Authors from across the writing world have hosted Girls Write Now’s Friday Night Salons—sharing stories, advice and prompts that stretched our minds to dream big. Through poetry, fiction, memoir, and more, their #DifferentPerspectives helped us tell our own personal stories and express our unique identities Be sure to add their books to your 2022 TBR list!
The Officer’s Daughter:
A Memoir of Family and Forgiveness
by Elle Johnson
HarperCollins
The author reflects on a terrible tragedy that forever altered the fabric of her family in this remarkable memoir, a heart-wrenching story of love, violence, coming of age, secrets, justice, and forgiveness. The Officer’s Daughter is a piercing memoir that explores with unflinching honesty what parents can and cannot do to protect their children, the reverberations of violence on survivors’ lives, and the overwhelming power of forgiveness, even in the face of unspeakable tragedy.
Elle Johnson
WHen the REckoning comes
by Latanya mcqueen
HarperCollins
A haunting novel about a Black woman who returns to her hometown for a plantation wedding and the horror that ensues as she reconnects with the blood-soaked history of the land and the best friends she left behind.
LaTanya McQueen
BEAUTIFUL COUNTRY
BY QIAN JULIE WANG
Penguin Random House
The moving story of an undocumented child living in poverty in the richest country in the world. Inhabiting her childhood perspective with exquisite lyric clarity and unforgettable charm and strength, Qian Julie Wang has penned an essential American story about a family fracturing under the weight of invisibility, and a girl coming of age in the shadows, who never stops seeking the light.
Qian Julie Wang
bounce back
by misako Rocks!
Macmillan
Lilico, with the help of her cat, must learn to adjust to a new country, a new school, and new pressures in Bounce Back, a middle grade graphic novel from author/illustrator Misako Rocks! about finding your team and finding yourself. This is age-appropriate, kid-friendly manga for kids – both elementary and middle school – that tells a story about friendship, new beginnings, and doing what you love, no matter what.
Misako Rocks!
black girls, call home
by jasmine mans
Penguin Random House
From spoken word poet Jasmine Mans comes an unforgettable poetry collection about race, feminism, and queer identity. With echoes of Gwendolyn Brooks and Sonia Sanchez, Mans writes to call herself—and us—home. Each poem explores what it means to be a daughter of Newark, and America—and the painful, joyous path to adulthood as a young, queer Black woman.
Jasmine Mans
No map of the earth includes the stars
BY Christina Olivares
Marsh Hawk Press
Christina Olivares’s debut collection NO MAP OF THE EARTH INCLUDES STARS, winner of the 2014 Marsh Hawk Press Poetry Prize, establishes her as one of the most adventurous young poets writing today. In probing, honest chronicles of imagined lives and lived situations across urban and tropical geographies, Olivares shines constellations of light on her vibrant experiences, home and abroad, in the mind and in the heart, in and out of this world. NO MAP OF THE EARTH INCLUDES STARS showcases the itinerary of a poet not so much pushing boundaries as transcending them.
Christina Olivares
Sisterhood Heals (2023)
by Dr. Joy Harden Bradford
Ballantine
Forthcoming book.
Dr. Joy Harden Bradford
Perfectly parvin
by Olivia abtahi
Penguin Random House
Fourteen-year-old Iranian-American Parvin Mohammadi sets out to win the ultimate date to homecoming in this heartfelt and outright hilarious debut. Olivia Abtahi’s first book is as hilarious as it is heartfelt–a delightful tale where, amid the turmoil of high school friendships and crushes, being yourself is always the perfect way to be.
Olivia Abtahi
Miss Chloe: A Literary Friendship with Toni Morrison (2022)
by A.J. Verdelle
HarperCollins
Forthcoming book.
The award-winning author of The Good Negress shares invaluable insights on the precarious journey toward creativity that is the writer’s life, and tells the compelling story of her relationship with Toni Morrison, painting an illuminating portrait of this towering yet enigmatic cultural icon.
A.J. Verdelle
who’s your daddy
by arisa white
Augury Books
A lyrical, genre-bending coming-of-age tale featuring a queer, Black, Guyanese American woman who, while seeking to define her own place in the world, negotiates an estranged relationship with her father.
Arisa White
if i tell you the truth
by jasmin kaur
HarperCollins
Perfect for fans of Elizabeth Acevedo and Rupi Kaur, this heartrending story told in prose, poetry, and illustration weaves together the stories of a mother and daughter’s lives. Kiran flees her home in Punjab for a fresh start in Canada after a sexual assault leaves her pregnant. But overstaying her visa and living undocumented brings its own perils for both her and her daughter, Sahaara.
