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Here Are All The Black Writers You Should Be Reading This Month

This is the perfect time to add to your TBR list! Sponsored by Amazon Books. Created by BuzzFeed Editors.

Ewura-Ama Quarshie
by Ewura-Ama Quarshie

BuzzFeed Contributor

1. Audre Lorde

Robert Alexander / Getty Images

Lorde was a truly ground-breaking writer, womanist, radical feminist, professor, and civil rights activist who addressed injustices related to race, gender, class, and sexuality. She was always unapologetically herself, refusing to be limited to one identity and describing herself as "black, lesbian, mother, warrior, poet". Lorde wrote poetry and prose, and all her work is collected in the posthumous volume Your Silence Will Not Protect You.  

2. Maya Angelou

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Maya Angelou was an inspirational writer, poet, and Civil Rights activist. Her autobiography I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings is an enduring classic that launched her into prominence, and it was only part one of seven volumes about her life. These autobiographies brought attention to some harsh realities of life as a Black woman in the U.S. South, but also served to inspire people to persevere through all the restrictions that others might try to place on you.  

3. Bernardine Evaristo

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Evaristo is an author and academic who has written many amazing works such as Blonde Roots, Manifesto: On Never Giving Up , and the Booker prize winning Girl, Woman, Other. Long before her Booker win brought widespread attention to her work, she had spent  years advocating for writers of colour. She is currently a Professor of Creative Writing at Brunel University London and President of the Royal Society of Literature. 

4. Dipo Faloyin

Dipo Faloyin

Faloyin is a writer and senior editor at VICE whose debut book, Africa Is Not A Country: Breaking Stereotypes of Modern Africa, was published recently. This book gives a picture of Africa as it actually is and pushes back against the harmful stereotypes about the continent (not country). It's a great read that explores everything from the colonial history of individual countries to the West African rivalry about whose jollof rice is best (has to be Ghana, don't @ me lol). 

5. Akala

Ollie Millington / Redferns

Akala is a British rapper, journalist, activist, and poet on top of being an author. He's written multiple books including Natives: Race and Class in the Ruins of Empire, which I can't recommend enough. Part memoir, part polemic on race and class, it discusses topics like when he first realised his mum was white and why meritocracy in Britain is a myth.  

6. Toni Morrison

Daniel Boczarski / FilmMagic

The acclaimed novelist, playwright, and poet was known for her novel Beloved but also played a big role in bringing Black writing into the mainstream as an editor for Random House. Her own writing spans decades, from 1970 to 2015. She consistently discussed racism in the United States in her works and often centred Black women in her stories. She won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1993 for her years of literary work. 

7. Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

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Adichie has written novels, plays essays, and memoirs. Her acclaimed novel Americanah was based on her own experiences of encountering racism for the first time after moving from Nigeria to America for university. She discusses race, diversity, and feminism in her work and has given TED talks on these topics, with the 2012 talk We Should All Be Feminists being adapted into a book later. 

8. Zakiya Dalila Harris

9. Robert Samuels and Touluse Olorunnipa

Penguins Books

I'm recommending Olorunnipa and Samuels together because they co-wrote a timely and important book called His Name Is George Floyd. Both men are Washington Post journalists who spoke to Floyd's friends and even researched his ancestors to get a picture of his whole life and who he was before his tragic death. An excerpt of the book is available on the Washington Post website. 

10. Jeffrey Boakye

11. Vanessa Nakate

Roberto Ricciuti / Redferns

Nakate is a Ugandan climate justice activist who advocates for African voices to be acknowledged and included in the climate conversation. As she put it, "Africa is on the frontlines of the climate crisis but it’s not on the front pages of the world’s newspapers." The inequalities within the climate justice movement were only highlighted when she was cropped out of a photo at the World Economic Forum in Switzerland with four white climate activists. Her debut book A Bigger Picture: My Fight to Bring a New African Voice to the Climate Crisis is about the intersection of climate change, racial justice, and social justice.  

12. James Baldwin

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Baldwin was a writer and public figure who was prominent in the civil rights movement. He often wrote about topics of masculinity, sexuality, race, and class. His famous works include the semi-autobiographical Go Tell it on the Mountain and Giovanni's Room. Baldwin befriended many famous figures throughout his life, such as Richard Wright, Nina Simone, Maya Angelou, and Toni Morrison. 

13. N.K. Jemisin

Little, Brown Book Group

A unique voice in sci-fi and fantasy, N.K. Jemisin has written novels, short stories, non-fiction and comics. Her Broken Earth series made her the first author to win the Hugo Award for Best Novel three times in a row, AND the first to win for all novels in a trilogy. The trilogy is set to be adapted for the screen by Jemisin herself. Jemisin's exploration of themes like oprression and cultural conflict have made her an acclaimed modern author.