My Challenge for 2014: Read 50 Books by Writers of Color

Last year, I decided to read 50 books by writers of color.

This idea got started when I read an interview with speculative fiction author Nalo Hopkinson (author of The Chaos). At the time, I was writing a blog series about race and gender in dystopian young adult novels and I was stuck by how Hopkinson talked about how books by people of color tend to be overlooked. It is easy to read primarily or exclusively books by white authors without realizing it. She challenged people to read at least 50 books by people of color. I decided to take her up on that challenge.

I started late in the year and, by December, was struggling to hit 50. This year, I'm starting early and have already drawn up most of my reading list. Now, I'm not promising only to read books by women of color. I'd promptly break that vow once the final books in Karen Sandler's Tankborn or Dan Wells' Partials trilogies come out. Instead, I'm pushing myself to read at least 50 books by writers of color with an emphasis on women of color.

So who's on my to-read list so far?

Read more on my Bitch blogpost.

For those of you on twitter, I'll be tweeting my reading as I finish it under #50booksbyPOC. Or you can just follow my reviews here on goodreads.