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Home • Entertainment

6 Books By Black Female Writers We're Loving Right Now

Check out our roundup of women-penned works that tackle important subjects from street harassment to intersectional feminism.
6 Books By Black Female Writers We're Loving Right Now
By Joi-Marie McKenzie · Updated December 6, 2020
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If there’s one silver lining this quarantine has brought us, it’s that now book lovers have even more time to delve into those reads that might’ve collected dust. (Don’t worry, we’re not judging.)

As we all slow down, it’s the perfect time to pick up a new book that you’ve been dying to page through. Although we’re rounded up our favorite reads this spring, in the March/April issue of ESSENCE, with Empire star Taraji P. Henson on the cover, we highlighted books written by women.

As we’re closing up this month, don’t forget to grab these reads to round out your bookshelf.

01
F*ck Your Diet
Comedian Chloé Hilliard realizes her “big bones” aren’t entirely her fault and critiques how culture shames us into weight loss in F*ck Your Diet ($27).
6 Books By Black Female Writers We're Loving Right Now
02
Hood Feminism
With Hood Feminism ($26), Mikki Kendall, creator of #SolidarityIsForWhite Women, takes the feminist movement to task for how it marginalizes the very people it’s supposed to support.
6 Books By Black Female Writers We're Loving Right Now
03
It’s Not All Downhill From Here
Meet a 68-year-old spitfire in Terry McMillan’s It’s Not All Downhill From Here ($28). Still wearing three-inch heels and hot pink skirts, Loretha Curry must lean on her girlfriends when faced with an unexpected loss.
6 Books By Black Female Writers We're Loving Right Now
04
Parable of the Brown Girl
Writer and youth advocate Khristi Lauren Adams introduces us to young ladies with their own teachable moments in Parable of the Brown Girl ($18.99).
6 Books By Black Female Writers We're Loving Right Now
05
Stop Telling Women to Smile
By speaking up about street harassment in Stop Telling Women to Smile ($28), urban artist Tatyana Fazlalizadeh seeks to help us reclaim our full power.
6 Books By Black Female Writers We're Loving Right Now
06
We Want Our Bodies Back
jessica Care moore uses her latest collection of poems, We Want Our Bodies Back ($19.99), to urge Black women to demand better from men.
6 Books By Black Female Writers We're Loving Right Now
TOPICS:  beauty black books black women books Books celebrity congress Entertainment essence uncovered Feminism hair love Mental Health reading relationship Taraji P. Henson