15 Books Published by The Feminist Press on AALBC — Book Cover Collage

“Cassandra Lane, a former member of Nommo Literary Society, who now lives and works in Los Angeles, has written an important memoir that focuses on how past generations can affect contemporary lives. Her grandfather was lynched. She researched and talked to family members, and also used her imagination to tell all of us how important our past is. Her book, We Are Bridges, is a winner of the Louise Meriweather First Book Prize.”—Kalamu ya Salaam

When Cassandra Lane finds herself pregnant at thirty-five, the knowledge sends her on a poignant exploration of memory to prepare for her entry into motherhood. She moves between the twentieth-century rural South and present-day Los Angeles, reimagining the intimate life of her great-grandparents Mary Magdalene Magee and Burt Bridges, and Burt’s lynching at the hands of vengeful white men in his southern town.

We Are Bridges turns to creative nonfiction to reclaim a family history from violent erasure so that a mother can gift her child with an ancestral blueprint for their future. Haunting and poetic, this debut traces the strange fruit borne from the roots of personal loss in one Black family—and considers how to take back one’s American story.

“In this evocative memoir, Cassandra Lane deftly uses the act of imagination to reclaim her ancestors’ story as a backdrop for telling her own. She renders each interior life with such tenderness and toughness that the tradition of black women’s storytelling leaps forward within these pages—into fresh, daring, and excitingly new territory. Lane’s compelling voice couldn’t be more timely.” —Bridgett M. Davis, author of The World according to Fannie Davis

“Cassandra Lane writes with the urgency driven to the page by the necessities of that first great art: motherhood. We Are Bridges is a book of history, and as such, it uncovers and recovers the truths no classroom teacher will ever reveal to the children who need to know them most: ‘Let the dead bury the dead, Jesus said, but here I am: guilty of pining after my dead. Not knowing one’s story is like being buried alive.’ More than that, it is a love story, a book of how—in spite of every obstacle—black people still make themselves vulnerable enough to take the leap and fall in (and survive!) love.” —Jericho Brown, author of The Tradition

A collection of essays, fiction, journalism, folklore, and autobiography, preserving the legacy of one of the Harlem Renaissance’s greatest writers.

"This flawlessly executed work reinvigorates the short fiction genre." —BUST "Acker perfectly captures the varied experiences of her characters, making clear that each of [their] lives is worth exploring individually, and valued as being one shining part of the ocean of human experience." —NYLON When you’re black and female in America, society’s rules were never meant to make you safe or free. Camille Acker’s relatable yet unexpected characters break down the walls of respectability politics, showing that the only way for black women to be free is to be themselves.

For the Crunk Feminist Collective, their academic day jobs were lacking in conversations they actually wanted—relevant, real conversations about how race and gender politics intersect with pop culture and current events. To address this void, they started a blog. Now with an annual readership of nearly one million, their posts foster dialogue about activist methods, intersectionality, and sisterhood. And the writers’ personal identities—as black women; as sisters, daughters, and lovers; and as television watchers, sports fans, and music lovers—are never far from the discussion at hand.These essays explore "Sex and Power in the Black Church," discuss how "Clair Huxtable is Dead," list "Five Ways Talib Kweli Can Become a Better Ally to Women in Hip Hop," and dwell on "Dating with a Doctorate (She Got a Big Ego?)." Self-described as "critical homegirls," the authors tackle life stuck between loving hip hop and ratchet culture while hating patriarchy, misogyny, and sexism.Brittney Cooper is an assistant professor at Rutgers University. In addition to a weekly column in Salon.com, her words have appeared in the New York Times, the Washington Post, Cosmo.com, and many others. In 2013 and 2014, she was named to the Root.com’s Root 100, an annual list of Top Black Influencers.Susana M. Morris received her Ph.D. from Emory University and is currently an associate professor of English at Auburn University.Robin M. Boylorn is assistant professor at the University of Alabama. She is the author of the award-winning monograph Sweetwater: Black Women and Narratives of Resilience (Peter Lang, 2013).

It’s 1986 and twenty-one-year-old Angie continues to mourn the death of her brilliant and radical sister Ella. On impulse, she travels from Detroit to the place where Ella tragically died four years before?Nigeria. She retraces her sister’s steps, all the while navigating the chaotic landscape of a major African country on the brink of democracy careening toward a coup d’état.At the center of this quest is a love affair that upends everything Angie thought she knew about herself. Against a backdrop of Nigeria’s infamous go-slow?traffic as wild and surprising as a Fela lyric?Angie begins to unravel the mysteries of the past, and opens herself up to love and life after Ella.Bridgett M. Davis’s debut novel Shifting Through Neutral (Amistad, 2004) was a Borders Books ?Original Voices” selection and a finalist for the 2005 Zora Neale Hurston/Richard Wright LEGACY Award. Davis was selected as the New Author of the Year by Go On Girl! Book Club?the largest national reading group for African American women. She currently writes for O, The Oprah Magazine and other publications.

