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Literary Nonfiction. Poetry. African & African American Studies. LGBTQIA Studies. Women's Studies. 2019 Over the Rainbow Booklist Selection for Nonfiction. Poets Audre Lorde and Pat Parker first met in 1969; they began exchanging letters regularly five years later. Over the next fifteen years, Lorde and Parker shared ideas, advice, and confidences through the mail. They sent each other handwritten and typewritten letters and postcards often with inserted items including articles, money, and video tapes. SISTER LOVE: THE LETTERS OF AUDRE LORDE AND PAT PARKER 1974-1989 gathers this correspondence for readers to eavesdrop on Lorde and Parker. They discuss their work as writers as well as intimate details of their lives, including periods when each lived with cancer. SISTER LOVE is a rare opportunity to glimpse inside the minds and friendship of two great twentieth century poets.

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Here is New York Times bestselling author Eric Jerome Dickey's debut novel, a celebration of Black sisterhood hailed by Essence as one of the “50 Most Impactful Black Books Of The Last 50 Years”.

Valerie, Inda, and Chiquita are three women looking for love in Los Angeles.

Valerie became the perfect wife to please her husband, Walter, whose football career has gone nowhere—along with their marriage. Then she meets Daniel. Valerie's divorced sister, Inda, has Raymond, who has a hot body, smooth moves—and another girlfriend on the side. Now Inda's scheming to get even. After telling her last boyfriend to hit the road, Chiquita takes up with Thaddeus, Inda and Valerie's irresistible brother. Has Chiquita finally found a good man?

Sexy and in-your-face, Sister, Sister depicts a modern world where woman may have to alter their dreams, yet never stop embracing tomorrow.

“Brims with humor, outrageousness, and affection.”—Publishers Weekly

Strengthen the relationships that mean the most, heal with your sisters, and transform your life for the better with the licensed clinical psychologist who founded the award-winning podcast Therapy for Black Girls.

Sisterhood is that sacred space where all the masks that are worn for the world fall off. It’s the place where you lay down your load, refill your cup, and laugh until your belly aches. Our sister circles literally prolong our lives. However, building and keeping healthy friendships take work. How must these friendships evolve as we age? What practices can we put in place? Can they be the key to unlocking a more fulfilled existence? The answer is yes.

Dr. Joy Harden Bradford has been doing the work to help Black women heal together for more than twenty years. In a sisterhood community with more than half a million members, she’s the go-to therapist for Black women looking to prioritize their mental health and become the best possible versions of themselves. Now she’s sharing all she’s learned using the tenets of psychology and group therapy to help us foster relationships that are not only positive, but transformative.

In Sisterhood Heals you will

• discover the ways in which your present-day relationships with Black women have been influenced by your past
• identify the recurring role you play in your friend group and how it influences your relationships
• learn new strategies to grow and sustain healthy, nurturing friendships as well as how to rebuild after a rupture

Dr. Joy brings the warmth, wisdom, empathy, and levity found in our girlfriends to these pages, and reminds us that during difficult times sisterhood is often a lifeline with the power to help us experience fuller, more satisfying lives.

Kaia Alderson’s debut historical fiction novel reveals the untold, true story of the Six Triple Eight, the only all-Black battalion of the Women’s Army Corps, who made the dangerous voyage to Europe to ensure American servicemen received word from their loved ones during World War II.

As these courageous women help to form the 6888th Central Postal Directory Battalion, they are dealing with more than just army bureaucracy—everyone is determined to see this experiment fail. For two northern women, learning to navigate their way through the segregated army may be tougher than boot camp. Grace and Eliza know that there is no room for error; they must be more perfect than everyone else.

In Sisters of the Yam, bell hooks reflects on the ways in which the emotional health of black women has been and continues to be impacted by sexism and racism. Desiring to create a context where black females could both work on their individual efforts for self actualization while remaining connected to a larger world of collective struggle, hooks articulates the link between self recovery and political resistance. Both an expression of the joy of self healing and the need to be ever vigilant in the struggle for equality, Sisters of the Yam continues to speak to the experience of black womanhood.

