15 Black-Owned Bookstores to Support Right Now

You may have seen many anti-racist reading lists being shared in the past few weeks. We’ve compiled a list of Black-owned bookstores from across the country, most of which offer online orders, so that you can support Black-owned businesses while educating yourself. This list is by no means exhaustive—please comment and tell us which bookstores we should add!

Ashay by the Bay

One of the best Black children’s bookstores.

Location: Vallejo, CA

Owner: Deborah Day

Online orders: Yes

Recommended reading: African History Collection (list)

Connect: Instagram | Twitter | Facebook


Beyond Barcodes Bookstore

Books, coffee, community.

Location: Kokomo, IN

Owner: DeAndra Beard

Online orders: Yes

Recommended reading: Revolutionary Gardening (list)

Connect: Twitter | Facebook


The Black Reserve Bookstore

Location: Lansdale, PA

Owner: Shaykh Anwar Muhammad

Online orders: No

Connect: Instagram | Twitter | Facebook


Brain Lair Books

Difficult conversations in a fun place.

Location: South Bend, IN

Owner: Kathy Burnette

Online orders: Yes

Recommended reading: Pride (list)

Connect: Instagram | Twitter | Facebook


Cafe con Libros

An intersectional feminist community bookstore and coffee shop.

Location: Brooklyn, New York, NY

Owner: Kalima DeSuze

Online orders: Yes

Book clubs: Womxn of Color | Feminists

Connect: Instagram | Twitter | Facebook


Enda’s Booktique

Books written by, for, and about women.

Location: Duncanville, TX

Owner: Enda Jean Pemberton Jones

Online orders: Yes

Recommended reading: SHElf Empowerment (list)

Connect: Instagram | Twitter | Facebook


Eyeseeme African American Children’s Bookstore

Committed to increasing childhood literacy and promoting multicultural literature.

Location: University City, MO

Owners: Jeffrey & Pamela Blair

Online orders: Yes

Recommended reading: AntiRacist Collection (list)

Connect: Instagram | Twitter | Facebook


Frugal Bookstore

Changing minds one book at a time.

Location: Roxbury, MA

Owners: Leonard & Clarissa Egerton

Online orders: Yes

Connect: Facebook


Harriett’s Bookshop

Celebrating women authors, artists, and activists.

Location: Philadelphia, PA

Owner: Jeannine A. Cook

Online orders: Yes

Recommended reading: Such A Fun Age by Kiley Reid

Connect: Instagram | Twitter | Facebook


The Lit. Bar

The only bookstore currently serving the Bronx.

Location: The Bronx, New York, NY

Owner: Noëlle Santos

Online orders: Yes

Recommended reading: Dear White People (list)

Connect: Instagram | Twitter | Facebook


Loyalty Bookstore

Centering Black, PoC, and Queer voices.

Locations: Washington, D.C. & Silver Spring, MD

Owner: Hannah Oliver Depp

Online orders: Yes

Recommended reading: Social Distance Reading (list)

Connect: Instagram | Twitter | Facebook


MahoganyBooks

An award-winning bookstore that sells books for, by, and about people of the African Diaspora.

Location: Washington, D.C.

Owners: Derrick & Ramunda Young

Online orders: Yes

Recommended reading: Medical Apartheid by Harriet Washington

Book club: MahoganyBooks & Very Smart Brothas

Connect: Facebook | Twitter


Marcus Books

The oldest independent Black bookstore in the country.

Location: Oakland, CA

Online orders: In progress—stay tuned

Connect: Instagram | Twitter | Facebook


Mocha Books

Creating a path to visibility for BIPOC indie writers.

Location: Tulsa, OK

Owner: Shionka McGlory

Online orders: Yes

Book club: Youth Book Club

Connect: Instagram | Twitter | Facebook


Turning Page Bookshop

Spreading love for good books and giving back to the community.

Location: Goose Creek, SC

Owners: Valinda Miller & Arrylee Satterfield

Online orders: Yes

Connect: Instagram | Twitter | Facebook


New Book Recommendations from The New York Times

Notes From A Black Woman’s Diary: Selected Works of Kathleen Collins edited by Nina Lorez Collins

Notes From A Black Woman's Diary

“The writer and filmmaker Kathleen Collins died in 1988, at the age of 46 — young, brilliant and, for the most part, unknown. Her work — including Whatever Happened to Interracial Love?, a collection of short stories published for the first time in 2016 — has been rediscovered and embraced in recent years. Now a new book has arrived, Notes From a Black Woman’s Diary, a grab bag of letters, diary entries, short stories, plays and screenplays. ‘Her voice and vision are idiosyncratic and pitiless, combining mischief and crisp authority, formal experimentation and deep feeling,’ our critic Parul Sehgal writes.”

