Black Classic Literature (TBR)
A selection of Black classic (recognized, imo, contemporary, & future, etc…) literature TBR highlights as well as some all-time favorites…
“This imagination gap is caused in part by the lack of diversity in childhood and teen life depicted in books, television, and films. When youth grow up without seeing diverse images in the mirrors, windows, and doors of children's and young adult literature, they are confined to single stories about the world around them and, ultimately, the development of their imaginations is affected.
…my literate imagination was quite segregated. Books and movies about children and teens who looked like me were read and viewed out of duty, in order to learn something about the past. Books and movies that showcased the pleasures of dreaming, imagination, and escape were stories about people who did not look like me. And yet I was most drawn to those magical stories, for I longed to dream.”
— from The Dark Fantastic by Ebony Elizabeth Thomas
There are plenty of amazing reading lists by Black content creators out there (I’ve linked a few of my favorites below) suggesting all the amazing Black literature that we should all be reading year-round, so instead of making yet another one, I decided that instead I’d share my TBR of Black classics that I’m actively working through. This selection includes books from my favorite genres of memoir, magical realism, fantasy, speculative fiction, & folklore, because I think by now we can mostly agree that the idea of “classic” literature transcends any kind of segregation of the imagination dictated by arbitrary neo-colonial constructs such as genre & style.
I have also included some titles by authors whose work I’ve already read more than what is left of their oeuvre on my TBR, a well as titles of a few of my all-time favorite Black classics reads (for example, I will put Assata Shakur's memoir on every single reading list I make if I can manage it) & added links to my published thoughts where applicable.
Definitely feel free to please drop your own TBR highlights (& recs) in the comments!
My intention is for this to be the first of a few “TBR” lists (as opposed to my recommended “Reading Lists”) that I have saved in my notebook right now. As a mood reader, I don’t strictly stick to TBRs, but I do like to keep the books I’ve come across that I’m interested in reading one day a bit organized so when I am ready to pick up a new book, I can browse each list & see which book I’m in the mood for in that moment.
As such this is going to be a very fluid, organic, constantly-updated list—especially as I check titles off, I won’t remove them from this list I’ll just add my thoughts on them. <3
Xx ceallaigh 🥀📖
PS - I am being informed by substack that this post is too long to fit all of it into the email so if that’s where you’re reading & you’d like to see the whole thing, click through to the web page. <3
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“One night one of the nurses came in and gave me three books. I hadn’t even thought about reading. The books were a godsend. They had been carefully selected. One was a book of Black poetry, one was a book called Black Women in White Amerika, and the third was a novel, Siddhartha, by Hermann Hesse. Whenever i tired of the verbal abuse of my captors, i would drown them out by reading the poetry out loud. “Invictus” and “If We Must Die” were the poems i usually read. I read them over and over, until i was sure the guards had heard every word. The poems were my message to them.”
— from Assata: An Autobiography by Assata Shakur
Black *Classic Literature…
(*recognized, imo, contemporary, & future, etc…)
The first title listed for each author is the work of theirs that is next on my radar for their oeuvre.
+ denotes an author whose entire oeuvre I am slowly working though…
* denotes books not yet on my shelves…
✔️ denotes books I’ve finished.
Click on the star ratings beside the titles I’ve read to read my reviews/thoughts about the book.
I earn commissions from the sponsored links to my shop on bookshop.org which allow me to keep the majority of my content like Book Reviews & Reading Lists free to all subscribers. <3
THERE’S ALWAYS THIS YEAR by Hanif Abdurraqib (2024)
ALL GOD’S CHILDREN NEED TRAVELING SHOES: 1962–65, by Maya Angelou (1986)
+ ANOTHER COUNTRY by James Baldwin (1962)
✔️ NOTES OF A NATIVE SON (1955)
✔️ GIOVANNI’S ROOM (1956) ★ ★ ★ ★ .5
THE FIRE NEXT TIME (1963)
GO TELL IT ON THE MOUNTAIN (1953)
IF BEALE STREET COULD TALK (1953)
+ ✔️ KINDRED by Octavia Butler (1979) —an overdue reread for an author of whose works I would eventually like to read in their entirety…
✔️ FLEDGLING (2005) ★ ★ ★ ★ .5
✔️ PARABLE OF THE SOWER (1993) ★ ★ ★ ★ ★
PARABLE OF THE TALENTS (1998)
BLOODCHILD (1984)
HIDING MY CANDY by The Lady Chablis (1996) —a Savannah home-town hero <3 … the way I have been edging the s—tttt out of this book tho 😅
WHAT STORM, WHAT THUNDER by Myriam J A Chancy (2021)
SPIRIT OF HAITI (2004)
THE MESSAGE by Ta-Nehisi Coates (2024)
BETWEEN THE WORLD AND ME (2015)
* OF MORSELS AND MARVELS (Mets et merveilles) by Maryse Conde (2015)
✔️ I, TITUBA: BLACK WITCH OF SALEM (1986) ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ —one of my all-time favorite books
✔️ LAND OF MANY COLORS & NANNA-YA (1985) ★ ★ ★ ★ .75
✔️ WINDWARD HEIGHTS (1995; eng. 1998) ★ ★ ★ ★ ★
BREATH, EYES, MEMORY by Edwidge Danticat (1994)
✔️ KRIK, KRAK (1995) ★ ★ ★ ★ ★
*THE BLACK VAMPYRE: A Legend of St. Domingo, by Uriah Derick D’Arcy (1819)
+ ✔️ ARE PRISONS OBSOLETE? by Angela Davis (2003) ★ ★ ★ ★ ★
✔️ ABOLITION DEMOCRACY (2005)
IF THEY COME IN THE MORNING (1971)
WOMEN, RACE AND CLASS (1981)
WOMEN, CULTURE & POLITICS (1990)
ABOLITION. FEMINISM. NOW. (2022)
BAD FEMINIST by Roxane Gay (2014)
HUNGER (2017)
OF ONE BLOOD; Or, the Hidden Self, by Pauline E. Hopkins (1902)
+ DUST TRACKS ON A ROAD by Zora Neale Hurston (1942)
✔️ MULES AND MEN (1935) ★ ★ ★ ★ ★
TELL MY HORSE (1938)
✔️ THEIR EYES WERE WATCHING GOD (1937) ★ ★ ★ ★ ★
✔️ HITTING A STRAIGHT LICK WITH A CROOKED STICK: Stories from the Harlem Renaissance, (2020) ★ ★ ★ ★ ★
JONAH’S GOURD VINE (1934)
“She didn’t read books so she didn’t know that she was the world and the heavens boiled down to a drop.”
