IMPORTANT NEW BOOKS:

The Man Who Cried I Am: A Novel
by John A. Williams
Library of America,  2023

[Publication date:  November 7, 2023] 

Rediscover the sensational 1967 literary thriller that captures the bitter struggles of postwar Black intellectuals and artists

With a foreword by Ishmael Reed and a new introduction by Merve Emre about how this explosive novel laid bare America's racial fault lines

Max Reddick, a novelist, journalist, and presidential speechwriter, has spent his career struggling against the riptide of race in America. Now terminally ill, he has nothing left to lose. An expat for many years, Max returns to Europe one last time to settle an old debt with his estranged Dutch wife, Margrit, and to attend the Paris funeral of his friend, rival, and mentor Harry Ames, a character loosely modelled on Richard Wright.

In Amsterdam, among Harry’s papers, Max uncovers explosive secret government documents outlining “King Alfred,” a plan to be implemented in the event of widespread racial unrest and aiming “to terminate, once and for all, the Minority threat to the whole of the American society.” Realizing that Harry has been assassinated, Max must risk everything to get the documents to the one man who can help.

Greeted as a masterpiece when it was published in 1967, The Man Who Cried I Am stakes out a range of experience rarely seen in American fiction: from the life of a Black GI to the ferment of postcolonial Africa to an insider’s view of Washington politics in the era of segregation and the Civil Rights Movement, including fictionalized portraits of Martin Luther King, Jr., and Malcolm X. John A. Williams and his lost classic are overdue for rediscovery.

Few novels have so deliberately blurred the boundaries between fiction and reality as The Man Who Cried I Am (1967), and many of its early readers assumed the King Alfred plan was real. In her introduction, Merve Emre examines the gonzo marketing plan behind the novel that fueled this confusion and prompted an FBI investigation. This deluxe paperback also includes a new foreword by novelist Ishmael Reed.

“It is a blockbuster, a hydrogen bomb . . . . This is a book white people are not ready to read yet, neither are most black people who read. But [it] is the milestone produced since Native Son. Besides which, and where I should begin, it is a damn beautifully written book.” —Chester Himes

“Magnificent . . . obviously in the Baldwin and Ellison class.” —John Fowles

“If The Man Who Cried I Am were a painting it would be done by Brueghel or Bosch. The madness and the dance is never-ending display of humanity trying to creep past inevitable Fate.” —Walter Mosely

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

John Alfred Williams (1925–2015) was an African American author, journalist, and professor of English at Rutgers University. He won the American Book Awards Lifetime Achievement award in 2011. Born born in Jackson, Mississippi, in 1925. He earned a degree in English and Journalism from Syracuse University in 1950 (after service in the navy). After the publication of his first novel The Angry Ones in 1960 John A. Williams went on to have a distinguished literary career, including the publication of his second novel Sissie, and the classic 1967 bestseller, The Man Who Cried I Am.

Williams professional career included teaching at the College of the Virgin Islands, the City College of New York, Sarah Lawrence College and was a professor of English at Rutgers University of the Virgin Islands, the City College of New York, Sarah Lawrence College and he was a professor of English at Rutgers University.

Williams received the Syracuse University Centennial Medal for Outstanding Achievement. He is also a member of the Nation Institute of Arts and Letters. Williams also won the 1998 American Book Award for Safari West. Williams was the author of 21 fiction and non-fiction books.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

 

Max paused a long moment before pulling the cord that opened the gate. He glanced behind him at the house; Michelle was at a window, watching. A white spot. He couldn’t even tell now the color of her hair. He thought, S’long, Red. He pulled the cord and the gate swung open. He stepped into the street, pulling the door closed after him and leaning back against it automatically, to make sure it was firmly locked. He looked up and down. The street was quiet, almost empty. He scuttled across the walk, heart pounding, and hurriedly unlocked the car door. Inside, he relocked it and, flinching from the pain of the sudden sitting, groaned. His fingers were groping under the seat for the Llama. Where was it? Stiff, eager fingers ploughed into car-floor dirt; his heart threatened to tear through his rib cage. Where—? But now his fingers touched heavy metal with hard precise lines, and he pulled the gun out, breathing with relief. He pulled the clip halfway out. Still loaded. A small gun, but that’s what everyone got killed with in New York. Twenty-two’s. A .25 would hurt only a little bit more. He put the gun in his pocket, checked the doors again and placed the case on the other seat. He started down the street and sped quickly through the city, so occupied with watching behind him that he squirted through two red lights. When he gained the main road he shifted into fourth. Better, he thought. That’s better. With the coming of the gray clouds the temperature had dropped slightly and the wind had come up. He felt it tearing at the car. He drove rapidly. A big, black Mercedes rushed up behind him, blinked its lights and then howled past. Max noticed the black-on-white plates. The big “D” to one side. Deutschland.

