black books matter
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#BlackStoriesHavePower: Barnes & Noble Suspends Plans to Publish Diverse Editions After Backlash
On this week’s episode of “Books in Blackface,” the book retailer Barnes & Noble decided to “suspend” its controversial Diverse Editions series that was supposed to launch Wednesday in Honor of Black History Month. The series, spearheaded by the chain’s flagship store on Fifth Avenue in Manhattan, was a planned rerelease of beloved classics with…
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An Immigrant’s Story: Acclaimed Author Edwidge Danticat Wins $100,000 Prize for Her ‘Genre-Spanning Work’
Haitian-American author Edwidge Danticat (Breath, Eyes, Memory; The Farming of Bones; Brother, I’m Dying, etc.) has long been considered one of the most gifted voices in the diaspora, garnering a National Book Critics Circle Award, an American Book Award, and a MacArthur Genius grant, among her many honors. This week, the writer and activist can…
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VSB's Damon Young Wins Barnes & Noble's Discover Great New Writers Award for What Doesn't Kill You Makes You Blacker
What’s more exciting than any work of fiction? The news that one of our favorite essayists, colleagues and play cousins is being recognized for his brilliance! As reported by Publishers Weekly (and our work Slack), Damon Young’s debut book of essays, What Doesn’t Kill You Makes You Blacker, was recently named the nonfiction winner of…
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Issa Rae Options Tayari Jones’ Novel Silver Sparrow, Which Follows the Daughters of a Bigamist
Imagine having one book in the hottest book club known to man and named-checked by the Obamas—and then, having another book being optioned for adaptation. Well, Tayari Jones doesn’t have to imagine it—she’s living it! Best known for the 2018 bestseller An American Marriage, Jones’ 2011 novel, Silver Sparrow has been optioned by Issa Rae,…
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A Word: How We Fight White Supremacy Reminds Us That ‘We’ Have the Power
What does it mean to fight white supremacy today? After centuries of trying, those of us actively committed to doing so know that grand gestures are well outnumbered by daily acts expressed in myriad ways with varying levels of visibility. This is the message of How We Fight White Supremacy, a new African American anthology…
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28 Days of Literary Blackness with VSB, Day 28: What Doesn't Kill You Makes You Blacker by Damon Young
Publisher Synopsis: From the cofounder of VerySmartBrothas.com, and one of the most read writers on race and culture at work today, a provocative and humorous memoir-in-essays that explores the ever-shifting definitions of what it means to be Black (and male) in America. For Damon Young, existing while Black is an extreme sport. The act of…
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28 Days of Literary Blackness with VSB | Day 27: Q: The Autobiography of Quincy Jones by Quincy Jones
Publisher Synopsis (via B&N): Musician, composer, producer, arranger and pioneering entrepreneur Quincy Jones has lived large and worked for five decades alongside the superstars of music and entertainment—including Frank Sinatra, Michael Jackson, Steven Spielberg, Oprah Winfrey, Ray Charles, Will Smith and dozens of others. Q is his glittering and moving life story, told with the…
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28 Days of Literary Blackness With VSB | Day 26: Heads of the Colored People by Nafissa Thompson-Spires
Publisher Synopsis: Each captivating story plunges headfirst into the lives of new, utterly original characters. Some are darkly humorous—from two mothers exchanging snide remarks through notes in their kids’ backpacks, to the young girl contemplating how best to notify her Facebook friends of her impending suicide—while others are devastatingly poignant—a new mother and funeral singer…
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28 Days of Literary Blackness with VSB | Day 25: The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas
Publisher Synopsis: Sixteen-year-old Starr Carter moves between two worlds: the poor neighborhood where she lives and the fancy suburban prep school she attends. The uneasy balance between these worlds is shattered when Starr witnesses the fatal shooting of her childhood best friend Khalil at the hands of a police officer. Khalil was unarmed. Soon afterward,…
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28 Days of Literary Blackness with VSB | Day 24: I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou
Publisher Synopsis: Here is a book as joyous and painful, as mysterious and memorable, as childhood itself. I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings captures the longing of lonely children, the brute insult of bigotry, and the wonder of words that can make the world right. Maya Angelou’s debut memoir is a modern American classic…