— from Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston
✔️ THE STAR SIDE OF BIRD HILL by Naomi Jackson (2015) ★ ★ ★ ★ ★
ALL BOYS AREN’T BLUE by George M Johnson (2020)
THE ESSENTIAL JUNE JORDAN by June Jordan (2021)
✔️ HARUKO/LOVE POEMS (1993) ★ ★ ★ ★ ★
✔️ HOOD FEMINISM by Mikki Kendall (2020) ★ ★ ★ ★ ★
✔️ STAMPED FROM THE BEGINNING by Ibram X Kendi (2016) ★ ★ ★ ★ ★
AN AFRICAN IN GREENLAND by Tété-Michel Kpomassie (1981)
PASSING, by Nella Larsen (1929)
+ THE COLLECTED POEMS of Audre Lorde (1997)
✔️ ZAMI: A New Spelling of My Name (1982) ★ ★ ★ ★ ★
✔️ THE CANCER JOURNALS (1980) ★ ★ ★ ★ ★
* THE CONQUEST: The Story of a Negro Pioneer, by Oscar Micheaux (1913)
&, relatedly, THE BLACK COWBOY, by Clarence Holte (1932) —except now I can’t find any evidence that this book even exists?? da heck? I didn’t dream this book I know…
+ * GOD HELP THE CHILD by Toni Morrison (2015)
✔️ PLAYING IN THE DARK (1993) ★ ★ ★ ★ ★
✔️ THE SOURCE OF SELF-REGARD: Selected Essays, Speeches, and Meditations (2019) ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ —this was the first of Morrison’s writing that I ever read & I first read it in college & I became *obsessed* with it & what I mean by that is though I weirdly didn’t own a copy I kept checking the same pink hardcover, deckled-edge edition out of the library over & over again, I referenced it all the time both in conversation & in college papers—it essentially functioned for me like the Ella Enchanted fairy-book that whenever I needed it, I would open the book & find the particular essay that had been waiting for me to read it in just that moment. I now do own a copy but still haven’t officially published any thoughts on it because it has always just seemed superfluous to write about—it would be like writing about the dictionary for me at this point, idk.
* WHAT MOVES AT THE MARGINS (2008)
✔️ THE BLUEST EYE (1970) ★ ★ ★ ★ ★
SONG OF SOLOMON (1977)
TAR BABY (1981)
BELOVED (1987)
* THE WHITE MOSQUE by Sofia Samatar (2022)
✔️ A STRANGER IN OLONDRIA (2012) ★ ★ ★ ★ .5
THE WINGED HISTORIES (2016)
* MONSTER PORTRAITS (2017)
✔️ ASSATA AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY by Assata Shakur (1987) ★ ★ ★ ★ ★
SORROWLAND by Rivers Solomon (2021)
THE DEEP (2019)
MODEL HOME (2024)
✔️ THE DARK FANTASTIC by Ebony Elizabeth Thomas (2019)
CANE by Jean Toomer (1923)
& idk, how are we feeling about Alice Walker these days?
I read ✔️ LIVING BY THE WORD (1988) ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ a couple years ago & loved it but she’s kind of been giving some messy vibes lately so idk… what do y’all think?
✔️ THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MALCOLM X: As Told to Alex Haley (1965) —I stumbled upon this book a local bookstore during my freshman year of college during a time when had a I picked up literally any other book I can confidently say that I would not be the person I am today.
[Work by & tangential to Helen Oyeyemi & Akwaeke Emezi can be found on my Literary Fiction TBR (coming soon) as well as on their respective author posts (Emezi’s coming soon), since I’ve mostly read all of their works already & will continue to do so forever & I engage with them on a more personal level—though, at least especially in the case of Emezi’s work, they are all inarguably contemporary &/or future classics. OH yeah—also Jamaica Kincaid isn’t on this list because I’ve already read all of her works also except for one collection but I haven’t made her author post yet either which I need to do & will do asap as well… 😅]
“There is no end / To what a living world / Will demand of you…
I showed him four verses in all—gentle, brief verses that might take hold of him without his realizing it and live in his memory without his intending that they should. Bits of the Bible had done that to me, staying with me even after I stopped believing. I gave to Harry, and through him to Zahra, thoughts I wanted them to keep.”
— from Parable of the Sower by Octavia E Butler