 

The Sisterhood: How a Network of Black Women Writers Changed American Culture
by Courtney Thorsson
‎Columbia University Press, 2023

[Publication date: November 7, 2023]

One Sunday afternoon in February 1977, Toni Morrison, Alice Walker, Ntozake Shange, and several other Black women writers met at June Jordan’s Brooklyn apartment to eat gumbo, drink champagne, and talk about their work. Calling themselves “The Sisterhood,” the group―which also came to include Audre Lorde, Paule Marshall, Margo Jefferson, and others―would get together once a month over the next two years, creating a vital space for Black women to discuss literature and liberation.

The Sisterhood tells the story of how this remarkable community transformed American writing and cultural institutions. Drawing on original interviews with Sisterhood members as well as correspondence, meeting minutes, and readings of their works, Courtney Thorsson explores the group’s everyday collaboration and profound legacy. The Sisterhood advocated for Black women writers at trade publishers and magazines such as Random House, Ms., and Essence, and eventually in academic departments as well―often in the face of sexist, racist, and homophobic backlash. Thorsson traces the personal, professional, and political ties that brought the group together as well as the reasons for its dissolution. She considers the popular and critical success of Sisterhood members in the 1980s, the uneasy absorption of Black feminism into the academy, and how younger writers built on the foundations the group laid. Highlighting the organizing, networking, and community building that nurtured Black women’s writing, this book demonstrates that The Sisterhood offers an enduring model for Black feminist collaboration.

REVIEWS:

One of the "Most Anticipated" Books of 2023 ― The Millions

One of "30 books we can’t wait to read this fall" ― Los Angeles Times

A "Must-Read Book" of Fall 2023 ― Town & Country Magazine

An LJ Review Editors' Fall Pick ― Library Journal

Starting with a photograph, Courtney Thorsson brings her all to this luminous work about The Sisterhood, a group of Black women writers who met informally in the 1970s. Together they transformed American literature and helped to shape generations of writers, visual artists, filmmakers, and scholars. This is a profoundly important story, and it has found an astute and sensitive author in Thorsson. -- Farah Jasmine Griffin, author of In Search of a Beautiful Freedom: New and Selected Essays

If a picture is worth a thousand words, then the photograph that inspired Courtney Thorsson’s immensely perceptive The Sisterhood should be valued in the millions. The Black women who made up The Sisterhood represented the greatest creative minds of the last half century. Today we see them as literary ‘Super Friends,’ but back in 1977 many were struggling artists whose friendship, generosity, and support for one another enabled them all to fly. And the literary, cultural, political, and academic worlds we now inhabit are better for it. -- Robin D. G. Kelley, author of Thelonious Monk: The Life and Times of an American Original

Proceeding from an archive of one iconic photograph of The Sisterhood, 1977, Courtney Thorsson has pieced together the story of how Black women writers, in intimate and collaborative gatherings throughout New York in the 1970s, created literary history. It is an indispensable, fascinating, and original history and one that might have been lost without Thorsson’s loving and meticulous archival work. -- Mary Helen Washington, author of The Other Blacklist: The African American Literary and Cultural Left of the 1950s

The Sisterhood offers an indispensable history of Black women’s writing and organizing. Thorsson’s painstakingly researched story of The Sisterhoodreaches far beyond the now-famous 1977 photo on the book's cover. In these tenderly written pages, Thorsson reveals an entire history of contemporary Black feminism and the writers, editors, organizers, and dreamers who shepherded it. This is an essential contribution to Black feminist thought and American literary history. -- Erica R. Edwards, author of The Other Side of Terror: Black Women and the Culture of US Empire

Richly detailed . . . A well-documented contribution to Black literary history. ― Kirkus Reviews

A scintillating snapshot of a significant moment in American literature. ― Publishers Weekly

A fascinating, empowering look at how Black women writers collaborated to move their own needle in the publishing industry and academia. ― Library Journal

 

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Courtney Thorsson is an associate professor of English at the University of Oregon and the author of Women’s Work: Nationalism and Contemporary African American Women’s Novels (2013). She is the recipient of a Public Scholars Award from the National Endowment for the Humanities in support of the research and writing of this book.

Sing a Black Girl's Song: The Unpublished Work of Ntozake Shange
by Ntozake Shange
(Edited by Imani Perry)
‎Legacy Lit,  2023

[Publication date: September 12, 2023]

GMA’s 15 Spectacular New Books to Read in September 
Ms. Magazine’s September 2023 Reads for the Rest of Us
The Millions “Most Anticipated” Books of 2023
LitHub’s Most Anticipated Books of 2023

Never-before-seen unpublished works by award-winning American literary icon Ntozake Shange, featuring essays, plays, and poems from the archives of the seminal Black feminist writer who stands alongside giants like Toni Morrison and Alice Walker, curated by National Book Award winner Imani Perry with a foreword by New York Times bestselling author Tarana Burke.
 
 In the late ’60s, Ntozake Shange was a student at Barnard College discovering her budding talent as a writer, publishing in her school’s literary journal, and finding her unique voice. By the time she left us in 2018,  Shange had scorched blazing trails across countless pages and stages, redefining genre and form as we know them, each verse, dance, and song a love letter to Black women and girls, and the community at large.
 

