I finished this book a few months ago, and the essays have stuck with me every since. I find myself going back to the lists of books by Black women and am amazed at how vast they are in genre, and time of publication. We don’t often see a lot of different Black women’s voice’s in the fiction realm, so I have been referring back to this book to help me find my next reads. What book am I talking about? Well-Read Black Girl: Finding Our Stories, Discovering Ourselves (ebook/audiobook) by Glory Edim.
Edim is the founder of Well Read Black Girl, an organization and book club that highlights Black women authors. In this book, there are dozen of essays by current Black women authors, poets, and activists about the books written by Black women that inspired them as they were growing up. Jesmyn Ward, author of Salvage the Bones (ebook/audiobook), Jaqueline Woodson, author of Red at the Bone (ebook/audiobook) , Tayari Jones, author of An American Marriage (ebook/audiobook), and Gabourey Sidibe, author of This is Just My Face: Try Not to Stare (ebook) are just a few of the essayists found inside. I also love that this book is broken up into sections and genres, and there are lists of all of the books and more mentioned in each section, so the reader has an easy way to reference them and find what to read next.
I highly recommend you check this book out, read the essays, and explore reading some of the books mentioned within this anthology!