Two strong-willed sisters fight their way to forgiveness in this feel-good Southern fiction, for fans of Terry McMillan and KJ Dell'Antonia's The Chicken Sisters.

Rose Tillman and her sister Marvina Nash haven't spoken in decades―not since Rose sent Marvina $40 to register their business, and Marvina used that money for her own personal purposes. Now retired, Rose wants to open the restaurant they'd once dreamed of. But, to her horror, Rose realizes she's forgotten their mother's secret spice mix recipe, known to only one other person in the world. With no other option, Rose embarks on a two-hour drive to Marvina's house back in Fork City, TX. Marvina has her own version of what caused their falling out, and it's a far cry from what Rose recalls. Marvina, skeptical and still indignant, but incurably polite, figures she'll give Rose a chance to speak her piece, before closing the door in her face. 

As the sisters fight their way to forgiveness, they unpack their complicated past, form an unexpected alliance with a young mother-to-be, and reconnect through the tantalizing aroma of chicken dinners that hold the power to heal―or divide―a community.

In a tale rich with Southern charm, Rose and Marvina discover, through fussing, laughter, and tears, that the secret ingredient to a bright future might just be found in facing who they are today―and in forgiving the past to embrace a second chance at sisterhood.

"Full of heart, generosity, and charm, Sisters with a Side of Greens is the kind of story that invites everyone to be a part of something bigger." ―Lucy Gilmore, author of The Lonely Hearts Book Club

"Chef's kiss! A captivating tale of sisterhood, forgiveness and what it means to live fully in the present. Stimpson delivers raw, complex characters and a delicious storyline that will stay with the reader long after the last page." ―Kim Michele Richardson, New York Times bestselling author

From the acclaimed #1 New York Times bestselling author comes a soulful and lyrical novel exploring sisterhood, motherhood, faith, love, and ultimately what gets passed down from one generation to the next
 
At 40, Lena Baker is at a steady and stable moment in life—between wine nights with her two best friends and her wedding just weeks away, she’s happy in love and in friendship until a confession on her wedding day shifts her world.

Unmoored and grieving a major loss, Lena finds herself trying to teach her daughter self-love while struggling to do so herself. Lena questions everything she’s learned about dating, friendship, and motherhood, and through it all, she works tirelessly to bring the oft-forgotten Black history of Oregon to the masses, sidestepping her well-meaning co-workers that don’t understand that their good intentions are often offensive and hurtful.

Through Watson’s poetic voice, skin & bones is a stirring exploration of who society makes space for and is ultimately a story of heartbreak and healing.

In a world without white people, what does it mean to be Black?

One day, a cataclysmic event occurs: all of the white people in America walk into the nearest body of water. A year later, Charlie Brunton is a Black man living in an entirely new world. Having served time in prison for a wrongful conviction, he’s now a professor of electric and solar power systems at Howard University when he receives a call from someone he wasn’t even sure existed: his daughter Sidney, a nineteen-year-old left behind by her white mother and step-family.

Traumatized by the event, and terrified of the outside world, Sidney has spent a year in isolation in Wisconsin. Desperate for help, she turns to the father she never met, a man she has always resented. Sidney and Charlie meet for the first time as they embark on a journey across a truly “post-racial” America in search for answers. But neither of them are prepared for this new world and how they see themselves in it.

Heading south toward what is now called the Kingdom of Alabama, everything Charlie and Sidney thought they knew about themselves, and the world, will be turned upside down. Brimming with heart and humor, Cebo Campbell’s astonishing debut novel is about the power of community and connection, about healing and self-actualization, and a reckoning with what it means to be Black in America, in both their world and ours.

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Until now, you've only heard one side of the story: how slavery began, and how America split itself in two to end it. Here's the true story of America from the African American perspective.

