WOC Book Club

This Wednesday, we honor the legendary science fiction writer and ancestor, Octavia E. Butler! Despite facing many challenges in school, including dyslexia, Butler had a strong passion for her education and developed a love for writing and reading science fiction. Butler’s work and dedication led her to not only publish more than fifteen books, but she went on to receive a number of prestigious awards. ✨

Butler’s feats and success are especially noteworthy considering that science fiction had been—and continues to be— dominated by white male authors: “When I began writing science fiction, when I began reading, heck, I wasn’t in any of this stuff I read. The only black people you found were occasional characters or characters who were so feeble-witted that they couldn’t manage anything, anyway. I wrote myself in since I’m me and I’m here and I’m writing.” (from a New York Times interview, 2000)

Octavia Butler opened the doors for herself and wrote Black women into science fiction, leaving those doors open for the many aspiring Black science fiction writers to come after her. A true visionary, Butler’s novels predicted the current dangers afflicting us now from climate change to American political issues, warning us about where the US and humanity in general might be heading. Through her writing, Octavia created science fiction with very material and dystopian stakes utilizing speculation and afrofuturism as means of imagining alternative futures and redefining the ‘human.’ We are endlessly grateful for the ways in which Octavia Butler has guided our paths! 💙

Naima Coster’s newest novel, 𝙒𝙝𝙖𝙩’𝙨 𝙈𝙞𝙣𝙚 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙔𝙤𝙪𝙧𝙨, will publish next week on Tuesday, March 2nd! 𝙒𝙝𝙖𝙩’𝙨 𝙈𝙞𝙣𝙚 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙔𝙤𝙪𝙧𝙨 weaves together multiple times and spaces in a non-linear telling of the various families in Piedmont, North Carolina. The narrative shifts between the members of each family and how they traverse the different, intimate periods of their own lives. Two mothers, Jade and Lacey May, face their own troubling pasts and must navigate the parenting of their children among times of unpredictability and loss.

Later in the novel, a disconcerting event magnifies all of these tensions. When a county initiative designates the transfer of students from the primarily Black part of town to the predominantly white schools on the east side, Jade and Lacey May’s children, Gee and Noelle respectively, must adapt to new environments while their mothers struggle with their own choices as parents and as members of the community. Overall, Coster’s novel contains a myriad of themes, including intergenerational relationships, race and poverty, mental health, and motherhood.

Author of 𝘿𝙤𝙢𝙞𝙣𝙞𝙘𝙖𝙣𝙖, Angie Cruz writes: "𝙒𝙝𝙖𝙩’𝙨 𝙈𝙞𝙣𝙚 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙔𝙤𝙪𝙧𝙨 is a book about parents who try and fail and then try again. An extraordinary cast of characters, nuanced and full of insight. It's about children who hold their loved ones accountable. It reveals in absolutely engrossing and tension-filled prose how a tragedy haunts a family. Coster is a master storyteller through and through. Read this book."

Cherie Jones debut novel, 𝙃𝙤𝙬 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙊𝙣𝙚-𝘼𝙧𝙢𝙚𝙙 𝙎𝙞𝙨𝙩𝙚𝙧 𝙎𝙬𝙚𝙚𝙥𝙨 𝙃𝙚𝙧 𝙃𝙤𝙪𝙨𝙚, was published last week, and has gained tons of praise since! The story takes place at a fictional resort in Barbados where working-class Barbadians serve wealthy white tourists and follows Lala, a pregnant newly wed, whose abusive husband gets caught up in a robbery turned murder. The story begins with Lala’s grandmother, Wilma, telling a cautionary tale about what happens when girls disobey their mothers and flock towards trouble: they lose an arm. This analogy parallels the chaos, trauma, and troubles that emerge from both the catastrophic plot events (murder, infantcide, etc.) and the legacy of race, class, gender structures, and violence in a rapidly changing resort town in Barbados.

As a survivor of domestic abuse and as a woman who suffered the loss of her own pregnancy, Cherie Jones’ lived experiences inform the novel. When telling these stories, Jones emphasizes the role of intergenerational trauma and acknowledges the legacies of violence and abuse we are born into. However, she also tells a story of unwavering strength and resiliency.

Cherie Jones speaks to this intergenerational trauma in a LA Times article: “Wilma is tough, she expects her daughter and granddaughter to endure unimaginable abuse and suffering, partly because that is what she herself has done, partly because that is the expectation of the entire community.” Speaking to the abuse Lala suffers from at the hands of her husband, the narrator remarks: "[Lala] did not understand that for women of her lineage, a marriage meant a murder in one form or another."

TW: in**st, r**e, physical abuse, infanticide, murder

For , we will be sharing quotes from both contemporary and 20th century Black women authors on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. We will highlight one new book release each Tuesday, and on Wednesdays, we will share quotes from 20th century Black women authors who were/are trailblazers in African American literature and Black feminist thought.

This Tuesday, we are kicking off our series with Dantiel W. Moniz’s collection of stories 𝙈𝙞𝙡𝙠 𝘽𝙡𝙤𝙤𝙙 𝙃𝙚𝙖𝙩 which came out today, February 2, 2021. Set in the cities and suburbs of Florida, 𝙈𝙞𝙡𝙠 𝘽𝙡𝙤𝙤𝙙 𝙃𝙚𝙖𝙩 gives an intimate look into the lives of girls, women, and men in intergenerational tales that meditate on race, coming of age, inheritance, trauma & grief.

“The stories in Moniz’s debut collection—many of which shine a multi hued light on Black girlhood in Florida—are to not only be read but 𝑓𝑒𝑙𝑡...Moniz is unafraid to expose the darkened corners of the Sunshine State, and of female desire.”—𝙊, 𝙏𝙝𝙚 𝙊𝙥𝙧𝙖𝙝 𝙈𝙖𝙜𝙖𝙯𝙞𝙣𝙚

In an interview published on , Dantiel speaks of writing the corporeal in her fiction: “The collection is talking about connection and nourishment, what consumes you, what you consume in the body. What I wanted from these stories most of all was for them to be felt in the body.”

A huge congrats to Dantiel’s debut!

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“Before thirteen, she hadn’t realized empty was a thing you could carry. But who put it there? Sometimes she wonders if she will ever be rid of it, and other times she never wants to give it back. It is a thing she owns.”

𝙏𝙝𝙚 𝙎𝙩𝙖𝙧𝙨 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝘽𝙡𝙖𝙘𝙠𝙣𝙚𝙨𝙨 𝘽𝙚𝙩𝙬𝙚𝙚𝙣 𝙏𝙝𝙚𝙢 is a tender, sensual love letter from Junauda Petrus-Nasah () to q***r Black women & WOC everywhere. 🌊💕

Junauda’s Afro-futuristic novel takes readers to the depths of her characters’ love, sexuality, spirituality and divinity while showing us that there is beauty in coming to terms with our own mortality.

Get your own copy of 𝙏𝙝𝙚 𝙎𝙩𝙖𝙧𝙨 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝘽𝙡𝙖𝙘𝙠𝙣𝙚𝙨𝙨 𝘽𝙚𝙩𝙬𝙚𝙚𝙣 𝙏𝙝𝙚𝙢 via the Bookshop link in our bio and be sure to follow this Minnesotan legend to keep up with more of her iconic pieces (like “The Erotics of Abolition”)! 💙

✨For LGTBQIA+ folks, Junauda has an event TONIGHT at 6pm PST/8pm CST/ 9pm EST called “Embodying, Sensing and Healing through Erotic Fiction” — link in her bio✨

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