiction. She’s been active on Instagram and it’s always a joy to revisit her catalog of beautiful writing—Purple Hibiscus, Half of a Yellow Sun, The Thing Around Your…
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'We Can't Do This Thing by Ourselves': The Root Presents: It's Lit! Talks Justice With Claudia Rankine
There is the multiverse, and then, there are the multi-versed; award-winning poet, playwright, author, editor, and artist Claudia Rankine, is undoubtedly one of the latter. With seven books, several plays, and fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation, the Lannan Foundation, the MacArthur Foundation, United States Artists, and the National Endowment of the Arts, Rankine, the Frederick…
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Your Library Needs These 5 Books by and About Powerful Black Women
There are books that make you feel great admiration for a woman’s work, books that spark the impetus to tackle an issue, and books that do both. This is a list of those books, written by women who have used their careers, voices and lives to elevate the greater good of all of us. Reclaiming…
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'Our Ancestors Cannot Be Flattened': The Root Presents: It's Lit! Wanders in Strange Lands With Morgan Jerkins
Her first book may have been her “undoing,” but journalist and author Morgan Jerkins’ second offering, Wandering in Strange Lands (HarperCollins), is a homecoming. Taking a detour from the “hot-takes” upon which she built her career and the provocative personal essays that comprised her bestselling debut, This Will Be My Undoing, Jerkins retraced the steps…