From the moment Africans were first brought to the shores of the United States, they had a hand in shaping the country. Their labor created a strong economy, built our halls of government, and defined American society in profound ways. And though the Emancipation Proclamation wasn't signed until 300 years after the first Africans arrived, the fight for freedom started the moment they set foot on American soil. 
This book contains the true narrative of the first 300 years of Africans in America: the struggles, the heroes, and the untold stories that are left out of textbooks. If you want to learn the truth about African American history in this country, start here.

Cinderella is dead, but Snow White fights on . . .

New York Times bestselling author Kalynn Bayron makes her highly anticipated return to the realm of fairy tales with this thrilling twist on the classic story of Snow White.

Princess Eve was raised with one purpose: to destroy the Knight, an evil sorcerer who terrorizes Queens Bridge with his wicked magic. Her own unique magic--the ability to conjure weapons from nature--makes her a worthy adversary. Far too many of subjects of Queens Bridge have been devastated by the Knight's trickery.

As she approaches her seventeenth birthday, Eve is ready to battle. But her mother, Queen Regina, has been acting bizarrely, talking to a strange mirror alone every night. Then a young man claiming to be the Knight's messenger appears and shares a shocking truth about Eve's past. Unsure of who to trust or what to do next, Eve must find the courage to do what she's always done: fight. But will it be enough to save her family and her queendom?

A captivating family history that illustrates how small actions can have an outsized political impact.

Small acts of courage matter. Sometimes, they change the world. Our history books are filled with the stories of those who fought for democracy and freedom―for idealism itself―against all odds, from Mahatma Gandhi and Nelson Mandela to Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. These iconic struggles for social change illustrate the importance of engagement and activism, and offer a template for the battles we are fighting today. But using the right words is often easier than taking action; action can be hard, and costly.

More than a century ago, MSNBC host Ali Velshi’s great-grandfather sent his seven-year-old son to live at Tolstoy Farm, Gandhi’s ashram in South Africa. This difficult decision would change the trajectory of his family history forever. From childhood, Velshi’s grandfather was imbued with an ethos of public service and social justice, and a belief in absolute equality among all people―ideals that his children carried forward as they escaped apartheid, emigrating to Kenya and ultimately Canada and the United States.

In Small Acts of Courage, Velshi taps into 125 years of family history to advocate for social justice as a living, breathing experience―a way of life more than an ideology. With rich detail and vivid prose, he relates the stories of regular people who made a lasting commitment to fight for change, even when success seemed impossible. This heartfelt exploration of how we can breathe new life into the principles of pluralistic democracy is an urgent call to action―for progress to be possible, we must all do whatever we can to make a difference.

A twelve-week companion guide for exploring and deepening the therapeutic possibilities and healing potential of microdosing psychedelics.

For anyone ready to embark on their own microdosing journey, Small Doses of Awareness is a guided journal for deepening your reflections and integrating the knowledge gained through your microdosing experiences. Each of the twelve weeks has a different focus—from journeying inward, to questioning and deconstructing self-limiting beliefs, to aligning with your values and exploring your identity, to harnessing the power of mindfulness and creativity, and more.

With short personal essays from the authors introducing each week’s focus, thoughtful writing and reflection prompts, and a template for recording insights and observations, this alternative therapy journal will help you make the most of the small doses of awareness that psychedelic microdosing provides on the road to self-healing.

EXPERIENCED AUTHORS: Amy Wong Hope, MSW, LCSW, and award-winning artist and writer Shin Yu Pai are uniquely qualified to write about microdosing. Amy is a clinical social worker and psychedelic integration therapist in private practice who specializes in trauma and resilience, as well as the Certificate Program Director of Psychedelic Studies at Southwestern College in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Shin Yu has devoted more than twenty years to exploring the intersections of creativity and healing as an exhibiting artist and published author. Both have found the exploration of psychedelics essential on their healing journeys.

