Celebrating Black Writers
In celebration of Black History Month, Bennington College is compiling a spotlight of the community's favorite Black authors and favorite books by Black authors.
Who is Your Favorite Black Author?
"Sonya Renee Taylor is a New York Times best-selling author, world-renowned activist and thought leader on racial justice, body liberation and transformational change. She is the founder of The Body is Not an Apology, a global digital media and education company exploring the intersections of identity, healing, and social justice through the framework of radical self-love. Sonya Renee posits that all people arrive on this planet in a state of self-love before internalizing messages of shame and injustice from systems of oppression. I grew up hating my body, which in turn, I hated myself. Taylor's book, The Body is Not an Apology, helped shift my perspective and confront the racist and fatphobic messaging often used to perpetuate self-hate, particularly as if relates to Black/brown bodies." - Dr. Alfredo Medina, Jr., Vice President for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion and College Diversity Officer
"For black feminism and cultural criticism: bell hooks. For poetry: Lucille Clifton. For fiction: N.K. Jemisin. For philosophy: Audre Lorde." - Renée Lauzon Vesper, Associate Director of Digital Marketing
"Zora Neale Hurston, because she was fearless and so was her writing. I also love the fact that she was an anthropologist who collected folktales and studied African diasporic religions." - Kat Hughes, Art Director
Recommended by Jared Della Rocca, Director of Library Services
Recommended by Jared Della Rocca, Director of Library Services
Recommended by Jared Della Rocca, Director of Library Services
What is Your Favorite Book by a Black Author?
Up Home: One Girl's Journey
Ruth J. Simmons
"I love stories about women coming of age, and this is a great one. Ruth J. Simmons was born the twelfth child of sharecroppers in East Texas and became the first Black person to serve as president of an Ivy League university. I love Simmons' direct and elegant language and how her story brought the history of the Civil Rights struggle into clearer focus for me. I also appreciate how she honors her heritage and her family alongside her academic ambitions. She also shares lessons about the power of higher education and about higher education leadership. " - Ashley Brenon Jowett, Director of Communications
Boy, Snow, Bird
Helen Oyeyemi
"Oyeyemi's writing is exquisitely crafted and immerses the reader in worlds and characters that both folkloric and modern, familiar and surreal." - Oceana Wilson, Dean of the Library
Love Hopes For You
Adrian Michael
"Love Hopes For You has been all-time favorite read of mine since 2022. It reminds me that through adversity and fear of the unknown that LOVE (self-love, to be exact) is paramount in navigating identity and healing. Love Hopes For You reminds us that what we seek is also seeking us. The stories and thoughts we conjure up about ourselves need to be rooted in unconditional and unwavering love." - Rojay Robert Bryan '22, Assistant Director of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion
Necropolitics
Achille Mbembe
"As a political economy and philosophy student, this book was central to my interest in the concept of social death as a cultural and ethical consequence of the market economy reducing financial support for public health, social, and education structures. Necropolitics shaped my philosophical interests in capitalism, sovereignty, and autonomy." - Shannon Tyler '24, Social Media Coordinator
The Will to Change: Men, Masculinity, and Love
bell hooks
"Should be required reading in high school." - Renée Lauzon Vesper, Associate Director of Digital Marketing
Homegoing
Yaa Gyasi
"This is a spellbinding and haunting novel that follows two branches of the same family, the descendants of two sisters, over the course of three hundred years, beginning in 18th century Ghana and ending in the present day United States. The work's simultaneous exploration of Ghanaian and African-American experiences throughout centuries and its critical focus on history made a deep impression. Not to mention Gyasi was only 26 when she wrote it! I highly recommend it to anyone and everyone." - Kat Hughes, Art Director
This Will Be My Undoing: Living at the Intersection of Black, Female, and Feminist in (White) America
Morgan Jerkins MFA '16
"Jerkins was the first writer I interviewed at Bennington and remains one of my favorites. Her well-received debut is a personal and provocative memoir with far-reaching implications." - Natalie Redmond, Associate Writer
Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents
Isabel Wilkerson
"This author is an American journalist who writes on how the United States is a caste system and compares it to two other caste systems in the world. This book is scarring in how visceral it details 'the origins of our discontents' with the history of how the dominant caste determines our jobs, schools, spoken languages, and lives. The author is a talent with comparisons and poetic allegories that have reframed how I view the United States and the people I encounter within it." - Emily Gutierrez '24
A Little Devil in America: Notes in Praise of Black Performance
Hanif Abdurraqib
Recommended by Andrea Belair, Collection Services Librarian
Have a book or an author you'd like to see included on this list? Share the books and writers who have shaped you.