14. Bernardine Evaristo, The Emperor's BabeThis is a novel in verse (which put me off a bit when I first realized it, but it actually works very well), set in Roman-era London, starring a young Sudanese woman. Most of the novel deals with the main character's tomboy-ish childhood and her friendship with another woman and a drag queen named Venus, ( Read more... )

Zephaniah famously turned down the Queen’s offer of an OBE due to his rejection of the concept and history of that Empire (interview, and rejection poem, here.) He’s better known as a poet, but he's also written at least four children’s books ( Read more... )

( Why Don't You Stop Talking: Jackie Kay )

I came across this book quite randomly, whilst hunting for something totally different in my university library, so it was a bit of a surprise. It is an academic text, so it's a tad on the dry side, but it is really interesting and it ties in very well to one of my longstanding interests, which is the history of race as a social construct ( Read more... )

41. Bernardine Evaristo, Blonde Roots.Oh, this was awesome. :-D ( Read more... )

9. Trumpet by Jackie Kay, 1997

I loved this book a lot, probably more than anything else I've read so far this year. pigeonhed wrote a good review of it here. Jackie Kay does a really wonderful, subtle job of dealing with issues of gender, race, sexuality, class, and nationality interact in her characters' lives without ever taking you out of the story ( Read more... )

Hi everyone. I'm new to 50books_poc and this is my first post :

I chose my first book on the basis of having met the writer in person, and because I found myself very much inspired by her at a time when I was about to give up on my own fiction.

Borrowed Body by Valerie Mason-John:

"Borrowed Body" is Pauline's story. Pauline is a black girl who was ( Read more... )