Jasmin Kaur
chlorine sky
by mahogany l. browne
Penguin Random House
A novel-in-verse about a young girl coming-of-age and stepping out of the shadow of her former best friend. Perfect for readers of Elizabeth Acevedo and Nikki Grimes.
Mahogany L. Browne
We Are Each Other’s Harvest: Celebrating African American Farmers, Land, and Legacy
by Natalie Baszile
HarperCollins
From the author of Queen Sugar—now a critically acclaimed series on OWN directed by Ava Duvernay—comes a beautiful exploration and celebration of black farming in America. We Are Each Other’s Harvest elevates the voices and stories of Black farmers and people of color, celebrating their perseverance and resilience, while spotlighting the challenges they continue to face. Luminous and eye-opening, this eclectic collection helps people and communities of color today re-imagine what it means to be dedicated to the soil.
Natalie Baszile
Maryam’s Magic: The Story of Mathematician Maryam Mirzakhani
BY Megan Reid
HarperCollins
From Althea Gibson author Megan Reid and rising star artist Aaliya Jaleel, illustrator of Under My Hijab, comes the first picture book about trailblazing mathematician Maryam Mirzakhani, the first woman to win the world’s most prestigious honor in mathematics. Perfect for fans of Hidden Figures and Mae Among the Stars. Maryam’s Magic is the true story of a girl whose creativity and love of stories helped her—and the world—to see math in a new and inspiring way.
Megan Reid
No Heaven for Good Boys
by keisha bush
Penguin Random House
Six-year-old Ibrahimah loves snatching pastries from his mother’s kitchen, harvesting string beans with his father, and searching for sea glass with his sisters. But when he is approached in his rural village one day by Marabout Ahmed, a seemingly kind stranger and highly regarded teacher, the tides of his life turn forever. Ibrahimah is sent to the capital city of Dakar to join his cousin Étienne in studying the Koran under Marabout Ahmed for a year, but instead of the days of learning that Ibrahimah’s parents imagine, the young boys, called Talibé, are forced to beg in the streets in order to line their teacher’s pockets. Drawn from real incidents and transporting readers between rural and urban Senegal, No Heaven for Good Boys is a tale of hope, resilience, and the affirming power of love.
Keisha Bush
The Doctors Blackwell
by janice P. nimura
W.W. Norton
Exploring the sisters’ allies, enemies, and enduring partnership, Janice P. Nimura presents a story of trial and triumph. Together, the Blackwells founded the New York Infirmary for Indigent Women and Children, the first hospital staffed entirely by women. Both sisters were tenacious and visionary, but their convictions did not always align with the emergence of women’s rights—or with each other. From Bristol, Paris, and Edinburgh to the rising cities of antebellum America, this richly researched new biography celebrates two complicated pioneers who exploded the limits of possibility for women in medicine. As Elizabeth herself predicted, “a hundred years hence, women will not be what they are now.”
Janice P. Nimura
You Don’t Have to Be Everything: Poems for Girls Becoming Themselves
edited by Diana Whitney
Workman Publishing
Created and compiled just for young women, You Don’t Have to Be Everything is filled with works by a wide range of poets who are honest, unafraid, and skilled at addressing the complex feelings of coming-of-age, from loneliness to joy, longing to solace, attitude to humor. These unintimidating poems offer girls a message of self-acceptance and strength, giving them permission to let go of shame and perfectionism.
Diana Whitney
REFUSNIK (2022)
by Lynn melnick
YesYes Books
Book forthcoming.
Lynn Melnick
Surviving the White Gaze: A Memoir
by REBECCA CARROLL
Simon & Schuster
A stirring and powerful memoir from Black cultural critic Rebecca Carroll recounting her painful struggle to overcome a completely white childhood in order to forge her identity as a Black woman in America.
Rebecca Carroll
blackout
by Tiffany D. Jackson, Nic Stone, Ashley Woodfolk, Nicola Yoon, Angie Thomas & Dhonielle Clayton
HarperCollins
Six critically acclaimed, bestselling, and award-winning authors bring the glowing warmth and electricity of Black teens in love to this charming, hilarious, and heartwarming novel that shines a bright light through the dark.
A first meeting…Long-time friends…Bitter exes…And maybe the beginning of something new. When the lights go out, people reveal hidden truths. Love blossoms, friendship transforms, and new possibilities take flight.
Tiffany, Ashley & Nicola
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