Read Women of Color: the List Part II

by Tara Miller
AFO Staff

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“Why am I compelled to write?... Because the world I create in the writing compensates for what the real world does not give me. By writing I put order in the world, give it a handle so I can grasp it. I write because life does not appease my appetites and anger... To become more intimate with myself and you. To discover myself, to preserve myself, to make myself, to achieve self-autonomy. To dispell the myths that I am a mad prophet or a poor suffering soul. To convince myself that I am worthy and that what I have to say is not a pile of shit... Finally I write because I'm scared of writing, but I'm more scared of not writing.” 
                                 -Gloria Anzaldúa, "An Open Letter to Women Writers of Color"

Gloria Anzaldúa's above quote speaks to the necessity of the following list. The second installment in a massive list of books by women of color, crowdsourced through my family, friends, and community, is a vital celebration of voices that are not prevalent enough in publishing houses, libraries, bookstores, and reading lists.

Support women of color authors because our stories matter, our lives matter, and because we've written some damn good books. 

To quote my dear friend Jessica Osorio from the last installment:  “Read books by women of color. Share them with your friends. Talk about them. Buy them from your local bookstore when you can. If they don’t have the book you’re looking for, ask your local bookstore to order a copy for you. It’s a great way to show bookstores, publishers, editors, and book reviewers that these stories matter and we want to see more of them.”

While this completes the submissions I received for the initial list, I know there are many many many more books by WOC out there and I would love to get enough new submissions to do a third installment for next months' issue. If you have additional books to recommend, please reach out to us through our submissions page. 

The Professor’s Daughter, Emily Raboteau

“In exhilarating, magical prose, The Professor’s Daughter traces the borderlands of race and family, the contested territory that gives birth to rage, confusion, madness, and invisibility.“   
              -Excerpt from the cover

On Beauty, Zadie Smith

“'American houses...' she said, peering over her right shoulder and down the street. 'They always seem to believe that nobody ever loses anything, has lost anything. I find that very sad. Do you know what I mean?”
                       - Excerpt from the book

Mama Day, Gloria Naylor

Vintage

“On the island of Willow Springs, off the Georgia coast, the powers of healer Mama Day are tested by her great niece, Cocoa, a stubbornly emancipated woman endangered by the island's darker forces. A powerful generational saga at once tender and suspenseful, overflowing with magic and common sense.”
               - Excerpt from the cover

Paradise, by Toni Morrison

Vintage International

“In prose that soars with the rhythms, grandeur, and tragic arc of an epic poem, Toni Morrison challenges our most fiercely held beliefs as she weaves folklore and history, memory and myth into an unforgettable meditation on race, religion, gender, and a far-off past that is ever present.”
               - Excerpt from the cover

The Jailing of Cecelia Capture, Janet Campbell Hale

University of New Mexico Press

“Cecelia Capture Welles, an Indian law student and mother of two, is jailed on her thirtieth birthday for drunk driving. Held on an old welfare fraud charge, she reflects back on her life on the reservation in Idaho, her days as an unwed mother in San Francisco, her marriage to a white liberal, and her decision to return to college. This mixed inheritance of ambition and despair brings her to the brink of suicide.”
                            - Excerpt from the cover

“I like books in the magical realist style, and I like books that examine power structures. Most of the authors I listed above are masters at both, writing protagonists caught between worlds and struggling to find place, power, and identity in a system that tries to imprison them.”
                           - Griffin Wimminger

The Moments, The Minutes, The Hours: A book of poetry, Jill Scott

St. Martin’s Griffin

"Jill Scott's first-ever poetry collection delivers the same earthy, personal, and tell-it-like-it-is voice that fans have grown to know and love. Writing poems and keeping journals since 1991, she shares her personal poetry collection in The Moments, The Minutes, The Hours. Praised for her honestly erotic, soulful and very real lyrics, Jill Scott uncovers the beauty in healing, the comfort of family, and the stunning vitality of life."
           - Excerpt from the cover