by Glory Edim
Difficult Women
Paula J. Giddings
When and Where I Enter
Nikki Giovanni
Black Feeling, Black Talk
My House
Spin a Soft Black Song
Bette Greene
Philip Hall Likes Me, I Reckon Maybe
Eloise Greenfield
Honey, I Love and Other Love Poems
Kaitlyn Greenidge
We Love You, Charlie Freeman
Danai Gurira
Eclipsed
Rosa Guy
The Friends
Beverly Guy-Sheftall
Words of Fire: An Anthology of African-American Feminist Thought
Yaa Gyasi
Homegoing
Katori Hall
The Mountaintop
Virginia Hamilton
The People Could Fly
Lorraine Hansberry
A Raisin in the Sun
Jessica B. Harris
My Soul Looks Back: A Memoir
Mary Hoffman
Amazing Grace
bell hooks
Feminism Is for Everybody
Feminist Theory: From Margin to Center
Nalo Hopkinson
Brown Girl in the Ring
Langston Hughes
Simple stories
Akasha (Gloria T.) Hull, Patricia Bell Scott,
and Barbara Smith
All the Women Are White, All the Blacks Are Men, But Some of Us Are Brave: Black Women’s Studies
Zora Neale Hurston
Color Struck
Their Eyes Were Watching God
Naomi Jackson
The Star Side of Bird Hill
Margo Jefferson
Negroland; A Memoir
N. K. Jemisin
The Fifth Season
Morgan Jerkins
This Will Be My Undoing
Gayl Jones
Corregidora
Tayari Jones
An American Marriage
June Jordan
His Own Where
Naming Our Destiny
Things That I Do in the Dark
Adrienne Kennedy
Funnyhouse of a Negro
Erika Kennedy
Bling
Jamaica Kincaid
Annie John
“Girl”
E. L. Konigsburg
From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler
Jennifer, Hecate, Macbeth, William McKinley, and Me, Elizabeth
Nella Larsen
Quicksand
C. S. Lewis
The Chronicles of Narnia
Astrid Lindgren
Pippi Longstocking
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
The Song of Hiawatha
Karen Lord
Redemption in Indigo
Audre Lorde
Sister Outsider
Betty MacDonald
Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle series
Margaret Mahy
The Seven Chinese Brothers
Paule Marshall
Brown Girl, Brownstones
Ann M. Martin
The Baby-Sitters Club series
Robin McKinley
The Hero and the Crown
Louise Meriwether
Daddy Was a Number Runner
L. M. Montgomery
Anne of Green Gables
Joan Morgan
She Begat This: 20 Years of the Miseducation of Lauryn Hill
Dominique Morisseau
Detroit ’67
Toni Morrison
Beloved
The Bluest Eye
“The Reader As Artist”
Song of Solomon
Sula
Tar Baby
Wayétu Moore
She Would Be King
Gloria Naylor
Linden Hills
The Women of Brewster Place
Mary Norton
Bedknobs and Broomsticks
Lynn Nottage
Sweat
Alexis Okeowo
A Moonless, Starless Sky
Nnedi Okorafor
Binti
Who Fears Death
Dael Orlandersmith
Forever
Morgan Parker
There Are More Beautiful Things Than Beyoncé
Suzan-Lori Parks
Topdog/Underdog
Francine Pascal
Sweet Valley High series
Ann Petry
The Street
Delores Phillips
The Darkest Child
Stephanie Powell Watts
No One Is Coming to Save Us
Claudia Rankine
Citizen: An American Lyric
Celia Rees
Witch Child
Anita Reynolds
American Cocktail
Shonda Rhimes
Year of Yes
Jean Rhys
Wide Sargasso Sea
Phoebe Robinson
You Can’t Touch My Hair
Sonia Sanchez
Homegirls and Handgrenades
Simone Schwarz-Bart
The Bridge of Beyond
Nicole Sealey
Ordinary Beast
Ntozake Shange
for colored girls who have considered suicide/when the rainbow is enuf
Sassafrass, Cypress & Indigo
Wild Beauty
Nisi Shawl
Everfair
Warsan Shire
Teaching My Mother How to Give Birth
Gabourey Sidibe
This Is Just My Face
April Sinclair
Coffee Will Make You Black
Esphyr Slobodkina
Caps for Sale
Anna Deavere Smith
Twilight: Los Angeles, 1992
Barbara Smith
Home Girls: A Black Feminist Anthology
Betty Smith
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn
Patricia Smith
Incendiary Art
Tracy K. Smith
Life on Mars
Zadie Smith
Swing Time
Asali Solomon
Disgruntled
Rivers Solomon
An Unkindness of Ghosts
Elizabeth George Speare
The Witch of Blackbird Pond
Robert Louis Stevenson
A Child’s Garden of Verses
Claudia Tate
Black Women Writers at Work
Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor
How We Get Free
Mildred D. Taylor
Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry
Angie Thomas
The Hate U Give
Marlo Thomas
Free to Be…You and Me
Sheree R. Thomas
Dark Matter
Nafissa Thompson-Spires
Heads of the Colored People
J.R.R. Tolkien
The Lord of the Rings trilogy
Unknown
Beauty and the Beast
Alice Walker
The Color Purple
Good Night, Willie Lee, I’ll See You in the Morning
In Search of Our Mothers’ Gardens: Womanist Prose
“In Search of Zora Neale Hurston”
Langston Hughes: American Poet
The Temple of My Familiar
Margaret Walker
Jubilee
Rebecca Walker
Baby Love
Black White and Jewish
Michele Wallace
Black Macho and the Myth of the Superwoman
Jesmyn Ward
Salvage the Bones
Sing, Unburied, Sing
Renée Watson
Piecing Me Together
E. B. White
Charlotte’s Web
Evelyn C. White
Alice Walker: A Life
Tia Williams
The Perfect Find
Harriet E. Wilson
Our Nig
Jacqueline Woodson
Another Brooklyn
Brown Girl Dreaming
Last Summer with Maizon
Virginia Woolf
A Room of One’s Own
Richard Wright
Black Boy
Shay Youngblood
Black Girl in Paris
To the Well-Read Black Girl Community.
