literary criticism

  • February 2025 Reading Recap

    It looks like I’ve rather inadvertently had a fiction-free February! No regrets, as I got to some books I was meaning to get to for a while. I also kept with my typical reading pattern of more than 50% Black authors. According to various sources, Black authors make up 5-7% of all traditionally published books;

    Read more →

  • 2024: The Year in Reading

    For the fourth consecutive year in 2024 I read over 100 books, tracking not only the titles and authors, but author demographics, as well as genre, format, and publication year. This year I also switched from Goodreads (owned by Amazon) to StoryGraph (Black and women-owned) for online tracking, though I also keep my own detailed

    Read more →

  • December 2024 Reading Recap

    It’s a wrap on 2024 reading! This year I completed 128 books, including these gems: fiction powerhouses, as well as pillars in the world of cultural criticism and craft. Here are some books to put on your TBR list for 2025. 

    Read more →

  • November 2024 Reading Recap

    Essays and horror and poetry, oh my! This month I had the chance to interview adoptee author, Jenny Heijun Wills about her new essay collection, Everything and Nothing at All, recently named one of Globe and Mail’s best books of 2024. The book will be widely available it the US in 2025, and I felt

    Read more →

  • September 2024 Reading Recap

    This September, I continued working my way through James Baldwin’s oeuvre in honor of his 100th birthday last month. I also got a jump on spooky season with three thrillers: Truman Capote’s classic, In Cold Blood (1965), Disha Bose’s Dirty Laundry (2023), and Ira Levin’s Rosemary’s Baby (1967), which I had the pleasure of reading

    Read more →

  • July 2024 Reading Recap

    August 2, 2024 would have been James Baldwin’s 100th birthday. Inspirational author, cultural critic, and civil rights activist, Baldwin authored seven novels, and countless short stories and essays. I read several this month in honor of his birthday, and expect to read several more in August, as many organizations and institutions celebrate his work and

    Read more →

  • June 2024 Reading Recap

    I had the good fortune this month to return to the Yale Writers’ Workshop, where I spent two weeks talking about craft with talented and inspiring authors, published and soon-to-be. But that also meant less time for reading, though I am well ahead of my annual reading goal of 100 books, having completed 70 at

    Read more →

  • February 2024 Reading Recap

    Another Black History Month of reading in the books though, quite honestly, I don’t read any differently his month than any other month; any month is a good month to read Black authors! Still, I thought I would use this opportunity to highlight the Black authors I read this month here, in case you’re looking

    Read more →

  • Reflections on the Foremost

    What happens when you read the foremost [white] expert on a person’s work, before reading the work itself? No person of my complexion can visit this country without being struck with the marked difference between the English and the Americans. American abolitionist, historian, and author William Wells Brown, upon arrival in Liverpool, July 1849. For

    Read more →

  • January 2024 Reading Recap

    January is the month of new year’s resolutions, and I have to confess that, after reading 178 books in 2022, my resolution last year was to actually read less. I think maybe I was concerned about letting my introverted tendencies “win” over other parts of me? It sounds silly now, but after having missed my

    Read more →

Women with long, curly hair seated on a stoop. She is wearing an army green jacket and jeans, smiling at the camera.