I figured Butler is pretty much the only PoC writer I know. Who else can you recommend?
Reading an eassy by Octavia Butler. As a child her aunt told her: “Negros can’t be writers.”
I figured Butler is pretty much the only PoC writer I know. Who else can you recommend?
NK Jemisin? I love her stuff.
Any recommendation which book by her I should read first?
The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms.
But warning…. It is a part of a series.
@Chrissy Always the possibility to stop if you don’t like a series. If you like it though … Yay, more to read. 😉
Zora Neal Hurston, Toni Morrison
Any particular books on your mind?
Their Eyes Were Watching God by ZNH, The Bluest Eye, Song of Solomon, Beloved by Toni Morrison.
The Good Earth by Pearl Buck.
@Carre Thank you!
Julia Alvarez – Saving the World.
Most welcome.
I studied this when I was doing English Lit a few years ago now. It’s brilliant, in my humble opinion. Damn to the doubters. Hope you enjoy it. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Things_Fall_Apart
Also in the time of butterflies by Julia Alvarez is really good.
Beverly Jenkins, Alyssa Cole, Nicola Yoon, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Toni Morrison
Any particular books on your mind?
Half a Yellow Sun by adiche is a great story about sisters and about Nigeria during the civil war. Her book Americanah is much longer, but it’s a great exploration of race, biculturalism, being a single woman, etc.
Thank you! 🙂
I really enjoy The Bring on the Blessings series by Beverly Jenkins. Alyssa Cole has a historical romance trilogy, An Extraordinary Union is the first book. Nicola Yoon is a YA writer, I like The Sun is Also A Star better than Everything, Everything. I’ve only read We Should All Be Feminists by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie but I see her book Americanah recommended a lot. For Toni Morrison, I’ve read The Bluest Eye which I thought was thought provoking and I have Beloved on my TBR.
I hope you find something that catches your interest!
Alice Walker, she wrote The Color Purple.
I actually heart about her but didn’t know she is/was PoC. “The Color Purple” seems to be the best known … Would you also consider it her best?
It is a fabulous book. I confess I don’t recall reading any of her others, although now, I think I need to add her to my list.
Judith Ortiz Cofer, Sandra Cisneros, Julia Alvarez, Ibi Zoboi, Angie Thomas, Nic Stone, Lilliam Rivera, Elizabeth Acevedo, Jason Reynolds, Matt de la Peña
Any particular books on your mind?
Jacqueline Woodson, Yaa Gyasi
Yes, truly anything by those authors. The Latin Deli, The House on Mango Street, How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents, American Street, The Hate U Give, Dear Martin, I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter, The Poet X, Long Way Down, All-American Boys, The Living, Brown Girl Dreaming, Another Brooklyn, Homegoing
@Emily Thank you 🙂
The Autobiography of Malcolm X, by Malcolm X and Alex Haley, and also Roots by Haley.
Those seem like interesting reads. Thanks.
@Marie although it’s a work of history, you may enjoy American Slavery.
Oh, and James Baldwin. You may enjoy the documentary “I Am Not Your Negro”.
Oh, and more contemporary – Akala.
Britt Bennett, The Mothers
YES. So good.
Thank you 🙂
Dorothy Koomson, Kerry Young, Julia Drostan, Khaled Hosseini, Damini kane, Eve Makis,
Any particular books on your mind?
My best friend’s girl by Dorothy Koomson is a favourite, Pao by Kerry Young, The Sunlight Plane by Damini Kane, The Elephant Keeper’s Daughter by Julia Drostan. The book Push (sorry don’t know author) that was made into a film called Precious, is worth a read too.
@Sarah Thank you. 🙂
Many writers of diverse ethnic groups thanks in large part to writers like Ms Butler
I especially wonder about sci-fi … because even white women seem rare. Atwood had some hype and then there’s LeGuin. But apart from that?
@Marie, more than one may think; a quick google will turn up a ton. I love science fiction but have often been dismayed at the Lilly whiteness of its characters. Even that is changing. One of my favorite SFi books is Stranger in a Strange Land. Definitely white but o-my, what a story.
@Steve In the back of my version of “Bloodchild and other stories” there’s a picture of Butler and several other authors, including Jewelle Gomez. Googled her and found “The Gilda Stories”. Sounds super interesting. You don’t happen to know it?
Good science fiction is wonderful!
I don’t know Jewelle, but i will. Thanks!
Off the top of my head, Zora Neale Hurston, Zadie Smith, Angie Thomas (The Hate U Give is a must read), Jamaica Kincaid, Alice Walker, Maya Angelou, Ernest Gaines
Any particular books in mind?
I love And Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston
Their Eyes Were Watching God https://www.amazon.com/dp/0061120065/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_Ws9YBb0JBMTRB
@Susan Thank you. 🙂
Paule Marshall, Walter Moseley, Julius Lester, James Baldwin
Any particular books in mind?
