My plan for this week’s blog was to share a list of books and publications by writers Plume has published (and I will return to that later), but considering the racial injustice and violent unrest that has boiled over in the past week, I think it’s much more important right now to lift Black voices and share some of the important works we should be reading by these authors. This is definitely not an exhaustive list by any means, but we’ve pulled this collection together from books we’ve read, books we’ve been meaning to read, and books that friends and online activists have recommended.
Nonfiction
How to Be an Antiracist by Ibram X Kendi
So You Want to Talk About Race by Ijeoma Oluo
Men We Reaped by Jesmyn Ward
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou
Sister Outsider by Audre Lorde
Fiction
The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas
Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston
The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison
Children of Blood & Bone by Toni Adeyemi
Breath, Eyes, Memory by Edwidge Danticat
Poetry
African American Poetry: 250 Years of Struggle and Song edited by Kevin Young
HoodWitch by Faylita Hicks
Teaching My Mother How to Give Birth by Warsan Shire
Bestiary by Donika Kelly
Citizen by Claudia Rankine
Here’s also a list of Black-owned bookstores to support:
We’ve always worked hard to be inclusive, and to support and feature diverse voices of women and non-binary writers, and we will continue to push ourselves more on this. You can always email us at encouragement@plumeforwriters.org if you have any questions or suggestions.
Please stay vigilant and informed, and help out the Black community in any way you can. Take care, Plumesters.