UNDERREPRESENTED PERSPECTIVES AND UNIQUE RESOURCES: As Asian-American women, the authors share powerful personal reflections and reader prompts that deal with exploring issues of identity through psychedelics. Additional resource material included in the book also puts a special focus on underrepresented sources and providers.

ON-TREND SUBJECT: There has been no shortage of interest in microdosing, with recent coverage about the trend in outlets such as NPR, VICE, The New York Times, and Outside. Like cannabis before it, the psychedelic psilocybin is on its way to legalization, with a growing number of everyday people exploring the therapeutic potential of these substances, which include LSD, MDMA, ayahuasca, and others, showing a trend that's on the rise.

ESSENTIAL MICRODOSING GUIDEBOOK: While several publications exist that contextualize the usage, biochemistry, legislation, and neuroscience of psychedelic usage and microdosing, no self-guided journal for exploring one’s personal intentions and experiences has been published by a major trade or independent publisher. This is the resource the authors wish they’d had when beginning their own microdosing journeys.

Perfect for:
* Anyone undergoing or curious about psychedelic therapy
* Meditation and mindfulness practitioners
* Anyone interested in alternative wellness practices
* Readers of The Microdosing Guidebook, How to Change Your Mind, A Really Good Day, Ritual Journal, Anxiety Is My Sidekick, and Choose Hope, Take Action

An exhilarating and expansive new novel about fathers and sons, faith and friendship from National Book Foundation 5 Under 35 honoree and Costa First Novel Award winning author Caleb Azumah Nelson

One of the most acclaimed and internationally bestselling “unforgettable” (New York Times) debuts of the 2021, Caleb Azumah Nelson’s London-set love story Open Water took the US by storm and introduced the world to a salient and insightful new voice in fiction. Now, with his second novel Small Worlds, the prodigious Azumah Nelson brings another set of enduring characters to brilliant life in his signature rhythmic, melodic prose.

Set over the course of three summers, Small Worlds follows Stephen, a first-generation Londoner born to Ghanian immigrant parents, brother to Ray, and best friend to Adeline. On the cusp of big life changes, Stephen feels pressured to follow a certain path—a university degree, a move out of home—but when he decides instead to follow his first love, music, his world and family fractures in ways he didn’t foresee. Now Stephen must find a path and peace for himself: a space he can feel beautiful, a space he can feel free.

Moving from London, England to Accra, Ghana and back again, Small Worlds is an exquisite and intimate new novel about the people and places we hold close, from one of the most “elegant, poetic” (CNN) and important voices of a generation.

In the vein of Get Out and Razorblade Tears, a feast of noir fiction and probing social commentary that asks us to consider what would happen if reparations were finally charged and exacted. Nate Evers, a young black political activist, struggles with rage as his people are still being killed in the streets 62 years after Emmett Till. When his little cousin is murdered, Nate shuns the graffiti murals, candlelight vigils, and Twitter hashtags that are commonplace after these senseless deaths. Instead, he leads 3 grief-stricken friends on a mission of retribution, kidnapping the descendants of long-ago perpetrators of hate crimes, confronting the targets with their racist lineages, and forcing them to pay reparations to a community fund. For 3 of the group members, the results mean justice; for Nate – pure revenge. Not all targets go quietly into the night, though, and Nate and his friends' world spirals out of control when they confront the wrong man. Now the leader of a white supremacist group is hot on their tail as is a jaded lawman with some disturbingly racist views of his own. As the 4 vigilantes fight to thwart their ruthless pursuers, they’re forced to accept an age-old truth: "Before you embark on a journey of revenge, dig two graves." Smoke Kings is a powerful and propulsive novel with a diverse and unforgettable cast of characters. Like Steph Cha’s Your House Will Pay it explores decades of racial tensions through a fictional landscape where the line between justice and revenge is blurred.