James Baldwin has a lot of books but my first intro to him was Sonny’s Blues which is a short story. It’s beautiful writing.
@Marie Paule Marshall has written several but I really liked Praisesong for the Widow. James Baldwin has written novels, stories, essays, autobiographical works. His first novel Go Tell It In The Mountain is powerful but there are others. Julius Lester has written a lot of children’s books and histories. There’s When Dad Killed Mom, fiction. Several based on history of slavery. I enjoyed Lovesong: Becoming a Jew which is the story of his conversion to Judaism. Walter Mosley (I spelled it wrong the first time) has written a letter a *detective* series with Easy Rawlings as primary character plus many others. I loved R L’s Dream which isn’t in the series I didn’t mention a couple of other classics: Richard Wright’s Native Son (a brutal story) or his autobiographical Black Boy. Plus Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man. And Sister Souljah’s The Coldest Winter Ever is listed in The Great American Read. It’s more modern than some of the others I’ve mentioned. Also there is Bebe Moore Campbell whose fictionalized account if the Emmett Till killing broke my heart –Your Blues Ain’t Like Mine. Sorry, got carried away.
@Anne Thanks a lot.
You’re welcome
I read a book called ‘Woman at Point Zero’ by Nawal El Saadawi recently. It is brilliant. ‘Maryam’s Maze’ by Mansoura Ez Eldin is a beautiful, surrealistic novel. ‘This House of Clay and Water’ by Faiqa Mansab is a beautiful love story. ‘When I Hit You’ by Meena Kandasamy is an intense brilliant book. ‘The Housekeeper and the Professor’ by Yoko Ogawa is beautiful and charming. ‘What I Talk About When I Talk About Running’ by Haruki Murakami is a beautiful nonfiction book about running and literature and writing. ‘Changing My Mind’ is a beautiful collection of essays by Zadie Smith. ‘The Fire Next Time’ is a beautiful collection of essays by James Baldwin. ‘The Origin of Others’ is a powerful nonfiction book by Toni Morrison.
Thank you! 🙂
Zadie Smith – White Teeth
The story of two unlikely friends, Archie and Iqbal set against London’s cultural melting pot. Great book .
Thank you. 🙂
@Marie On Beauty by Zadie Smith. two contentious historians, two very different families
@Quintino Thanks a lot.
Walter Mosley
Any particular book on mind?
@Marie Devil in A Blue Dress series about a black detective in 1920s (?) los Angeles.
@Jill Thank you!
@Marie Denzel Washington played the part in the movie by the same name.
James Baldwin; Nora Zeal Huston; Maya Angelou; Angie Thomas; Lorraine Hansberry, Sandra Cisernos and many more!
Thank you. 🙂
Jesmyn Ward, Chester Himes, Gloria Naylor, Colson Whitehead
Some of my favorites: Jhumpa Lahiri, Roxane Gay, Jesmyn Ward, Sherman Alexie, Kazuo Ishiguro, Khaled Hosseini, Yiyun Li
Richard Wright, Maya Angelou, Toni Morrison, Bryan Stevenson, Nicki Giovanni, …there are just so many wonderful people of color who are writing now and in the past.
Audre Lorde
The White Tiger by Aravind Adiga
Jacqueline Woodson. Warsan shire(poet). Gabriel Garcia Marquez.
Michael Anthony. (He’s a Caribbean author. So is Samuel Selvon, so it may be a culturally different style.)
Leonard Pitts. Diana Gabaldon. Sandra Cisnernos. Pat Mora. Alice Walker. Barack Obama. Jesmyn Ward. Gwendolyn Brooks. Gloria Naylor. bell hooks. There are thousands.
I read two great books by POC this year Americanah by Adichie and Homegoing by Gyasi.
Homegoing was one of the best books if not the best book I read so far this year.
Attica Locke
Dolen Perkins-Valdez
Amy Tan?
Lisa See?
Jamaica Kincaid.
Camille Dungy and Nikki Giovanni.
For men writers, I like James Baldwin and Barack Obama. And I do want to read Michelle Obama’s new book…
James Baldwin is my shout too. It pleases me no end to know I haven’t read all his work, since the 3 books I have read – Go Tell It On The Mountain, Another Country and Giovanni’s Room – have all blown me away. Classics, beautiful and powerful each one.
Born a Crime, Trevor Noah; The Sellout, Paul Beatty; When They Call You a Terrorist, Patrisse Khan-Cullors; The New Jim Crow, Michelle Alexander; March Books 1-3, John Lewis; Persepolis, Marjane Satrapi; The Sympathizer, Viet Thanh Nguyen, The Great Passage, Shion Miura, Mycroft Holmes, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
Sci-Fi: Nalo Hopkinson, Binti Series by Nnedi Okorafor, Broken Earth series by N.K. Jemisin
https://bookriot.com/2017/06/22/for-ob-day-5-science-fiction-and-fantasy-women-of-color-authors-to-read-after-octavia-butler/amp/
Chimanda Ngozi Adichie, but the list is endless!
