Celebrate Black Writers With Bookshop
In honor of Black History Month, please join us in celebrating Black writers. Throughout February, our affiliate partner Bookshop is offering 20 percent off select titles!
Use the code BlackHistory for the discount. Below are some of the literary works (for adults) that caught our eye.
Celebrate Black Writers
Shine Bright: A Very Personal History of Black Women in Pop, Danyel Smith (Author)
A weave of biography, criticism, and memoir, Shine Bright is Danyel Smith’s intimate history of Black women’s music as the foundational story of American pop. Smith has been writing this history for more than five years. But as a music fan, and then as an essayist, editor (Vibe, Billboard), and podcast host (Black Girl Songbook), she has been living this history since she was a latchkey kid listening to “Midnight Train to Georgia” on the family stereo.
Black Women Writers at Work, Claudia Tate (Editor)
Through candid interviews with Maya Angelou, Toni Cade Bambara, Gwendolyn Brooks, Alexis De Veaux, Nikki Giovanni, Kristin Hunter, Gayl Jones, Audre Lorde, Toni Morrison, Sonia Sanchez, Ntozake Shange, Alice Walker, Margaret Walker, and Sherley Anne Williams, the book highlights the practices and critical linkages between the work and lived experiences of Black women writers whose work laid the foundation for many who have come after.
Rest Is Resistance: A Manifesto, Tricia Hersey (Author)
Tricia Hersey, aka the Nap Bishop, casts an illuminating light on our troubled relationship with rest and how to imagine and dream our way to a future where rest is exalted. Our worth does not reside in how much we produce, especially not for a system that exploits and dehumanizes us. Rest, in its simplest form, becomes an act of resistance and a reclaiming of power because it asserts our most basic humanity. We are enough. The systems cannot have us.
How Far You Have Come: Musings on Beauty and Courage, Morgan Harper Nichols (Author)
An exquisitely illustrated collection of poetry and essays from bestselling artist and writer Morgan Harper Nichols. In the midst of the hurt and the mundane, the questions and the not yets, you can forget just how far you have come. Morgan weaves together personal reflections with her signature poems, encouraging you to reclaim moments of brokenness, division, and pain and re-envision them as experiences of reconciliation, unity, and hope.
All about Love: New Visions, Bell Hooks (Author)
A New York Times bestseller and enduring classic, All About Love is the acclaimed first volume in feminist icon bell hooks’ “Love Song to the Nation” trilogy. All About Love reveals what causes a polarized society, and how to heal the divisions that cause suffering. Here is the truth about love, and inspiration to help us instill caring, compassion, and strength in our homes, schools, and workplaces.
Black Love Matters: Real Talk on Romance, Being Seen, and Happily Ever Afters, Jessica P. Pryde (Author)
An incisive, intersectional essay anthology that celebrates and examines romance and romantic media through the lens of Black readers, writers, and cultural commentators, edited by Book Riot columnist and librarian Jessica Pryde.
Wake: The Hidden History of Women-Led Slave Revolts, Rebecca Hall (Author) Hugo Martínez (Illustrator)
Part graphic novel, part memoir, Wake is an imaginative tour de force that tells the “powerful” (The New York Times Book Review) story of women-led slave revolts and chronicles scholar Rebecca Hall’s efforts to uncover the truth about these women warriors who, until now, have been left out of the historical record.
New Growth: The Art and Texture of Black Hair, Jasmine Nichole Cobb (Author)
From Frederick Douglass to Angela Davis, “natural hair” has been associated with the Black freedom struggle. In New Growth Jasmine Nichole Cobb traces the history of Afro-textured coiffure, exploring it as a visual material through which to reimagine the sensual experience of Blackness.
Blk Art: The Audacious Legacy of Black Artists and Models in Western Art, Zaria Ware (Author)
Captivating and informative, BLK ART is an essential work that elevates a globally dismissed legacy to its proper place in the mainstream art canon. From the hushed corridors of royal palaces to the bustling streets of 1920s Paris–this is Black history like never seen before.
Still Rising: Famous Black Quotations for the Twenty-First Century, Janet Cheatham Bell (Author)
Famous Black Quotations, first published in 1986, has long been the go-to resource for the eloquent words of Black history makers. In this new, expanded edition, editor Janet Cheatham Bell includes the words of people who have come to prominence in recent decades.
By Her Own Design: A Novel of Ann Lowe, Fashion Designer to the Social Register, Piper Huguley (Author)
The incredible untold story of how Ann Lowe, a Black woman and granddaughter of slaves, rose above personal struggles and racial prejudice to design and create one of America’s most famous wedding dresses of all time for Jackie Kennedy.
Finding Me: A Memoir, Viola Davis (Author)
In my book, you will meet a little girl named Viola who ran from her past until she made a life-changing decision to stop running forever. This is my story, from a crumbling apartment in Central Falls, Rhode Island, to the stage in New York City, and beyond. This is the path I took to finding my purpose but also my voice in a world that didn’t always see me.
This sale ends Tuesday, February 28th at 11:59 p.m. PST. This post contains affiliate links via Bookshop, whose mission is to financially support local, independent bookstores.