Sing a Black Girl’s Song is a new posthumous collection of Shange’s unpublished poems, essays, and plays from throughout the life of the seminal Black feminist writer. In these pages we meet young Shange, learn the moments that inspired for colored girls who have considered suicide/when the rainbow is enuf…, travel with an eclectic family of musicians, sit on “The Couch” opposite Shange’s therapist, and discover plays written after for colored girls’ international success. Sing a Black Girl’s Song houses, in their original form, the literary rebel’s politically charged verses from the Black Arts Movement era alongside her signature tender rhythm and cadence that capture the minutia and nuance of Black life. Sing a Black Girl’s Song is the continuation of a literary tradition that has bolstered generations of writers and a long-lasting gift from one of the fiercest and most highly celebrated artists of our time.

  

REVIEWS:

"Previously unseen writing from an essential Black author. . . Those acquainted with the author will see familiar themes emerge as she engages with colonialism, code switching, white supremacy, liberation politics, sexism, sexual violence, and collective trauma. She writes of desire and despair and revolution and Black joy using language and imagery that she was taught to hide from white people. . . Shange speaks candidly of her struggles with mental health and her years in psychoanalysis, and she insists that therapy made her a better writer. . . The literary value of these works extends far beyond the insight they offer into Shange’s life and artistic career."―Kirkus (Starred Review)

“As a playwright, poet, and sometimes essayist, Shange worked at the intersection of Black liberation and radical feminism… [T]he work of artists like Shange must be preserved and celebrated. This posthumous collection of essays, poems, and plays—many being published for the first time—does just that.”―Lit Hub

"Even posthumously, Shange's unique voice is more relevant than ever. Her lyrical way of telling stories imbues these revived essays, plays, and poems with a vitality that consistently centers Black women and girls and goes toe-to-toe with white supremacy, sexism, and colonialism. Perfect for longtime fans and newcomers to her radically experimental body of work, Sing a Black Girl's Song gives readers a deeper understanding of how this literary icon created her signature style."―BUST

“From a poem published in her high school newspaper to her groundbreaking choreopoems to moving critical essays—all previously unpublished—this volume showcases the genius of Shange: her breadth, depth, wisdom and love.”―Ms. Magazine

“What a fabulous treasure trove of insights into Ntozake Shange's soul… this book provides an intoxicating slice of life to make anyone a lifelong fan… Beautiful. Just like her.”―Good Morning America

“Raw, illuminating and revelatory, Ntozake’s Shange’s bold and lyrical writing gave urgent voice to a new generation of young Black writers like myself who were emboldened by the honesty and beauty of her poetry, plays, and prose to tell our own stories.”―Lynn Nottage, Pulitzer Prize winning playwright

"With Sing A Black Girl’s Song, Imani Perry offers intimacy with Ntozake Shange as a peerless, prolific writer in process. Here is a brilliant multi-genre gathering from Shange’s archive that maps her political and creative maturation on her quest for self-actualization as a Black woman in America participating in transnational Black liberation movements. Brimming with lyrical incandescence, sensuality and self-regard, Shange urges us to “keep an eye” on ourselves, documenting not only what is happening to us, but within us and through us individually and collectively."―Erika Dickerson-Despenza, playwright and Inaugural Resident of the Ntozake Shange Social Justice Playwriting Residency

 

ABOUT THE AUTHOR AND EDITOR:

Ntozake Shange, author of thirty-six published works, is increasingly recognized as one of America’s greatest writers having, for fifty years, embodied the struggle of women of color for equality and the recognition of their contribution to human culture. Shange’s literary legacy, preserved in the Shange Institute at Barnard College, comprises thirteen plays, seven novels, six children’s books and nineteen poetry collections, the majority of which are published and in print. Her 1974 “choreo-poem,” for colored girls who have considered suicide/ when the rainbow Is enuf, retains its status as the longest-running play by an African American writer in Broadway history. The 2022 Broadway revival of for colored girls garnered seven TONY Award nominations. She has been posthumously inducted into both the NY State Writers and the Off-Broadway Alliance Halls of Fame, cementing her legacy as one of the most cherished Black feminist writers of our time.
 
Imani Perry (Editor) is the Carol K. Pforzheimer professor at Harvard Radcliffe Institute and professor of African American studies and women and gender studies at Harvard University. She is a 2023 MacArthur Foundation Fellow and the author of seven books, including South to America, winner of the 2022 National Book Award. She is a recipient of the Lambda Literary Award and the Hurston Wright Award, and was a finalist for an NAACP Image Award, among others. She has written for The New York Times; TheAtlantic; Harpers; O, the Oprah Magazine; New York Magazine; and The Paris Review. Perry earned her PhD in American studies from Harvard University, a JD from Harvard Law School, an LLM from Georgetown University Law Center, and a BA from Yale College in literature and American studies.