I created the Onward Book Club, which takes place on my Instagram via a live chat, as a way of spotlighting, studying, and celebrating the work of Black female authors. If you would like to join the Onward Book Club, membership is simple — just read along with us, as we explore the rich creative and cultural offerings of these extraordinary writers! And here’s a suggestion — if you are a member of an existing book club, why not ask your group to make a commitment to reading more books written by Black women? My hope is that this page will offer you suggestions and inspiration. You can see all the posts using #onwardbookclub.
Please feel free to watch and share these videos with your own reading groups. As always, I suggest that you buy your books through Black-owned bookstores. My favorite is Elizabeth’s of Akron, owned by my friend Rachel Cargle. — which also has very good reading lists about Black authors.
Thank you…and onward!
~Liz
Abi Daré, The Girl with the Louding Voice
Abi Daré, The Girl with the Louding Voice
Dear Ones! Please sit down with your favorite warm beverage and enjoy this conversation with the extraordinary @abidare_author about her unforgettable debut novel THE GIRL WITH THE LOUDING VOICE — one of the most captivatingly narrated stories I have ever read. Thank you, Abi, for bringing the character of Adunni to life — this vivid, whip-smart, ambitious young Nigerian girl who longs to be educated, so that she can possess “a louding voice”. I loved this conversation — as much about the spirituality and mysticism of writing as the craft. Absolutely beautiful.
Samantha Irby, We Are Never Meeting in Real Life.
Samantha Irby, We Are Never Meeting in Real Life.
Please treat yourself to this conversation with the incomparable Samantha Irby, in which we discuss her book (one of my favorites of all time) WE ARE NEVER MEETING IN REAL LIFE. Sam: You are doomed to be loved by us. Thank you for all that you are and all that you create!
Danielle Henderson, THE UGLY CRY
Danielle Henderson, THE UGLY CRY
My friends, it is time for you to sit down and enjoy this interview with the brilliant, hilarious, wonderful author @daniellehenderson about her heart-stoppingly good memoir THE UGLY CRY. Danielle, you are indeed a treasure — thank you for sharing your life and your light with us!
Iyanla Vanzant, PEACE FROM BROKEN PIECES
Iyanla Vanzant, PEACE FROM BROKEN PIECES
Please join me tomorrow for a very special edition of the Onward Book Club, with my special guest, the great and powerful Iyanla Vanzant! Holy. Moly. This woman! This epic, beautiful woman! We will be discussing her classic 2010 #1 New York Times bestselling memoir PEACE FROM BROKEN PIECES — a story of grief, trauma, courage resilience, and the self-creation of a wise and deeply spiritual woman. I love and respect this book. I love and respect @iyanlavanzant. I have a lot of questions of my own for Iyanla about how we can possibly recover our spirits after the blow of losing the most important person in our lives (an experience I have painful familiarity with) or how to survive any of the “unsurvivable” losses that shake the foundations of being. We will also talk about intergenerational trauma, racism, relationships, and God. On a more personal note, I can’t wait to reconnect with someone whom I adore with all my heart, whose company has always made me feel like I live in a world of infinite possibility, where the opportunities for transformation are both endless and surprising. Please join us for this very special conversation — tomorrow (Thursday June 3) at 2pm EST on my Instagram live. See you there BELOVEDS! ??
Luvvie Ajayi Jones, PROFESSIONAL TROUBLEMAKER
Luvvie Ajayi Jones, PROFESSIONAL TROUBLEMAKER
Luvvie Adjei Jones is a star. She’s the New York Times best selling author of two wildfire memoirs and life guides: I’M JUDGING YOU and PROFESSIONAL TROUBLEMAKER. She’s a brilliant blogger; a tireless activist; a marketing wizard; an internationally respected expert on the very serious subject of shoes; a voice of truth about the power of Shea butter to transform our lives; the owner of the most insane and enviable pair of cheekbones the world has ever seen; a compelling and hilarious Podcaster; an Oprah Winfrey super soul 100 all star; the unchallenged heavyweight world champion of “side eye”; a TED speaker whose talk has inspired millions; a social media presence beloved by her army of Luvvnation; and a critic of the status quo whose very existence strikes terror in the collective guts of the mediocre… Born in Nigeria, forged in Chicago, she is a true global citizen and a leader for our times!
Tayari Jones, AN AMERICAN MARRIAGE
Tayari Jones, AN AMERICAN MARRIAGE
Tayari Jones is one of those “overnight success stories” who has actually been writing beautiful and thoughtful books for years. But it was her fourth novel, AN AMERICAN MARRIAGE, that made her into a bestseller and a cultural phenomenon. This heartbreaking, suspenseful, and intricately crafted book tells the story of a young, ambitious Black couple in Atlanta whose marriage is exploded by the arrest and incarceration of the husband for a crime he did not commit. What follows is a story of loyalty, betrayal, devastation, impossible moral dilemmas and stubborn regeneration. This is an unforgettable tale by a writer at the top of her game.
