Black Panther broke down significant barriers in Hollywood as an all-black film, grossing $1.347 billion in box offices across the world. Nyong’o shared with Vanity Fair her thoughts on why the film was such a breath of fresh air. “In Black Panther, I felt that the African experience was allowed to exist aspirationally,” she said. […]
Chicago-based artist and rapper Noname, born as Fatimah Nyeema Warner, has launched her own book club. Simply titled “Noname’s Book Club” with the tagline Reading material for the homies, the artist is celebrating progressive writers of color and writers within the LGBTQ community. Two literary works will be featured per month. For September, Don’t […]
“The Second Founding: How the Civil War and Reconstruction Remade the Constitution” (W.W. Norton and Co.), by Eric Foner It took the United States two tries to get the Constitution right. The first time was at the 1787 Constitutional Convention. The second time was during Reconstruction, the 12-year period after the Civil War when the […]
NEW YORK (AP) — Colson Whitehead’s novel “The Nickel Boys” and Kwame Alexander’s picture story “The Undefeated” are among the finalists for the Kirkus Prize, a $50,000 honor given for the year’s outstanding fiction, nonfiction and young readers’ books. Saeed Jones’ memoir “How We Fight for Our Lives” also was a nominee announced Tuesday by […]
NEW YORK (AP) — Ta-Nehisi Coates’ first novel, “The Water Dancer,” has been a long and eventful journey. Begun a decade ago, his chronicle of a slave with an extraordinary memory who joins the Underground Railroad is the result of countless drafts, a shift from multiple narrators to a single voice, some needed advice from […]
NEW YORK (AP) — A book of Toni Morrison quotations is coming out in December. “The Measure of Our Lives: A Gathering of Wisdom” will draw from her whole body of work, including celebrated novels such as “Beloved” and “Song of Solomon.” The foreword is by Zadie Smith, adapted from a tribute she wrote soon […]
NEW YORK (AP) — Marlon James fantasy novel “Black Leopard, Red Wolf,” Laila Lalami’s immigrant tale “The Other Americans” and Jason Reynolds’ neighborhood story “Look Both Ways” are among this year’s finalists for the 70th annual National Book Awards. Nominees announced Tuesday also include Albert Woodfox, the former prison inmate who spent more than 40 […]
In the latest episode of JARO’s Podcast, Tomeka M. Winborne had the pleasure of speaking with debut novelist and 2019 Kirkus Prize Finalist Alicia D. Williams about her acclaimed book Genesis Begins Again. The hour-long conversation details Williams’ early writing process and the novel’s plot. Williams takes listeners through a poignant yet hopeful adolescent journey impacted […]
NEW YORK (AP) — Ta-Nehisi Coates’ first novel, “The Water Dancer,” is among the nominees for an Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence. Coates’ narrative of an enslaved person’s journey to freedom is a fiction finalist, along with Valeria Luiselli’s “Lost Children Archive” and Myla Goldberg’s “Feast Your Eyes.” The nonfiction nominees are Maria Popova’s “Figuring,” […]
“Genesis Begins Again” by Alicia D. Williams has been announced as one of the five finalists competing for the William C. Morris literary award. In October, JARO had the pleasure of speaking with Williams about her debut novel through our podcast offering, where she touched on her early writing process and the book’s crucial message […]