Recommended Reading

Below is a list of books we think are really worth reading, especially for young womxn of colour. We’d love to hear what you make of them (or if you have any recommendations of your own) so feel free to message in the comment box at the bottom of the page, or get in touch via socia media. Hope you enjoy!

Essay/Non-Fiction

Beverley Bryan, Stella Dadzie & Suzanne Scafe – The Heart of the Race: Black Women’s Lives in Britain (1985)

Chelsea Kwakye & Ore Ogunbiyi – Taking Up Space: The Black Girl’s Manifesto Change (2019)

gal dem – “I Will Not Be Erased”: Our Stories About Growing Up As People of Colour (2019)

Glory Edim – Well-Read Black Girl: Finding Our Stories, Discovering Ourselves (2018)

Mariam Khan – It’s Not About The Burqa (2019)

Sabrina Mahfouz – The Things I Would Tell You: British Muslim Women Write (2017)

Yomi Adegoke and Elizabeth Uviebinené – Slay In Your Lane: The Black Girl Bible (2018)

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Short Stories

Alexia Arthurs – How To Love A Jamaican (2018)

Chimamanda Ngozie Adichie – The Thing Around Your Neck (2009)

Helen Oyeyemi – What Is Not Yours Is Not Yours (2015)

Ibi Zoboi – Black Enough: Stories of Being Young & Black in America (2019)

Jennifer Nansubuga Makumbi – Manchester Happened (2014)

Leila Aboulela – Elsewhere, Home (2018)

Lesley Nneka Arimah – What It Means When A Man Falls From The Sky (2017)

Olive Senior – Summer Lightning and Other Stories (1986)

Patrice Caldwell – A Phoenix First Must Burn (2020)

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Fiction

Abi Daré – The Girl With The Louding Voice (2020)

Andrea Levy – Small Island (2004)

Bernardine Evaristo – Girl, Woman, Other (2019)

Bessie Head – A Question of Power (1973)

Candice Carty-Williams – Queenie (2019)

Désirée Reynolds – Seduce (2013)

Elif Shafak – The Forty Rules Of Love (2009)

Estaf Rum – A Woman Is No Man (2019)

Fatima Bhutto – The Runaways (2018)

Irenosen Okojie – Butterfly Fish (2015)

Jasmine Warga – Other Words for Home (2019)

Kamila Shamsie – Home Fire (2017)

Malorie Blackman – Noughts & Crosses (2001)

Mathangi Subramanian – A People’s History of Heaven (2019)

Monica Ali – Brick Lane (2003)

Nadia Mohamed – Black Mamba Boy (2009)

Octavia Butler – Kindred (1979)

Oyinkan Braithwaite – My Sister, The Serial Killer (2018)

Sabina Khan – The Love & Lies of Rukhsana Ali (2019)

Sairish Hussain – The Family Tree (2020)

Tomi Adeyemi – Children of Blood and Bone (2018)

Toni Morrison – The Bluest Eye (1970)

Yvonne Battle-Felton – Remembered (2019)

Zadie Smith – White Teeth (2000)

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Poetry

Rupi Kaur – Milk and Honey (2014)

Suhaiymah Manzoor-Khan – Postcolonial Banter (2019)

Tracy K. Smith – Life on Mars (2011)

Warda Yassin – Tea With Cardamom (2019)

Warsan Shire – Teaching My Mother How To Give Birth (2011)

Yrsa Daley-Ward – Bone (2014)