2025: Book of poetry or short stories by a Black and/or Indigenous author
Book recommendations/suggestions for the Read, Seed, Water, Feed 2025 book challenge. Find your next book!
read, seed, water, feed book challenge - about prompt support posts
about prompt support posts
All of the prompt support posts (those that begin with "2025: Book written by...", for example) are organized similar to each other.
Each of these posts was created to support the Read, Seed, Water Feed book challenge on Storygraph that I am hosting. They were also created to support learning outside of the university, collective educational efforts, finding new authors to read, finding books, and more.
For each book challenge prompt, I will share the following sections:
- one or more slides with books I have read or am currently reading that I recommend for the prompt
- a list of additional books from my TBR (to-be-read) list for the prompt
- a text listing of the books that I shared in the slides
I might share one or more of the following in addition, depending on capacity and other factors:
- other supportive text as appropriate, such as countries included
- some quotes, notes, and/or reflections about one or more of the books
- links to other posts on the site where I discuss the books or prompt in more detail
I did many things to minimize hierarchy within these posts, and there will still be some things that might feel odd, such as split galleries of slides, which was a choice made to address current limitations in how the galleries work.
If interested, find bingo cards, more background on the prompts, and other reflections, on the Reading Challenge page and if on Storygraph, join the challenge.
Mostly, my goal for prompt support posts is to share books for each prompt, as suggestions and as examples. This section will be first on every post and may be skipped.
Thank you for reading.
Recommended Books
Books I've read or am currently reading that I recommend for this prompt.
Read, Seed, Water, Feed 2025 reading challenge prompt and description, showing books recommended that I have read or am currently reading. All recommended books are listed lower in the post in the section “Recommended Books in a List.”
More Books from my TBR List
For some prompts, I’m trying to diversify what I read; for others, deepening my knowledge while also growing my perspective. For some prompts, there are definitely more books on my to-be-read (TBR) list than the ones I share that I have read or am currently reading. Here are some of those books:
Poetry
- The Body Family (2022) by Hope Wabuke
- Congo, Seen from the Heavens (2023) by Clanga
- Ossuaries (2010) by Dionne Brand
- Poūkahangatus: Poems (2018) by Tayi Tibble
- Slingshot (2019) by Cyrée Jarelle Johnson
- The Sobbing School (2016) by Joshua Bennett
- The Wild Fox of Yemen: Poems (2021) by Threa Almontaser
Poetry and prose
- it was never going to be okay (2020) by jaye simpson
- Overcoming Speechlessness: A Poet Encounters the Horror in Rwanda, Eastern Congo, and Palestine/Israel (2009) by Alice Walker
- Watchnight (2024) by Cyrée Jarelle Johnson
Short stories
- Drinking from Graveyard Wells: Stories (2023) by Yvette Lisa Ndlovu
- Everything Inside: Stories (2019) by Edwidge Danticat
- Gorilla, My Love (1972) by Toni Cade Bambara
Recommended Books in a List
As a list, books I've read or am currently reading that I recommend for this prompt:
Poetry
1919 (2019) by Eve L. Ewing
Alive at the End of the World (2022) by Saeed Jones
All the Blood Involved in Love (2022) by Maya Marshall
Bless the Daughter Raised by a Voice in Her Head (2022) by Warsan Shire
Counting Descent (2016) by Clint Smith
Crossfire: A Litany for Survival (2019) by Staceyann Chin
Electric Arches (2017) by Eve L. Ewing
A Fortune for Your Disaster: Poems (2019) by Hanif Abdurraqib
Girls That Never Die (2022) by Safia Elhillo
My Mother Was a Freedom Fighter (2017) by Aja Monet
Postcolonial Love Poem (2020) by Natalie Díaz
Questions for Ada (2015) by Ijeoma Umebinyuo
Teaching My Mother How to Give Birth (2011) by Warsan Shire
Novels in verse
Bright Red Fruit (2024) by Safia Elhillo
Home Is Not a Country (2021) by Safia Elhillo
Poetry, fiction theory
M Archive: After the End of the World (2018) by Alexis Pauline Gumbs
Short stories
Cane (1923) by Jean Toomer
Elsewhere, Home (2018) by Leila Aboulela
Falling in Love with Hominids (2015) by Nalo Hopkinson
Friday Black (2018) by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah
How Long 'til Black Future Month? (2018) by N.K. Jemisin
Islands of Decolonial Love: Stories & Songs (2013) by Leanne Betasamosake Simpson
Jamaica Ginger and Other Concoctions (2024) by Nalo Hopkinson
Krik? Krak! (1995) by Edwidge Danticat
The Memory Librarian: And Other Stories of Dirty Computer (2022) by Janelle Monáe
Out There Screaming: An Anthology of New Black Horror (2023) edited by Jordan Peele and John Joseph Adams
Sycorax's Daughters (2017) edited by Linda D. Addison, Kinitra Brooks, Susana Morris
Whatever Happened to Interracial Love?: Stories (2016) by Kathleen Collins
Short stories that are interconnected:
Jollof Rice and Other Revolutions: A Novel in Interlocking Stories (2022) by Omolola Ijeoma Ogunyemi
The Women of Brewster Place (1982) by Gloria Naylor
Short stories that are set in a previously constructed world:
The Angel of Khan el-Khalili (2017) by P. Djèlí Clark (set in the Dead Djinn universe, read online at tor.com.
Shades in Shadow: An Inheritance Triptych (2015) by N.K. Jemisin (set in the world of the Inheritance trilogy).
Get any/all of these books wherever you get your books.
Please support libraries however you can. Find out many ways to get involved in supporting libraries at Libraries for the People.
Please consider purchasing books when they are available from Workshops 4 Gaza's bookstore: Postcolonial Love Poem (2020) by Natalie Díaz. When I share books that are available for purchase there at the time of posting, I will list them here after the link.
Thank you for reading.
