Author Appreciation – Black History Month
So I have been attempting to read more cultures outside of my typical realm. Well, still want the dragons but dragons doing new and interesting things. Black History Month is a good reason to dig deeper into authors I keep meaning to do justice.
Evan Winter
This is really his fault. I found his book through a friend recommendation and, apart from the fact that it had dragons, I didn’t know much about it. There was a whole new mythology, philosophy, and culture and it felt steeped in tradition and fresh at the same time. His reasoning for getting his book done was awesome as well. He said his biggest reason for writing it was so his son could have heroes that look like him.
The Burning series
The Rage of Dragons (2019)
The Fires of Vengeance (2020)
The Lord of Demons (TBA)
Alice Walker
Somehow I missed reading her through school. I only recently read one of her short stories, Everyday Use, for a class and I thoroughly enjoyed the writing style.
Novels & Short Stories
- The Third Life of Grange Copeland (1970)
- In Love and Trouble: Stories of Black Women (1973, includes “Everyday Use”)
- Meridian (1976)
- The Color Purple (1982)
- You Can’t Keep a Good Woman Down: Stories (1982)
- To Hell With Dying (1988)
- The Temple of My Familiar (1989)
- Finding the Green Stone (1991)
- Possessing the Secret of Joy (1992)
- The Complete Stories (1994)
- By the Light of My Father’s Smile (1998)
- The Way Forward Is with a Broken Heart (2000)
- Now Is the Time to Open Your Heart (2004)
Poetry Collections
- Once (1968)
- Revolutionary Petunias and Other Poems (1973)
- Good Night, Willie Lee, I’ll See You in the Morning (1979)
- Horses Make a Landscape Look More Beautiful (1985)
- Her Blue Body Everything We Know: Earthling Poems (1991)
- Absolute Trust in the Goodness of the Earth (2003)
- A Poem Traveled Down My Arm: Poems And Drawings (2003)
- Collected Poems (2005)
- The World Will Follow Joy (2013)
- Hard Times Require Furious Dancing: New Poems (2010)
- Taking the Arrow Out of the Heart (2018)
Nonfiction
- In Search of Our Mothers’ Gardens: Womanist Prose (1983)
- Living by the Word (1988)
- Warrior Marks (1993)
- The Same River Twice: Honoring the Difficult (1996)
- Anything We Love Can Be Saved: A Writer’s Activism (1997)
- Sent By Earth: A Message from the Grandmother Spirit After the Bombing of the World Trade Center and Pentagon (2001)
- We Are the Ones We Have Been Waiting For (2006)
- Pema Chödrön and Alice Walker in Conversation
- Overcoming Speechlessness (2010)
- Chicken Chronicles, A Memoir (2011)
- The cushion in the road – Meditation and wandering as the whole world awakens to be in harm’s way (2013
Nnedi Okorafor
She felt like a missing link. Akata Witch had all the things that I want in a YA story with kids learning their magic and their place in the world with a Nigerian rich context. I don’t know much about African cultures but Okorafor made me hungry for more and thankfully she has a lot to look at!
Novels
- Binti Series
- Nsibidi Scripts
- Kabu Kabu
- Remote Control
- Lagoon
- Zahrah the Windseeker
- Broken Places & Outer Spaces: Finding Creativity on the Unexpected
- The Girl with the Magic Hands
- Ikenga
- The Shadow Speaker
- Shuri
- LaGuardia
- Black Panther
- Wakanda Forever
- Antar
- After the Rain
- Chicken in the Kitchen
Jordan Ifueko
Her writing felt like a fairy tale. I loved her characters and the world she built. I haven’t watched/read Moon Girl yet but I am incredibly excited to fix that.
Raybearer
Raybearer, Amulet Books (2020)
Redemptor, Amulet Books (2021)
N. K. Jemison
Last but definitely not least, I’m working through the Broken Earth series and I love the style and the approach.
- The Inheritance Trilogy
- The Broken Earth Series
- The Dreamblood Duology
- The Great Cities Series
- How Long ’til Black Future Month?
- Geek Wisdom: The Sacred Teachings of Nerd Culture (co-written with Stephen H. Segal, Genevieve Valentine, Zaki Hasan, and Eric San Juan)
- Far Sector #1-12 (with Jamal Campbell, DC Comics)
- And several short stories
