Olaronke Akinmowo, an interdisciplinary artist based in N.Y.C., started The Free Black Women’s Library in 2015 to foster community by encouraging readers to take from and add to her growing collection of books by Black women writers. TFBWL has grown since then into a social art project that includes over 3,000 titles, traveling interactive installations, and free monthly gatherings. Here, Akinmowo shares five reading recommendations for books that celebrate the broad spectrum of Black womanhood. Olaronke Akinmowo [far left] with visitors to an outdoor TFBWL tent. Black Futures edited...

If, like me, you've spent the past 14 months finding comfort in feel-good YA, you have a lot to be excited about this spring. Some of your soon-to-be favorite additions to your bookshelf are out now — or out very, very soon. And the best part is, we're seeing all kinds of diverse, all-too-relatable heroes, heroines, and love stories, often paired with fresh takes on the genre's best tropes. (Fake dating fans, you'll definitely want to head to your local bookstore ASAP.) Read on for eight of...

May is Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month! But since there’s really no reason to restrict it to just one month, here is a list of new and upcoming works by AAPI authors to read all year round (or at least into late August):   Yolk by Mary H.K. ChoiOut now.In this YA novel by the author of Emergency Contact and Permanent Record, comes the story of two very different sisters who, once close but now estranged, are forced back into each other's lives when it...

Reese Witherspoon's book club LitUp will be taking applications for an all-expense paid fellowship program for underrepresented, unpublished women. The Legally Blonde and HBO hit-series Big Little Lies actress is on a mission to have all voices heard. Five chosen candidates will embark on a three-month mentorship with a published author to help them learn about book marketing, to connect them with top agents, and to get their books ready for the market. The program is powered by The Readership, a pay-it-forward platform focused on getting more...

In a stunning, vulnerable memoir-in-essays, author Larissa Pham explains and explores her desire to connect—with people, with places, and even with objects—and, in turn, reminds readers that we aren’t alone, either. Ultimately, she finds this feeling of connection through art. Using work by artists like Louise Bourgeois, Nan Goldin, and Yayoi Kusama as a prism, Pham shares her experiences with, and thoughts about, pain and trauma, sex and obsession, crushes and breakups, and intimacy in all its forms. Within these topics, Pham also crafts a...

Growing up, Lilly Dancyger idolized her father, a sculptor in the 1980s East Village art scene. When he dies, the trauma of the loss reverberates through her adolescence, eventually causing her to spiral into self-destruction. She struggles to adjust to a life without him, carting around stacks of his journals, promising herself that she will read them one day. However, when she finally opens them, she is disappointed to find that his journals detail his plans for his sculptures and very little about the life...

In the debut collection of poetry Bolt by Hilary Peach, a voice full of wonder and grit gallops across every page. Peach has been a writer and performance poet for three decades, as well as a blacksmith in the Boilermakers Union, welding heavy metals and creating art. The poems in Bolt are rooted in the melding of those two identities; a dreamer who writes with the melody of sharp observation and a dangerous imagination—dangerous in the way only women know how to be, which is to say, a compliment. Peach sings the words and stories...

With spring in full bloom and the summer sabbats just around the corner, it feels like the perfect time to microdose some magic and dig into a few witchy reads. Whether you’re looking to further your craft, reawaken your inner witch, or just sprawl out under the sun with a good book, here are four newly released and forthcoming titles on witchcraft to look out for this spring: Via Penguin Random House Canada Missing Witches: Recovering True Histories of Feminist Magic by Risa Dickens and Amy Torok Out...

TEN YEARS AGO, activist, leader, and visionary Sonya Renee Taylor found herself comforting a struggling friend and saying, “Natasha, your body is not an apology.” This statement inadvertently and profoundly resonated with Taylor herself. Following that revelation, “the body is not an apology” rooted itself as a personal ethos inside Taylor. She crafted the sentiment into a spoken-word performance, expanded the idea into a popular Facebook page and then further into an extensive multimedia platform, and then in 2018, into the New York Times best seller The Body Is...

The novel Of Women and Salt starts with Carmen’s plea to her daughter Jeanette to live—to choose life over suffering and addiction. From there, readers explore generations of Cuban and Cuban-American women as they come to terms with themselves, their family, and their countries. Within 12 short chapters, author Gabriela Garcia explores 9 points of view, offering an unflinching look into the ways her characters hurt and help each other over several lifetimes. From pre-revolution Cuba’s cigar factories and guerrillos (rebel fighters) to the salty-sweet Miami heat on pre-teen flesh, Garcia...