Continue reading “New Book Recommendations from The New York Times”

Colorlines Race and Culture Summer Reading List

Summer reading suggestions in poetry and fiction from Colorlines. To see more recommendations in history, children’s literature, activism, art, and memoir, read the full article.

If They Come for Us by Fatimah Asghar

If They Come for Us by Fatimah AsgharMuslim-American poet Fatimah Asghar navigates intergenerational violence, vulnerability and love in her collection If They Come for Us (Penguin Random House).

Don’t Let Them See Me Like This by Jasmine Gibson

Don't Let Them See Me Like This by Jasmine GibsonIn her debut poetry collection, Don’t Let Them See Me Like This, Jasmine Gibson unearths the brutality of capitalism, biopolitics and White supremacy and explores desire and the idea of political insurgency (Nightboat).

SWOLE by Jerika Marchan

SWOLE by Jerika MarchanJerika Marchan’s SWOLE is a lyric response to environmental racism and the irreversible impact of Hurricane Katrina (Future Poem).

Love War Stories by Ivelisse Rodriguez

Love War Stories by Ivelisse RodriguezLove War Stories is a collection of short stories about Puerto Rican women and girls and their understanding of love and its myths (The Feminist Press).

New Poets of Native Nations

New Poets of Native NationsNew Poets of Native Nations topples racist and essentialist assumptions about poetry written by Native American writers in an anthology filled with diverse styles and lyricism (Graywolf Press).

What We Lose by Zinzi Clemmons

What We Lose by Zinzi ClemmonsZinzi Clemmons’ novel What We Lose, loosely based on the author’s experience of caring for her dying mother, is a fragmented story of grief and diasporic identity (Penguin Random House).

Kenyon Review’s Summer Reading List

Kenyon Review's Summer Reading List

David Lynn, Editor

Burnt Shadows by Kamila ShamsieBurnt Shadows by Kamila Shamsie. Shamsie, a Pakistani writer who also lives in London, opens this powerful novel in Nagasaki, shortly before its destruction. The young woman protagonist, who is one of the few survivors, leaves Japan and continues her life, forever transformed, in India, Turkey, Pakistan, and beyond. This is not Shamsie’s most recent novel, but it is one of great power and lyrical beauty.

Book of Hours

Likewise, perhaps, Kevin Young has been publishing in a variety of genres, and his most recent book of poems, Brown, has received enthusiastic reviews. I’ve been reading his Book of Hours, however, an astonishing poetic engagement with grief, loss, and death. Superb and accessible poems.

 

Finally, the first novel by a young Kenyon author of extraordinary talent, Meghan Kenny. The Driest Season is spare, wise, lyrical, and potent. It’s a quick read and one I highly recommend.

Continue reading “Kenyon Review’s Summer Reading List”

Muse-Feed Road Trip: 8 Days, 9 States, 2,500 Miles: 1st Stop: King’s English in Salt Lake City

king's englishMuse-Feed is embarking on an 8-day cross country journey into the land of bookstores. Each day we will offer staff picks from some of the nation’s finest, most curated and eclectic booksellers. Our only frustration in planning this odyssey is that there are so many more wonderful bookstores we cannot reach in 8 short days. We may have to make it an annual event!

King's EnglishBetsy Burton and Anne Holman, booklovers always, have owned The King’s English in Salt Lake City since since 1977. Over the years, they’ve made it their mission to match books to readers and remember their reading preferences each time they visit the store. The bookstore offers book groups, events, staff picks, movies, music & gifts. In addition, they offer a newsletter called The Inkslinger filled with reviews of the staff’s favorite books and authors. There’s something for everyone—fiction, nonfiction and children’s books—plus a calendar of upcoming events, special features and author interviews. Of their excellent staff picks, we purchased a signed First Edition copy of THE MINISTRY OF UTMOST HAPPINESS by Arundhati Roy. Additional staff picks include books by Margot Singer, Laura McBride, Derek B. Miller, Nina George, Francis Spufford, Jamie Harrison and Alexandra Fuller. We thank The King’s English for making our first bookstore stop a delightful one.

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