The struggle continues, but so does the printing press, fellow readers. Without further ado, here are some tidbits of interesting diverse bookish news I’ve come across lately.
- I may have posted about this before, but I don’t think one can post too much about the adorable children’s book that James Baldwin wrote for his nephews. It’s called Little Man, Little Man and of course it’s set in Harlem and has beautiful watercolor illustrations done by a Parisien artist. [LitHub]
- I have definitely posted about Alexis Pauline Gumbs’ Undrowned: Black Feminist Lessons From Marine Animals before, in this booklist about new social justice texts. Apparently, its weird and wonderful ecofeminism has been translated into Korean? That seems very niche but also SUPER cool. [Kyobo Books]
- Chinese-American writer and translator Wendy Chen has a mentor, who happens to be the legendary poet Li Qingzhao, who died in 1151. Were it anyone but Chen claiming this I’d be…skeptical? But follow her on this, it’s wonderfully wrought. [LitHub]
- Not every mentor, muse, or patron needs to have died a thousand years ago. Sometimes figures of different influence but similar polarities just need to be in the right place at the right time. Juanita Tolliver’s new book about the time Huey P. Newton and Shirley Chisholm met at a party hosted by Diahann Carroll is proof. WILD proof, but proof, nonetheless. [Contraband Camp]
- Consider this a friendly reminder that there are a lot of excellent publications focused on short speculative fiction that have almost their entire back catalogue available online to read for free. Sometimes you can really find some gems there. Exhibit A: Stephen Graham Jones, perhaps most known for a scary story about an elk, burning up the page with a poignant, tender space story back in 2018.[Lightspeed]
- I admittedly haven’t read much Moroccan fiction but this beautiful excerpt from Living In Your Light by Abdellah Taia(translated by Emma Ramadan) makes me want to change that. I mean, this line? “Your eyes didn’t say that I was beautiful nor that you were in love with me. No, none of that. Your eyes played, danced, and invited me to do the same. Dance with you in public, in the souk.” Bars. It takes on a little more meaning when you realize Taia is the only openly gay writer in Morocco, and writes into his #ownnormal. [7 Stories]
- Yay. The television adaptation of Margaret Atwood’s The Testaments is getting closer to television. Yay. [Deadline]
- I just reviewed the Black history vignette collection Crazy as Hell, and it turns out one of the co-authors, Hoke Glover III, has a poem in the latest edition of Rattle, under the name Bro Yao. We love a multi-genre Black writer! You’ll have to buy the issue to read it, but for serious poetry heads this might be worth it. Hell, it might be worth it just for that pseudonym. [Rattle]
- Romance is resistance. Appropriate, then that romance-focused bookstores are popping up everywhere, including Latino communities in South Florida. [WLM]
- This is a relief: Zadie Smith doesn’t like White Teeth anymore either. [The Independent]
- Finally: Jamaican lesbian poet Stacey-Ann Chin is one of the first literary figures I met and I was social media friends with her through much of her journey to motherhood. Now she’s made a documentary about it all that seems to visually maintain her trademark lyrical style. Will try and see this, for sure. [Facebook]
And there it is, fellow readers–a roundup of books to read, thoughts to chase, and writers to pay attention to. As always, thank you for visiting, please remember that anything you buy from a link on this blog results in a commission being paid to my book-buying fund, and it is always a smart idea to read something good. Or bad, I don’t care. Just go read. Peace!
Equal Opportunity Reader 