Set over 24 hours, meet rattlesnakes, vipers, and black mambas in this kids’ nonfiction book by TikTok star and snake expert Christian Cave. Journey around the world to follow the lives of these cold-blooded reptiles as they hunt, hide, and fight their way through their day. Biologist and conservationist Christian Cave tells the story of the world’s most amazing venomous snakes in the style of a nature documentary, including gentle science explanations of topics such as camouflage and skin shedding that are perfect for future biologists. Witness incredible moments including: • A paradise flying snake soaring through the air to escape a predator • A king cobra defending her eggs from a mongoose • A spider-tailed viper using its tail to catch birds! Beautifully illustrated by Rebecca Mills and packed with animal facts, Snakes (A Day in the Life) encourages kids to look at the roles these incredible legless predators play in ecosystems across the globe, and why it’s important we protect them.

No matter how wrong relationships can be, there’s nothing quite like getting them right. Every guy’s been a creep at one point or another. That’s just the way it is. Or at least, that’s what Cleo tells herself once she finds out her boyfriend might not be the man she thought he was. Is it possible to keep loving someone you’re not sure you can trust? More to the point, should you? Once the fabric of Cleo’s relationship rips at the seams, the life she had built with him―abroad and away from those closest to her―unravels right before her eyes. Yet, letting it fall to pieces as she walks away is only half the story. So Long Sad Love swaps out the wobbly transition of weaving a new existence into being post-heartbreak for the surprising effortlessness and simplicity of a life already rebuilt. Cleo not only rediscovers her identity as an artist but uncovers her capacity to find love where she has always been most at home: with other women. Mirion Malle dares to tell a story with a happier ending in a stunning, full-color follow-up to the multi-award nominated This is How I Disappear. Translated by Governor General Literary Award nominee Aleshia Jensen, So Long Sad Love unabashedly skips to the good part and shines a light on just how rewarding following your bliss can be.

A powerful, timely, dazzling new collection of poems from the National Book Award–winning author of Lighthead

The three sections of Terrance Hayes’ seventh collection explore how we see ourselves and our world, mapping the strange and lyrical grammar of thinking and feeling. In “Watch Your Mouth,” a tree frog sings to overcome its fear of birds; in “Watch Your Step: The Kafka Virus,” a talking cat tells jokes in the Jim Crow South; in “Watch Your Head,“ green beans bling in the mouth of Lil Wayne, and Bob Ross paints your portrait. On the one hand, these fabulous fables, American sonnets, quarantine quatrains, and ekphrastic do-it-yourself sestinas animate what Toni Morrison called “the writerly imagination of a black author who is at some level always conscious of representing one’s own race.” On the other hand, these urgent, personal poems contemplate fatherhood, history, and longing with remarkable openness and humanity. So To Speak is the mature, restless work of one of contemporary poetry’s leading voices.

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Widespread reporting on aspects of white supremacy -- from police brutality to the mass incarceration of Black Americans -- has put a media spotlight on racism in our society. Still, it is a difficult subject to talk about. How do you tell your roommate her jokes are racist? Why did your sister-in-law take umbrage when you asked to touch her hair -- and how do you make it right? How do you explain white privilege to your white, privileged friend?

"A pathbreaking biography. It should command the widest popular attention and profound scholarly attention." —David Levering Lewis, author of W. E. B. DuBois

Sojourner Truth: ex-slave and fiery abolitionist, figure of imposing physique, riveting preacher and spellbinding singer who dazzled listeners with her wit and originality. Straight-talking and unsentimental, Truth became a national symbol for strong black women—indeed, for all strong women. Like Harriet Tubman and Frederick Douglass, she is regarded as a radical of immense and enduring influence; yet, unlike them, what is remembered of her consists more of myth than of personality.

Now, in a masterful blend of scholarship and sympathetic understanding, eminent black historian Nell Irvin Painter goes beyond the myths, words, and photographs to uncover the life of a complex woman who was born into slavery and died a legend. Inspired by religion, Truth transformed herself from a domestic servant named Isabella into an itinerant pentecostal preacher; her words of empowerment have inspired black women and poor people the world over to this day. As an abolitionist and a feminist, Truth defied the notion that slaves were male and women were white, expounding a fact that still bears repeating: among blacks there are women; among women, there are blacks.