I am in awe of what we’ve built together. Books will always bond our sisterhood.
For the countless authors who spoke to me from the page. From Toni Morrison to Audre Lorde, their words guided me into womanhood.
GRATITUDE
For my family, whose love and support makes all the difference in my literary journey.
To my mother, Henrietta: Thank you for fostering my love for reading. You inform and inspire all aspects of my life.
To my late father, Elegance: Thank you for giving me my name and my courageous spirit. I miss you tremendously and always want to make you proud.
To my younger brothers, Maurice Edim and Babatunde Bello: Thank you for being sources of motivation and for being the brightest lights in my life. We made it.
For every single contributor in this anthology: I am appreciative and humbled by the women who showed up for me. Each story is brilliant and discusses the lives of Black women and girls with such love and compassion. I feel very, very fortunate, and you have each inspired me in ways I never imagined.
For every member of the Well-Read Black Girl book club, especially those who attended the very early meetings in Brooklyn: Misa Dayton, Shani Peters, Giselle Buchanan, Novella Ford, Leslie Martinez, Geraldine Leibot, Valerie Titus-Glover, Charisse Myers, Zuri Gordon, Efe Osaren, Jarondakie Patrick, Regina Mahone, Vanity Gee, Shirleen Robinson, Candice Hoyes, Mavis Bortey-fio, Olu Animashaun, Rhea Daniels, Jordan Forney, and many more. There are so many women who continuously contribute and nurture our community. You will always have my friendship and gratitude. We’ve built something truly lasting together.
Thank you to New Women Space, a beautiful, enriching, community-led event space in Brooklyn, New York, for giving us a book club home.
Thank you to the Ballantine Team. I am extremely thankful to my wonderful editor Emily Hartley, for her invaluable guidance, patience, and encouragement. I feel incredibly fortunate to collaborate with someone so kindhearted and generous. It has been a privilege to work with everyone throughout this process: Kara Welsh, Kim Hovey, Jennifer Hershey, Isabella Biedenharn, Susan Corcoran, Sally Marvin, Allison Schuster, Michelle Jasmine, and my very favorite department—Library Marketing! Thank you all for believing in my vision.
Immense gratitude to illustrator Alexandra Bowman and cover designer Sharanya Durvasula, whose beautiful artwork captures the vibrancy and essence of Well-Read Black Girl.
I am deeply thankful for my agent Emma Parry, whose warm affirmations and honesty kept me moving forward as I completed my first book project. Thank you for always advocating for me.
I want to especially thank Maya Millett for her thoughtful feedback and editing. We make an extraordinary team.
Gratitude to my book-ish confidantes Nicole Counts, Camille Drummond, and Ebony LaDelle. You each inspire me to dream bigger and be my best self in publishing.
For Opiyo Okeyo, whose love and unwavering support make me believe I can do anything in the world.
My childhood best friends, Selma and Ida Woldemichael: Our friendship has spanned several books and decades. Thank you for encouraging my growth and answering my frantic, late-night text messages. Twin Plus forever.
Thank you to my amazing girlfriends Gimari Ladd-Jones, Petrushka Bazin-Larsen, Alida Sanchez, Christine Sanders, Caitlin Boston, Mia Bonhomme, and Tiffany Bloomfield. We’re exceptional and unstoppable.
Many thanks to Naomi Jackson, whose book The Star Side of Bird Hill opened up a new world for me. You were the very first author to accept my invitation to join the Well-Read Black Girl book club meeting. I am forever grateful for your support and generosity.
To the countless Black women writers who transformed my life and destiny: Toni Morrison, Maya Angelou, Alice Walker, Toni Cade Bambara, Zora Neale Hurston, Paule Marshall, Gloria Naylor, Audre Lorde, Barbara Smith, Sonia Sanchez, June Jordan, Nikki Giovanni, Marita Golden, Tayari Jones, Jacqueline Woodson, Jesmyn Ward—the list is endless. Without their affirming words, this book would not have been possible.