Toni Morrison
James McBride
So where would I start with Octavia Butler @Marie?
Kindred is a great one. Not part of a series.
I guess it’s dependent on what you’re into. I see Kindred praised a lot, it was her first mainstream success and is about an African-American woman involuntary time-travelling between her life in the 70s and a pre-Civil War Maryland plantation.
Personally I read “Bloodchild and other stories”, a collection of short stories and it gives a great overview of the different types of things she writes, and “Dawn”, the first part of the Xenogenesis stories. To me, “Dawn” is one of the best books I’ve ever read but it might not be everybody’s cup of tea as there’s a lot of alien-stuff in it.
Bloodchild is what I have, came across it as a free ebook.
@Kenny Did you read/like it?
The Scottish Makar, or laureate, Jackie Kay is a very fine writer. I was first blown away by her collections of short stories Why Don’t You Stop Talking and Wish You Were Here. She’s also a poetry writer, and her well-regarded novel Trumpet is very fine and full of compassion.
Thank you all a lot for the input! 🙂
Toni Morrison, Solomon Rivers, Tomi Adeyemi
Salman Rushdie , jumpha lahrie, arundhati Roy, James Baldwin
Walter Mosely, Alice Walker
Coates who wrote “We Were Eight Years in Power”
that just won the Dayton Literary Peace Prize as the nonfiction book most likely to contribute to world peace.
Richard Wright
Wil Haygood is a great author (and mesmerizing speaker) has a new book out called Tigerland. He was the author of the story the movie The Butler was based on.
Maya Angelou..one of my favorite authors.
Junot Diaz, Isabel Allende
James Baldwin. Zadie Smith.
Nella Larson: Passing, and also Quicksand
Sorry but what does PoC mean?
People/Person of color
People of Color/Person of Color. It’s an umbrella term, US-centric, inclusive of Black folks, Latinx, Asians; all “non-whites.” It does not include marginalized white people, or previously racialized white people, such as Jews. You can use related phrases, such as “authors of color” or “children of color.” What you should NOT do is shorten it to “colored.” I just wanted to say that, because I have seen white people do that! I guess they thought that the phrase POC being current meant that “colored” was ok/neutral again. It’s not. Full disclosure: I’m white, and I hope my input is accurate and appropriate; I don’t intend to whitesplain, but if I got stuff wrong I welcome correction.
OK. Acronyms aren’t always my friend.
I adored Colson Whitehead’s The Underground Railroad.
Toni Morrison, James Baldwin, Zora Neal Hurston, Colson Whitehead, Jesmyn Ward, Zadie Smith to name a few
Ooh, also Christopher Paul Curtis. The Watsons go to Birmingham: 1963 is a masterpiece.
If you like Octavia Butler, try N.K. Jeminsin, Nnedi Okorafor, and Nalo Hopkinson.
For literary fiction, Toni Morrison and Alice Walker.
Excellent additions.
Jesmyn Ward, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Maia Angelou, Ayaan Hirsi Ali, Sapphire, Ishmael Beah, Chinua Achebe, Wole Soyinka, Jumpha Lahiri, Langston Hughes, Zora Neale Hurston.
Sag Harbor by Colson Whitehead…Yes, Chef: A Memoir by Marcus Samuelsson and Veronica Chambers…The Color Purple by Alice Walker…Roots by Alex Haley…Getting to Happy by Terry McMillan…Salvage the Bones by Jesmyn Ward…Blonde Faith by Walter Mosley…Homecoming by Yaa Gyasi…The Sellout by Paul Beatty…Beloved by Toni Morrison…Go Tell It on the Mountain by James Baldwin…The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman by Ernest Gaines…Middle Passage by Charles Johnson…The Women of Brewster Place by Gloria Naylor…Jubille by Margaret Walker…Native Son by Richard Wright…Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison…The Autobiography of my Mother by Jamaica Kincaid…Praisesong for the Widow by Paule Marshall…Year of Yes by Shonda Rhimes…Queen Sugar by Natalie Baszile… Black Man in a White Coat: A Doctor’s Reflections on Race and Medicine by Damon Tweedy…All Our Names: A Novel, by Dinaw Mengestu…Hiding in Plain Sight, by Nuruddin Farah…The Secret History of Las Vegas: A Novel, by Chris Abani…
My beloved writer from India – Chitra Divakaruni.
Here are a few writers of color I know of — VINCENT O. CARTER (see photo), Sujata Massey, Shay Youngblood, Charles Johnson, Stephen L. Carter, Tina McElroy Ansa, Jewel Parker Rhodes, Paul Beatty (won the Mann Booker Prize recently), Tananarive Due, Marcus Major, Guy Johnson, Amitav Ghosh, Deepti Kapoor, Shusaku Endo, Tahmima Anam, Manju Kapur, Kamila Shamsie, Anchee Min, Anita Nair, Xiaolu Guo, Indu Sundaresan, and R.K. Narayan.