Books

10 Essential Books About Writing

An illustration shows a person with brown skin and brown hair with a pencil in their mouth, bookshelves with blue, purple, yellow, and pink book covers behind them, and a laptop in front of them.
by Nylah Burton
April 6, 2022 at 12:07pm
Must-read titles for writers include works by Elena Ferrante, Akwaeke Emezi, Meg Wolitzer, Yoko Ogawa, and more.
Rachel True, a Black woman with curly brown hair, poses against a turquoise background

In the Stars: Rachel True Wades into the World of Tarot

by Vilissa Thompson
December 15, 2020 at 10:01am
The magic isn’t really in the paper, the cards, or the ink. Read more »
a light-skinned Black woman with a short afro reads a book while sitting on the couch

BitchReads: 7 Books Feminists Should Read in December

by Evette Dionne
December 14, 2020 at 3:30pm
We hope that our monthly BitchReads list has served as even a small distraction. Read more »
Ijeoma Oluo, a light-skinned Black woman with short brown hair, poses in a red shirt and a leopard-print headband

Ijeoma Oluo’s “Mediocre” Explores the Disaster of White Male Supremacy

by Shannon Weber
December 14, 2020 at 3:11pm
Mediocre resists the naive and coddling notion that simply loving white men out of their brittle rage and self-hatred will turn things around. Read more »
A person with light brown hair and glasses reads a book while wearing a white sweater.

BitchReads: 7 YA Books Feminists Should Read in December

by Rachel Charlene Lewis
December 3, 2020 at 12:30pm
As we wrap up 2020, we’ll be reading. Read more »
illustration of a sad woman’s face surrounded by a carousel of galloping horses

Sobering Realities: Women Write Their Way into the Addiction Canon

by Britni de la Cretaz
December 2, 2020 at 9:31am
Slowly but surely, women have been adding their stories to the memoir canon. Read more »
two young women standing side-by-side in an open parking lot

The Corn-Fed Whiteness of Rural Literature

by s.e. smith
November 24, 2020 at 9:00am
Much of this canon is white and male, fetishizing a version of rural life that never truly existed. Read more »
A brown woman with brown hair wears an orange blouse and reads a book on a sofa.

9 Political Novels That Help Us Understand Our Current Chaos

by Rachel Charlene Lewis
November 23, 2020 at 11:48am
These nine novels help us better understand how we got here. Read more »
a collage of four book covers: Lives of Great Men, Welcome to Lagos, The Death of Vivek Oji, and Under the Udala Trees

4 Nigerian Authors to Read Who Haven’t Been Proudly Transphobic

by Gloria Oladipo
November 20, 2020 at 1:58pm
Continue investing in other Nigerian authors seeking to challenge some of Nigeria’s cultural norms. Read more »
So You Want to Talk About Race by Ijeoma Oluo

White Rage, White Guilt: How Long Do We Wait for White Women to Learn?

by Katherine Morgan
November 20, 2020 at 12:31pm
I believe that the intentions were good, but the worst thing about good intentions is that sometimes the energy can be misplaced. Read more »
I Want to Be Where the Normal People book cover features an illustration of Rachel Bloom, a white woman with short, brown hair looking longingly out the window with a small dog

BitchReads: 7 Books Feminists Should Read in November

by Evette Dionne
November 10, 2020 at 12:50pm
It feels as if I can focus again—and I hope this is true for our readers too. Read more »

Pages

Best of Bitch

Black Girls Hunger for Heroes, Too: A Black Feminist Conversation on Fantasy Fiction for Teens

by Zetta Elliott
December 17, 2013 at 3:19pm
What happens when two great black women fiction writers get together to talk about race in young adult literature? That's exactly what happens... Read more »

Know & Tell: The Literary Renaissance of Trans Women Writers

by Katherine Cross
Winter 2015 • (Re)Vision
For so long, the people who wrote about us were not us. Finally, that is beginning to change. Read more »

Mock & Awe: Janet Mock on Truth-Telling, Community Building, and Writing the Story She Had Been Waiting for Her Whole Life

Janet Mock, a transgender Hawaiian woman with curly, brown hair, smiles
by Tina Vasquez
Spring 2014 • Maps & Legends
“Redefining Realness” is written with astounding honesty and heart. Read more »

Demanding the Impossible: Walidah Imarisha Talks About Science Fiction and Social Change

by Kristian Williams
April 13, 2015 at 2:23pm
Before she was a poet, journalist, documentary filmmaker, anti-prison activist, and college instructor, Walidah Imarisha was fascinated... Read more »