CREDITS
“Magic Mirrors” copyright © 2018 by Jesmyn Ward
“Why I Keep Coming Back to Jamaica” copyright © 2018 by Veronica Chambers
“Her Own Best Thing” copyright © 2018 by Tayari Jones
“Go Tell It” copyright © 2018 by Barbara Smith
“Legacy” by Rebecca Walker copyright © 2018 by Rebecca Walker
“Zora and Me” copyright © 2018 by Marita Golden
“Space to Move Around In” copyright © 2018 by Renée Watson
“Gal: A Hard Row to Hoe” copyright © 2018 by Gabourey Sidibe
“The Need for Kisses” copyright © 2018 by Dhonielle Clayton
“Witnessing Hope” copyright © 2018 by Stephanie Powell Watts
“Dear Beloved” copyright © 2018 by Nicole Dennis-Benn
“To Be a Citizen” copyright © 2018 by Morgan Jerkins
“Two New Yorks” copyright © 2018 by Zinzi Clemmons
“Finding My Family” copyright © 2018 by Bsrat Mezghebe
“Complex Citizen” copyright © 2018 by Mahogany L. Browne
“Living a ‘Soft Black Song’ ” copyright © 2018 by Jamia Wilson
“Amazing Grace” copyright © 2018 by Carla Bruce-Eddings
“Books for a Black Girl’s Soul” copyright © 2018 by Kaitlyn Greenidge
ABOUT THE CONTRIBUTORS
MAHOGANY L. BROWNE is a writer, organizer, and educator. Currently the artistic director of Urban Word NYC, Browne has received literary fellowships from Air Serenbe, Cave Canem, Poets House, and Rauschenberg. She hosts and curates the Nuyorican Poets Cafe Friday Night Slam Series and is the author of the poetry books Black Girl Magic, Kissing Caskets, and Dear Twitter and co-editor of The Breakbeat Poets Vol. 2: Black Girl Magic.
CARLA BRUCE-EDDINGS is an associate publicist at Riverhead Books and a freelance writer living in Brooklyn. She writes regularly for New York magazine about the intersections of motherhood, race, and pop culture, and her work has appeared in The Ringer, Catapult, and Lenny Letter, among others. A voracious reader, she’s also a book editor at Well-Read Black Girl and was the co-organizer of its inaugural festival in the fall of 2017.
VERONICA CHAMBERS is a prolific author, best known for her critically acclaimed memoir Mama’s Girl, which has been course adopted by hundreds of high schools and colleges throughout the country. She co-authored the award-winning memoir Yes, Chef with chef Marcus Samuelsson, as well as Samuelsson’s young adult memoir Make It Messy, and has collaborated on four New York Times bestsellers, most recently 32 Yolks, which she co-wrote with chef Eric Ripert. She has been a senior editor at The New York Times Magazine, Newsweek, and Glamour. Born in Panama and raised in Brooklyn, she often writes about her Afro-Latina heritage. She is currently a JSK Knight fellow at Stanford Unive
rsity.
DHONIELLE CLAYTON is the New York Times bestselling author of the young adult novel The Belles and the co-author of the Tiny Pretty Things series. She hails from the Washington, D.C., suburbs on the Maryland side. She earned an MA in Children’s Literature from Hollins University and an MFA in Writing for Children at the New School. She taught secondary school for several years and is a former elementary and middle school librarian. She is COO of the nonprofit We Need Diverse Books and co-founder of CAKE Literary, a creative kitchen whipping up decadent—and decidedly diverse—literary confections for middle grade, young adult, and women’s fiction readers. She’s an avid traveler, and always on the hunt for magic and mischief.
ZINZI CLEMMONS was raised in Philadelphia by a South African mother and an American father. Her debut novel, What We Lose (Viking 2017), was a finalist for the Aspen Words Literary Prize, a Hurston/Wright Legacy Award, and the National Book Critics Circle Leonard Prize. She is a 2017 National Book Award 5 Under 35 Honoree.
NICOLE DENNIS-BENN was born and raised in Kingston, Jamaica. Her debut novel, Here Comes the Sun, won the Lambda Literary Award for Lesbian Fiction and was a finalist for the NYPL Young Lions Fiction Award and the Center for Fiction’s First Novel Prize. It was named a best book of 2016 by The New York Times, NPR, BuzzFeed, San Francisco Chronicle, The Root, BookRiot, Kirkus, Amazon, WBUR’s “On Point,” and Barnes & Noble. Dennis-Benn is a graduate of Cornell University and has an MPH from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, and an MFA from Sarah Lawrence College. She has been awarded fellowships from Macdowell Colony, Hedgebrook, Lambda, Barbara Deming Memorial Fund, Hurston/Wright, and Sewanee Writers’ Conference. She lives with her wife in Brooklyn, New York.