No one who heard her speak ever forgot Sojourner Truth, the power and pathos of her voice, and the intelligence of her message. No one who reads Painter's groundbreaking biography will forget this landmark figure and the story of her courageous life.

From the authors of Sanctuary comes a haunting near-future companion tale about undocumented immigrants subjected to deadly experiments in a government labor camp and the four courageous rebels who set into place a daring plan to liberate them.

The year is 2033, and in this near-future America where undocumented people are forced into labor camps, life is bleak. Especially so for seventeen-year-old Rania, a Lebanese teenager from Chicago. When she and her mother were rounded up by the Deportation Force, they were given the brutal job of digging in the labor camp’s mine searching for the destructive and toxic, but potentially world-changing chemical, aqualinium. With this chemical the corrupt and xenophobic government of the New American Republic could actually control the weather—ending devastating droughts sweeping the planet due to climate change. If the government succeeds, other countries would be at their mercy. Solidifying this power comes at the expense of the undocumented immigrants forced to endure horrendous conditions to mine the chemical or used in cruel experiments to test it, leaving their bodies wracked in extreme pain to the point of death. As the experiments ramp up, things only get worse. Rania and her fellow prisoners decide to start a revolution; if they don’t, they know they will die.

Told by four narrators—Rania, Jess (a former teenage Deportation Force officer), Vali, and Vali’s mother Liliana—Solis is about the courage and sacrifice it takes to stand and fight for freedom.

Exuberant and heart-warming, J. California Cooper is the embodiment of the simple folk tradition in black writing associated most often with Zora Neale Hurston and Langston Hughes. The author of seventeen plays and two novels, it is her stories of black family life in rural and small town America that have achieved the most acclaim and the broadest audience. SOME SOUL TO KEEP is amongst the finest and most enduring of her work.

Cooper writes with a transparent clarity and such high-spirited energy that her characters leap off the page, bursting with the stories they've got to tell--stories of simple people, stories of families and fate, of love and marriage, of death and the triumph of the human spirit. Cooper is that most rare and wondrous thing: a true storyteller whose tales trace the energies of life itself.

For fans of Yaa Gyasi, QUEENIE and I MAY DESTROY YOU, a stunning and witty debut novel about a young woman’s emotional journey through unimaginable loss, pulled along by her tight-knit Nigerian family, and the love and laughter she shared with her husband.

 Here are three things you should know about my husband:

1. He was the great love of my life despite his penchant for going incommunicado
2. He was, as far as I and everyone else could tell, perfectly happy. Which is significant because…
3. On New Year’s Eve, he killed himself

And here is one thing you should know about me:

1. I found him.

Bonus fact: No. I am not okay.

The son of Ethiopian immigrants seeks to understand a hidden family history and uncovers a past colored by unexpected loss, addiction, and the enduring emotional pull toward home.

After abandoning his once-promising career as a journalist in search of a new life in Paris, Mamush meets Hannah—a photographer whose way of seeing the world shows him the possibility of finding not only love but family. Now, five years later, with his marriage to Hannah on the verge of collapse, he returns to the close-knit immigrant Ethiopian community of Washington, DC, that defined his childhood. At its center is Mamush’s stoic, implacable mother, and Samuel, the larger-than-life father figure whose ceaseless charm and humor have always served as a cover for a harder, more troubling truth. But on the same day that Mamush arrives home in Washington, Samuel is found dead in his garage.

With Hannah and their two-year-old son back in Paris, Mamush sets out on an unexpected journey across America in search of answers to questions he'd been told never to ask. As he does so, he begins to understand that perhaps the only chance he has of saving his family and making it back home is to confront not only the unresolved mystery around Samuel’s life and death, but his own troubled memories, and the years spent masking them. Breathtaking, commanding, unforgettable work from one of America’s most prodigiously gifted novelists.