Novelist Jesmyn Ward on Life in Mississippi, Love Through Grief, and Her New Novel The author—who won National Book Awards for Sing, Unburied, Sing and Salvage the Bones—is out with Let Us Descend vanityfair.com/style/2023/11/… twitter.com/i/web/status/1…

I’m so thrilled that HOW TO SAY BABYLON is on @TIME’s 100 Must-Read books of 2023! I’m very grateful to be listed here with so many writers that I love and admire. time.com/collection/mus…

Join @wellreadblkgirl for a chat about Short Stories at @dcpl with #DebutAuthors @ShandersWrites and @_Kelsey_Norris_! Come for the books 📚, stay for the Sisterhood! dclibrary.libnet.info/event/9494066

Let go of the fear. Let go of the lies. Let go of the control issues. Let go of the manipulation. Let go of the selfishness. Let go of that which has been stolen. Let go of the denial. Let go of the tendency to dehumanize. Let go of the greed. Decolonize.

My forthcoming poetry chapbook, MY MOUTH A CONSTANT PRAYER, is available for preorder now! Get into this beautiful cover designed by my friend, sister, and collaborator @s_aintszn! 😍 backbonepress.org/news

Be open to the dream unfolding in a time and form that is different than you imagined. It’s still coming. Allow for the formation.

Stop positioning rest as something to do in order to be more productive for capitalism. You are missing the key point of rest as a justice movement.

I’m honoured by this beautiful review of HOW TO SAY BABYLON by the brilliant Hannah Giorgis in @TheAtlantic. I’m grateful for how keenly she reads the book and understands its complexities, the sea’s heart in the book, and my reverence for it. Read here: t.ly/rVjBU

Audre Lorde said, “Every day of our lives is practice in becoming the person you want to be...No angel is suddenly going to descend upon you, make you brave, courageous, true...And every day that you sit back silent...remember, terrible things are being done in our name.”

Harlem. Photographs by Katsu Naito (1990s)

“My mother used to color in all the characters in my picture books brown, with a brown magic marker. So, when I read The Little Prince, he had the same complexion as me because of her loving hand.” —Lynn Nottage buff.ly/45GxitN

More from the @LoveDCLibrary @LoveDCLibrary banner books event : executive director @RReyesGavilan, @Tammy and @wellreadblkgirl 📚💗 twitter.com/i/web/status/1…

Give yourself sacred pause. You’re worthy of unhurried spaces. Choose people and places with whom clocks lose their power.

Yes👏🏽she👏🏽is. She stepped away, engaged in self-care and then stunted on the world. twitter.com/WSJ/status/171…

In 1987, some of the most important Black women in American literature posed for a photo at Spelman. Here's how it came about. atlantamagazine.com/news-culture-a…

I went to bed feeling a little down, but then woke up this morning to a 6 am email from @Fieldsish, editor of @Fortune Well, announcing me, along with twelve of my esteemed colleagues, as one of @Fortunemag’s 13 Innovators Shaping the Future of Health. I’m honored and humbled.

- how to get away with Renaissance.

“Good editors are really the third eye. Cool. Dispassionate. They don’t love you or your work.” —Toni Morrison buff.ly/3scRSDh

IN YOUR OWN BUBBLE, Kayla Mahaffey, 2019

I went to philadelphia to interview ⁦@jatovia⁩ for ⁦@harpersbazaarus⁩ and came back, a different version of myself. we talked about quiet as it’s kept, her film inspired by toni morrison’s the bluest eye, time, space, spirituality and much more harpersbazaar.com/culture/art-bo…

Join Howard University and @TheAcademy as they host “Hattie’s Come Home” commemorating the life and legacy of Hattie McDaniel, her historic Academy Award win, and reunite her Academy Award with #HowardU as she originally intended. Oct. 1 at 5pm - NEW LOCATION Cramton Auditorium

Poetry as Ritual for my favorite series: #briefbutspectacular pbs.org/newshour/show/…

Everyone’s dragging Bobbi Althoff for her embarrassing “interview” with Offset, where he spends the entire convo roasting her bc she’s an abysmal host! Here are 3 things you need to be prepared for when doing an interview and/or hosting a podcast/show:

Love this! “The Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture (NMAAHC) has acquired a four-page manuscript of the poem, handwritten by [Phillis] Wheatley—the only such copy that exists today.” smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/smi…

𝑻𝒐𝒏𝒊 𝑴𝒐𝒓𝒓𝒊𝒔𝒐𝒏: 𝑻𝒉𝒆 𝑷𝒊𝒆𝒄𝒆𝒔 𝑰 𝑨𝒎 (𝟐𝟎𝟏𝟗) #BannedBooksWeek #ToniMorrison #ppwmoodboard

Happy pub day to @MindaHoney's 💜THE HEARTBREAK YEARS,💜 "A hilariously intimate memoir that gets to the turbulent joys and pains of coming of age and looking for love as a Black woman in America." @LightnerKayla @LittleABooks @AmazonPub

A hilariously intimate memoir that gets to the turbulent joys and pains of coming of age and looking for love as a Black woman in America. @MindaHoney

Dread the constellation I was born under, dread I slept under, dread the waves of history, blustering red. —Safiya Sinclair @SafiyaSinclair #PoemADay poets.org/poem/planet-dr…

—think about this image of cicely tyson so often.

Prairie View A&M is a school to which I have deep family ties going back generations. I am so honored to be the 2023-2024 Writer-in-Residence. twitter.com/PVAMU/status/1…