Author: Emily Martin

Root Magic won the award for Best in Middle Grade in 2022. The novel is set in 1963. Jezebel Turner’s grandmother just passed away, and and school integration is coming to South Carolina. But the biggest change for Jez and her twin brother Jay? Their uncle begins to train them in rootwork. Suddenly, a whole world of magic opens up to Jez. And just in time, too, because a dark, supernatural force has come to town. Jez will need every bit of her magic to fight against the evil — both natural and supernatural — that’s all around her.

Gods of Jade and Shadow was chosen as Best Novel in 2020. In this fairy tale-like novel inspired by Mexican folklore, the Mayan god of death meets Casiopea Tun, a young woman living in a small town Mexico during the Jazz Age. Casiopea longs for an adventurous life, and that’s what she gets when the god of death sends her on a journey deep into the darkness of the underworld.

In 2021, Legendborn won the award for Best YA novel. This book, based on Arthurian legend, tells the story of Bree Matthews, a teen who joins a residential program for bright high schoolers at UNC–Chapel Hill and stumbles upon something extraordinary. When a flying demon attacks the campus, a secret society of “Legendborn” students hunts the creature down. Because Bree wasn’t meant to see any of this, a mage called “Merlin” attempts to wipe Bree’s memory. But in doing so, he instead unlocks dormant powers within her.

While it’s Darcie Little Badger’s second novel A Snake Falls to Earth that won the Ignyte Award in 2022, Elatsoe is my personal favorite, and it was a finalist in 2021. Elatsoe is set in an America that is similar to the one that exists today. The only difference is that this America is shaped in no small part by the magic, monsters, knowledge, and legends of all its people, Indigenous and not. This is the world in which young Elatsoe lives. Through the lineage of her Lipan Apache family, she has learned how to raise the ghosts of dead animals. Elatsoe’s cousin has been murdered, and she will stop at nothing to find out the truth of what happened. And she will use her smarts and her special skills to get the answers she needs.

In 2021, Black Sun won for best novel. In the holy city of Tova, the winter solstice usually signifies renewal, but this year the winter solstice also coincides with a solar eclipse, which the Sun Priest warns signifies an unbalancing of the world. Xiala is a disgraced Teek who is sailing a ship towards Tova, set to arrive on the solstice. With her is a young man named Serapio. He seems harmless enough, but his need to arrive in Tova before the eclipse suggests there’s more to him than meets the eye.

Riot Baby won for Best Novella in 2021. Ella has a gift of premonition, and her brother Kev is sworn to protect her. The dystopian America they live in, however, is cruel. And perhaps not that different than the America we live in now. In this novella, Onyebuchi’s world reflects the issues that affect contemporary America, namely racism and prejudice and the systems that work against minorities.

This book was the winner for Best Novella in 2022. After her brother Baraka’s death by suicide, Nyokabi’s world is falling apart. So when her aunt gives her a potion that can send Nyokabi back in time, she comes up with a plan. She will go back to when her brother was still alive, and she will do everything in her power to keep him that way.

This final book was the winner for Best Novel in 2022. This book is set in an alternate version of Cairo in 1912. Fatma el-Sha’arawi may be the youngest woman working for the Ministry of Alchemy, Enchantments, and Supernatural Entities, but she’s no novice. When someone murders a secret brotherhood dedicated to al-Jahiz, one of the most famous men in history, it’s Fatma they call upon to solve the case. Al-Jahiz disappeared 40 years ago, but now the murderer claims to be the al-Jahiz, returned to condemn the modern age.

If you haven’t read This Will Be My Undoing yet, make this the one. Just saying. Jerkins’ collection of linked essays explore what it’s like to be a Black woman in contemporary culture. These essays give insightful commentary on pop culture, black history, misogyny, racism, the the problems with the predominantly white, mainstream version of feminism that marginalizes women of color.

In July 2012, Juliet Jacques underwent sex reassignment surgery at the age of 30. This memoir chronicles her journey to define herself and find her true identity in a world where gender politics is ever changing. Trans interweaves the personal with the political, exploring how liberal and feminist media reactions and responses to trans politics all while also tracing Jacques’ own road to self-discovery.

As the subtitle suggests, Mikki Kendall’s Hood Feminism directly confronts mainstream feminism and points out all of the people and issues that the movement has traditionally left out. Kendall argues that food insecurity, access to quality education, safe neighborhoods, a living wage, and medical care are all feminist issues. And yet the focus of the feminist movement is hardly ever about the basic survival of the many. Rather, it focuses on furthering the privileges of a few. How, Kendall asks, can everyone stand in solidarity with the feminist movement when women are being oppressed by other women?

The face of feminism has long been upper middle class white women, who are seen as the “experts” of the feminist movement. In Against White Feminism, author Rafia Zakaria, an American Muslim woman, attorney, and political philosopher, calls for a reconstruction of feminism that focuses on women of color. In the face of white feminism’s long-standing connection to colonial, patriarchal, and white supremacist ideals, this book offers a counter-manifesto.

Can We All Be Feminists? is an anthology of intersectional feminist essays by 17 writers from diverse backgrounds: Soofiya Andry, Gabrielle Bellot, Caitlin Cruz, Nicole Dennis-Benn, Brit Bennett, Evette Dionne, Aisha Gani, Afua Hirsch, Juliet Jacques, Wei Ming Kam, Mariya Karimjee, Eishar Kaur, Emer O’Toole, Frances Ryan, Zoé Samudzi, Charlotte Shane, and Selina Thompson. Despite each of these authors commitment to gender equality, they all struggle with feminism and the way it ignores other aspects of their identities, such as race, religion, sexuality, gender. Each essay seeks to answer the question: Can we all be feminists?

If you’re looking to read a classic book about intersectional feminism, This Bridge Called My Back is not to be missed. Originally released in 1981, this book is an anthology featuring several different perspectives from women of color through personal essays, criticism, interviews, testimonials, poetry, and visual art. Each work reflects on evolving definitions of feminism that are adapting to include the issues important to women of color in the United States and throughout the world.

Women, Race, & Class is another must-read classic for anyone looking to read more intersectional feminist works. Here, Civil Rights icon Angela Davis provides a thought-provoking history of how whiteness and privilege has influenced the social and political landscape of traditional feminism. Ultimately Davis argues that racist and classist biases continue to undermine the ambitions of the feminist movement, from the abolitionist movement to present day.

Activist Sonya Renee Taylor believes that radical self-love has the power to change the world, and she’s showing readers how to find that self-love in her bestselling book The Body is Not an Apology. When we are able to set aside indoctrinated body shame, we are free to interrupt the systems that perpetuate body shame and oppression against all bodies, such as racism, sexism, ableism, homophobia, and transphobia.