Happy Black History Month! Let’s take a quick look back at some of the most interesting diverse books news from last week.
- OG Black speculative fiction writer Gerald L Coleman has put together the dopest, most definitive list of Black science fiction and fantasy I’ve EVER seen. Please check it out.[ Gerald L Coleman]
- This video of Nigerian writer Chimamanda Ngozie Adichie very politely handing this French news reporter her own racist ass is a bit old, but still enormously enjoyable.[YouTube]
- Traveling from Nigeria to South Korea by way of…Poland(?), we have a novel about the lady divers of Jeju Island. While I imagine it’s akin to Lisa See’s The Island of Sea Women, it’s a bit unique in that the writer is writing and publishing the book in her native Polish, with hopes for an English translation later this year. [The Korea Times]
- Back in the US, Old Town Road rapper and generally cheerful iconic lil cousin Lil Nas X is now the best-selling author of the children’s book C Is For Country. [ The Grio]
- Speaking of the US, it’s now Black History Month there and there’s quite a lot of Black book news as a result. The classic 1929 novel racial chameleon novel Passing has been adapted for the screen and is premiering at Sundance; British writer Bernardine Evaristo is curating a new series of essential Black British writers for re-release; and Black media staple Shondaland has put together a BHM must-read list that nicely reflects the internal diversity of American Blackness.[Yahoo; The Guardian; Shondaland]
- A 13 year-old Canadian girl has successfully applied for and received a hefty grant to upgrade her “very white” school library to a more diverse, multicultural, reality-reflecting one. We stan. [CBC]
- Last but not least, the Equal Opportunity Reader patron saint Levar Burton has been named the first recipient of the PEN/Faulkner Literary Champion prize, awarded to an individual who is a devoted literary advocate and an encouragement to new generations of readers. It definitely suits him. [Publisher’s Weekly]
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