Lauren Wilkinson, AMERICAN SPY
Lauren Wilkinson, AMERICAN SPY
Lauren Wilkinson is a first time novelist of extraordinary intelligence and talent. AMERICAN SPY is a Cold War thriller that both embraces and transcends the spy genre — telling the captivating story of Marie Mitchell, a Black FBI agent who gets recruited by the CIA for a mysterious mission in West Africa. This is a book of rare sensibilities about divided loyalties, the dangers of imperial power, morally ambiguous missions, and what it means to be a good American
Sarah M. Broom, THE YELLOW HOUSE
Sarah M. Broom, The Yellow House
THE YELLOW HOUSE is a memoir of masterful, mythic proportions. Sarah M. Broom tells the story of her family’s history in a humble yellow house in a poor neighborhood of New Orleans before, during, and after Hurricane Katrina?. Written with intimacy, heartbreak, poetic language and a reporter’s desire to get to the bottom of the truth, this book is a vast landscape. Broom won the prestigious National Book Award in non-fiction for this masterpiece.
Jesmyn Ward, SING, UNBURIED, SING
Jesmyn Ward, SING, UNBURIED, SING
Jesmyn Ward is arguably the most important contemporary American author. Versatile, brilliant, elegant, she is a master of both fiction and non-fiction. She’s the recipient of a MacArthur Genius Grant, and she twice won the National Book Award for fiction. SING, UNBURIED, SING is a novel about a young bi-racial boy on terrifying road trip through Mississippi with his checked-out mother, his baby sister, and the ghosts (literally) of his family’s wrecked past. Ward is regularly compared to Faulkner — and for very good reason. This novel is simply epic.
Natasha Trethewey, MEMORIAL DRIVE
Natasha Trethewey, MEMORIAL DRIVE
Trethewey is one of the most celebrated poets in America today. She won the Pulitzer Prize, and also served as our country’s Poet Laureate for two term. MEMORIAL DRIVE is her memoir about the story that has haunted her for decades — the murder of her mother, back in the 1980s, by an abusive partner. This is one of the most delicately and beautiful-constructed memoirs I’ve ever read, and it’s also an education about what it means to be bi-racial girl raised in the Deep South.
Dr. Tererai Trent, THE AWAKENED WOMAN
Dr. Tererai Trent, THE AWAKENED WOMAN
Dr. Trent (whom Oprah once called the favorite guest she’d every interviewed) is simply the most extraordinary woman I’ve ever met. Raised in poverty in Zimbabwe, the victim of both racist and patriarchal abuses, Dr. Trent was married off at age 14, and had three children by the time she was 20. Yet she had a dream: To get a Bachelor’s, Master’s and Doctoral degree, and to return to her community and build schools for girls like herself. This memoir shows how she did it, and encourages all women to live by their dreams.
Emily Bernard, BLACK IS THE BODY
Emily Bernard, BLACK IS THE BODY
This is a beautifully-executed collection of essays about Bernard’s experience as a Black woman moving through traditionally white spaces in America (especially academia, and the entire State of Vermont.) It’s also a memoir of the deep love that passes between grandmothers, mothers, and daughters — and a story of how both friendship and marriage can heal intergenerational wounds.
Dr. Michele Harper, THE BEAUTY IN BREAKING
Dr. Michele Harper, THE BEAUTY IN BREAKING
Dr. Harper is one of the mere 2% of Black women doctors working in America — and she’s on the front lines, as an Emergency Room doctor. In this exquisitely-written, incredibly humane, and inspiring memoir, she tells the story of how she found healing for her own wounds by becoming a healer of others. She also discusses the institutional racism within the medical community, and the ways in which poverty and oppression are medical issue within themselves.
Mikki Kendall, HOOD FEMINISM
This book is a searing, moving, and tightly-memoir and historical exploration of the failures of the American feminist movement to show up for Black women. Kendall also explores the prison of “respectability politics”, and breaks down the steps through which white women can move from being mere allies, to being actual accomplices.
Dr. Brittany Cooper, ELOQUENT RAGE
Dr. Brittany Cooper, ELOQUENT RAGE
I think of Dr. Cooper as her own weather system. She’s a powerful and brilliant feminist scholar. Her memoir, ELOQUENT RAGE, presents a strong and moving argument for the ways in which white women have let their Black sisters down again and again throughout history. This book is essential reading for anyone who calls herself a feminist — and it’s also a beautiful and vulnerable story of Brittany’s own journey.