?This June Jordan treasure is a rare piece of fiction from one of America’s most vital poets and political essayists—a tender story of young love in the face of generational opposition, a modern-day Romeo and Juliet that sings and sways.”—Walter Mosley"There must be bridges if we are to reach our young. His Own Where promises to be one."—New York Times Book Review (1971)Nominated for a National Book Award in 1971, His Own Where is the story of Buddy, a fifteen-year-old boy whose world is spinning out of control. He meets Angela, whose angry parents accuse her of being "wild." When life falls apart for Buddy and his father, and when Angela is attacked at home, they take action to create their own way of staying alive in Brooklyn. In the process, the two find refuge in one another and learn that love is real and necessary. His Own Where was one of The New York Times’ Most Outstanding Books and was on the American Library Association’s list of Best Books in 1971.June Jordan was a poet, essayist, journalist, dramatist, activist, and educator known for challenging oppression through her inspirational words and actions. She was the founder of Poetry for the People at the University of California, Berkeley, where she taught for many years. The author of over twenty books, her poetry is collected in Directed by Desire; her selected essays in Some of Us Did Not Die. Sapphire is the author of American Dreams, Black Wings & Blind Angels, and Push, which has been made into a motion picture called Precious.

A definitive guide to race and gender from the pioneers of black women’s studies.

From origin myths to tales of modern prostitutes in search of dignity—even for only a moment—these powerful stories by two renowned African authors explore the uneasy coexistence between women and men, tradition and modernity. They show strong women demanding their right to marry or not, earn a living, and most importantly, be respected.South African-born Bessie Head (1937–1986) immigrated to Botswana, where she is considered their most important writer. Ngugi wa Thiong’o is a major Kenyan writer now living in the United States. He teaches and directs an international writing center at the University of California, Irvine.

Includes a foreword by James Baldwin

Chosen by Essence magazine, this beloved modern classic tells the poignant story of a spirited young woman’s coming of age in -Depression-era Harlem. While 12-year-old Francie Coffin’s world and family threaten to fall apart, this remarkable young heroine must call upon her own wit and endurance to survive amidst the treacheries of racism and sexism, poverty and violence.

“The novel’s greatest achievement lies in the strong sense of black life that it conveys: the vitality and force behind the despair — a most -important novel.”—New York Times Book Review

From the author of Changes: these stories “of post-independence Ghana in the late 1960s are written beautifully and wisely and with great subtlety” (Chimamanda Ngozi Adichi).

In this short story collection, the award-winning poet and author of Changes and Our Sister Killjoy explores postcolonial life in Ghana with her characteristic honesty, humor, and insight. A house servant wonders what independence means in a country where indoor plumbing is still reserved for bosses. A brother tracks down his runaway sister only to find she has become a prostitute. In the title story, a bitter divorce turns tragic when the couple’s only child dies of a snake bite.

In these and other stories, tradition wrestles with new urban influences as Africans try to sort out their identity in a changing culture, and "even at her gravest, Miss Aidoo writes with a sunny charm" (The New York Times).

One of only a handful of novels published by black women during the forties, the story of ambitious Cleo Judson is a long-time cult classic. The Living Is Easy is delightfully wry and ironic humor—even bitchiness—of the novel coexists with a challenging moral and social complexity.

"A powerful work."—Essence

"Dorothy West is a brisk storyteller with an eye for ironic detail…a deft stylist and writer of social satire."—Ms.

"Long beloved for its wry and ironic humor, this novel continues to delight and challenge readers."—Feminist Bookstore News

* Alternate of the Book-of-the-Month and Quality Paperback Book Clubs *

Suggested for course use in:
African-American studies
20th-century U.S. literature

A Commonwealth Prize-winning novel of “intense power … examining the role of women in modern African society” by the acclaimed Ghanaian author (Publishers Weekly).

Living in Ghana’s capital city of Accra with a postgraduate degree and a career in data analysis, Esi Sekyi is a thoroughly modern African woman. Perhaps that is why she decides to divorce her husband after enduring yet another morning’s marital rape. Though her friends and family are baffled by her decision (after all, he doesn’t beat her!), Esi holds fast. When she falls in love with a married man—wealthy, and able to arrange a polygamous marriage—the modern woman finds herself trapped in a new set of problems.

Witty and compelling, Aidoo’s novel, according to Manthia Diawara, "inaugurates a new realist style in African literature." In an afterword to this edition, Tuzyline Jita Allan "places Aidoo’s work in a historical context and helps introduce this remarkable writer [who] sheds light on women’s problems around the globe" (Publishers Weekly).

   This collection of Paule Marshall’s short works illustrates the growth of a remarkable writer. For the first time these stories, long out of print or difficult to obtain, appear together in a single volume. Introducing the volume is Marshall’s much acclaimed autobiographical essay, "From the Poets in the Kitchen" from the New York Times Book Review’s series called "The Making of a Writer." This collection included newly written autobiographical headnotes to each story and "Merle," a novella excerpted from Marshall’s 1969 novel, The Chosen Place, The Timeless People, and extensively reshaped and rewritten for this collection. It stands as an independent story about one of the most memorable women in contemporary fiction.

In this first comprehensive collection of autobiographical and literary essays, Margaret Walker—described by Booklist as "one of the intellectual beacons of her generation"—recounts the search for family and social history from which she wrote her carefully researched novel of the Civil War. The autobiographical essays reflect on her work and her life as an artist, an African American, and a woman, while the literary essays examine the writings of such giants as Richard Wright, W. E. B. DuBois, Phillis Wheatley, and others.

The most prolific African-American woman author from 1920 to 1950, Hurston was praised for her writing and condemned for her independence, arrogance, and audaciousness. This unique anthology, with fourteen superb examples of her fiction, journalism, folklore, and autobiography, rightfully establishes her as the intellectual and spiritual leader of the next generation of black writers. The original commentary by Alice Walker and Mary Helen Washington, two African-American writers in the forefront of the Hurston revival, provide illuminating insights into Hurstonthe writer, and the personas well as into American social and cultural history.