As Black women, we are students of life, history and our own bodies. We are the canaries in the coal mines, calling for our voices to be heard, respected and considered, so as not to repeat the mistakes of the past and further damage our already fragile future.
More often than not, our voices are ignored, leaving us to sit back and hold our tongues when the inevitable “I told you so” scratches at the backs of our throats like a cough waiting to be released.
But sometimes, our voices break through. They’re loud and steadfast, clear and unwavering. They command rooms and sway minds. They heal.
March is Women’s History Month, and one of the most powerful ways we can honor our history is to hold it in our hands and read it with our own eyes. We can relish the stories of women—real and imaginary, dead and living—who inspire us, challenge us and hold up a mirror to ourselves so that we may never forget who we are and what we are capable of.
Below is a selection of some of the most powerful Black women literary voices of now, along with the Black-owned bookstores carrying their works. Who will you tap into this month? Happy reading.
Memoir/Bio
Michaela angela Davis
Before becoming a published author, Michaela angela Davis was a trailblazer in the media and publishing industry, helping shape our understanding of culture, fashion and beauty for over two decades. She was the formative voice for cool and was always there to remind us, and everyone else, that Black people were and forever will be the trendsetters and culture shapeshifters. Our mothers, sisters, aunties, and cousins trusted her work and passed it on to us as source material for finding strength and power in our womanhood.
Book: Tenderheaded is available at Octavia’s Bookshelf in Pasadena, California.
Namwali Serpell
To write fiction is one thing, but to study the fictional writings of another author and become so intimately attuned to their craft that you can teach a course and write one of the most highly anticipated exploratory books on said author is an entirely different thing unto itself. Namwali Serpell is a writer, literary critic and professor of English at Harvard University. Her work, rooted in the Black experience, spans fiction, short stories, and essay collections and has been honored with countless awards, including the Anisfield-Wolf Book Prize for fiction. Her words are hauntingly magical, and her 2019 Buzzfeed essay “Beauty Tips from My Dead Sister” still lurks behind my shadow.
Book: On Morrison is available at Reparations Club in Los Angeles, California.
Tourmaline
Tourmaline gives a voice to the voiceless and doesn’t shy away from speaking the uncomfortable truths. She is an award-winning author, filmmaker, and activist dedicated to amplifying Black trans and queer joy. Through her work, she shines a much-needed spotlight on the people and stories that are often the most ignored, mistreated and misunderstood. Tourmaline forces each of us to reckon with our shared humanity, no matter how different we may appear on the outside, and reminds us that Black trans and queer women are at the heart of the revolutions on which all our freedoms depend to remain free.
Book: Marsha: The Joy and Defiance of Marsha P. Johnson is available at the Socialight Society in Lansing, Michigan.
Non-Fiction
Tressie McMillan Cottom
When you hear Tressie McMillan Cottom speak, your entire body language shifts: you lean in, push your shoulders back, unclench your jaw and steady your hands so that you can fully absorb her precise turn of phrase and sharp wit. Cottom is a writer, cultural critic, sociologist, and 2020 MacArthur Fellow whose prowess spans the breadth of some of the most pressing social and political issues of our time: everything from AI’s impact on our ability to learn to the racial hierarchy of beauty standards. If you’re ever looking for clarity in the midst of chaos, nuance in a sea of myopic chatter or fact-based analysis that combats revisionist misinformation, seek out Cottom. Her intellectual compass points due north.
Book: Thick: And Other Essays is available at The Lit Bar in the Bronx, NY.
Tricia Hersey
Rest isn’t something you earn, it’s a right. And in a world where Black women are conditioned to define their worth by hyperproductivity and output, Tricia Hersey urges us to unlearn this destructive mindset before it’s too late. Hersey is a poet, activist and founder of The Nap Ministry, and her approach to liberation through rest is as simple as it is groundbreaking. Whether she’s using the power of the pen to reframe and inspire healthier life practices or healing through community activism, Hersey is rewiring our understanding and expectations of what it means to truly get the rest we deserve.
Book: Rest is Resistance: A Manifesto is available at Akoma Coffee & Books in Stonecrest, Georgia.
Isabel Wilkerson
You can’t know where you’re going until you know where you’ve been, and Isabel Wilkerson knows where we’ve been. Wilkerson is a Pulitzer Prize-winning author and one of the leading voices in narrative nonfiction. Her work examines how our individual and collective histories shape who we are, what we stand for and what’s at stake in the current state of affairs. She captures centuries’ worth of Black American history and cultural evolution in a way that feels deeply personal. It’s as if the souls of our ancestors have laid themselves to rest inside the inner workings of her mind, and Wilkerson has made it her life’s work to listen, translate and enshrine their stories for all of us to read so as to never be forgotten or erased.
Book: The Warmth of Other Suns is available at Afriware Books, Co. in Maywood, Illinois.
Fiction
Bernardine Evaristo
There are some books that quietly stick with you for a long time and others that demand to be revisited over and over again—Bernardine Evaristo knows how to write both. She’s a British-Nigerian author whose words drop you right in the thick of her imagined worlds, making you feel like an all-too-present silent observer of the very messy and relatable lives of her characters. Her writing, which explores the expansiveness of the African diaspora, including beautiful stories of the queer communities that exist within it, has earned her a Booker Prize, among many others. In fact, she was the first black woman and black British person to win the prize in its 55-year history.
Book: Girl, Woman, Other is available at the Liberation Station Bookstore in Raleigh-Durham, NC.
Reneé Watson
At a time when women’s bodies are being so heavily scrutinized, judged and diagnosed, we sometimes need a friend who’s willing to say the hard thing out loud to help us find our way back to ourselves. Reneé Watson is that friend. With over one million books sold across children’s, young adult, and adult poetry and fiction, Watson puts Black women and girls in the driver’s seat of their own lives. Her work sits at the intersection of race, class, and gender and harnesses the power of storytelling to make sense of trauma, finding joy, healing, and self-love on the other side.
Book: Skin & Bones is available at Gladys Books & Wine in Brooklyn, New York.
Sarai Johnson
Writing and publishing a debut novel is no easy feat, and to have that same novel skyrocket to immediate fanfare is every writer’s dream. And while Sarai Johnson knows all about that fanfare, her success was anything but overnight. As a journalist and writing educator by trade, Johnson’s impressive list of accomplishments has always centered around one thing: captivating storytelling. She knows the power, trauma and reliance of Black women and tells our stories with such care and raw honesty that you’d think she ripped the pages out of your very own diary.
Book: Grown Women is available at Mahogany Books in Oxon Hill, MD.
Kayla Conti is a Brooklyn based reader, writer and newly-liberated woman in tech. You can find more of her musing on Substack at TLDR Things, where she discusses books, travel fashion and life as a 30-something Black woman.