The Sisterhood: How a Network of Black Women Writers Changed American Culture

by Courtney Thorsson

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.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Feminism, Race, Writing, African American, Biography

296 pages, Hardcover

First published November 7, 2023

About the author

Courtney Thorsson teaches, studies, and writes about African American literature at the University of Oregon, where she is a Professor of English and a Faculty Fellow in the Honors College. Her first book, **Women’s Work: Nationalism and Contemporary African American Women's Novels**, argues that Toni Cade Bambara, Paule Marshall, Gloria Naylor, Ntozake Shange, and Toni Morrison reclaim and revise cultural nationalism in their novels of the 1980s and 90s. Her writing has appeared in publications including Callaloo; African American Review; MELUS; Gastronomica; Contemporary Literature; Legacy; and Public Books. Her second book, **The Sisterhood: How a Network of Black Women Writers Changed American Culture**, tells the story of how a remarkable community of Black women writers and intellectuals transformed political, literary, and academic cultures. She is the recipient of a Public Scholars Award from the National Endowment for the Humanities in support of the research and writing of **The Sisterhood**.

Reviews

[Lulu · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a quite interesting intro to The Sisterhood, which includes some of the most notable black women literary voices from the 60s-80s.

It’s also a nice resource if you have a new found interest for this niche of American Literature.

I know the book is about this particular group of women (The Sisterhood) and the author states (a few times) how we shouldn’t limit ourselves (our reading) to just this distinguished group, but in my opinion that’s exactly what she does. And it’s done in a fashion where everything just seems to repeat itself, making this a drawn out monotonous read.

I am glad that she is bringing attention to this group of ladies and their important contributions, but I wish it would have been done in a different way.

[Jack Wagner · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a great reading experience! It was so illuminating for me to learn sort of what happened after the sometimes utopian sixties & how this next work of authors I so deeply admire actually emotionally and materially supported each other. It’s such impressive scholarship too how well all of these different women’s lives are stitched together throughout the book. It’s also quite fascinating to hear about how a book like Beloved could become such a paragon and to read much more about its reception within the black feminist theory and to discover all the books that keep / kept it company.

[ade · Rating 5 out of 5]

AWESOME! this book pulled me out of the doom spiral induced by starting an mfa. it was so cool to learn about the intimate history of the rise of black feminism in the academy! I love black feminist thought!

[Jalisa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Let me start by saying I highly recommend this book. It is a thorough, well researched work that gives complexity to the interiority and intellectual brilliance of a cohort of Black women writers that include Paule Marshall, Audre Lorde, Toni Morrison, Alice Walker, Ntozake Shange, Patrica Spears Jones, June Jordan, Margo Jefferson and more. The book is a phenomenal bibliography of the Black women writers, intellectuals, and cultural bearers that shaped a generation through literary organizing and academia.

Courtney does a great job of contextualizing this group of women both as cultural organizers and as Black diasporic women creating much needed community, care, and acknowledgement to one another's brilliance. Not only did these women serve as each other's professional advocates through writing reviews, increasing readership and helping to get each other jobs and well deserved accolades - they supported each other as women through childcare, meals, and a safe place to land and just BE.

I loved that the book talked about the global work these women did inside and outside of the academy and publishing and the great personal costs of that work including misogynistic, racist, and homophobic bullying, attacks, and the too common premature death of these women. It also doesn't shy away from the joy and discovery that this gathering of women over two years made possible during that time period and for decades to come.

A quoted excerpt from Jamey Harley gets at the importance of the work when she says "That the writers of Sula and The Salt Eaters had made a way just like my friends and I were trying to, let me dream. This kind of everyday care may not have charted as an epic hero's journey, but it has made space for my work and for my friends' work. This is how our art gets made. We steal time from our employers. We cook for each other and make drinks. We charge up credit cards when we have them. We stand up for each other at funerals. We use our library privileges at institutions to get each other the books we need. Make photocopies on our day jobs. Write dazzling letters of support. We read drafts. Take children to camp. We cuss and cry over whatever insults the world brings. It is the guiding light of these friendships, the razor sharpness of this love that cuts through the muck of a world that tells us our stories are not important, are not worthy, are not enough."

My biggest critique of the book is that Courtney Thorsson doesn't more explicitly grapple with her positionality as a white woman telling this story. Outside of a passing note in the introduction she never talks about what it means for her as a white woman working at a university to be telling this store. What blindspots and limitations this inherently brings to the work and the interpretation of the influence and meaning of this group of women coming together.

Core to the work of The Sisterhood was Black women coming together to tell their own stories. I think a white woman working with a white editor to write this book was a missed opportunity at best. The writing of this book could have been a great opportunity to write collaboratively with other black women writers and/or using a Black woman editor to help tell these stories. I can see the argument that Courtney was using her privilege as a white woman to get this work published. But I think this story could have been more intimately told by a Black woman. There is an academic distance to the writing that I think at its core is because of a lack of shared, lived experience that only a Black woman could bring to the work.

[Craig Werner · Rating 4 out of 5]

A valuable book documenting the emergence (in the public eye) and impact of Black women's cultural work during the 1970s onwards. Thorsson begins and stays centered on the work of the women affiliated with The Sistershood, which met for a couple of years in the late 1970s, among them Alice Walker, June Jordan, Ntozake Shange, and Toni Morrison. The first half of the book is concerned mostly with the dynamics of the group, the last half with the larger presence and significance of Black womanism/feminism. It's a story I was close to at some points, as a colleague of Nellie McKay, who Thorsson cites properly as someone who played an important role in the institutionalization process.
There's nothing here I disagree with, but I did sometimes wish the vision was a bit broader, both geographically and intellectually. By that I mean that there's not much attention given to the work of African American women historians/social scientists, especially those (I'm thinking especially of Darlene Clark Hine, who worked at Michigan State and the historian Nell Painter, who exchanged letters with McKay on a daily basis. Thorsson almost certainly was limited in her pages and I'm not arguing with how she used them, but The Sisterhood does point to the need for more work on a crucial topic.

[Emily Byrne · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Getting students to read Black writing thoroughly is the way we can best foment racial justice... it is important to send young people into the world armed with an understanding of Black studies and especially African American literature."

While a little repetitive, learning the history and perseverance of these remarkable women and how they changed American literature and culture was fascinating.

However, it's interesting that Thorisson writes about the lack of Black professors in academia but does not elaborate on her role as a White African-American lit professor. It would have been interesting to learn about her role in contributing to this education, more so than just a short paragraph in the intro.

[Stephanie · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Sisterhood tells the story of how some of the best Black Women writers got together in 1977 to talk about writing and life and how together they made an impact on our culture and on publishing. The group includes Toni Morrison and Alice Walker and eventually includes Audre Lorde--some of the leading voices of their time. This book is well-sourced, very credible and interesting. Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an advance copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

[MaryAnn · Rating 4 out of 5]

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️💫

The Sisterhood: How A Network Of Black Women Writers Changed American Culture by Courtney Thorsson begins with a legendary picture of a group of Black women writers, scholars, feminists and activists who believed in the power of literature as an agent of political and social transformation, and dared to challenge white male capitalism and colonial institutions. The Sisterhood was composed of some of the brightest minds of the time: Toni Morrison, Alice Walker, Vertamae Grosvenor, Lori Sharpe, June Jordan, Nana Maynard, Ntozake Shange, and Audreen Ballard. In the two short years that they met, February 6, 1977 to February 1979, they helped recover the displaced works of Black women writers such as Zora Neal Hurston and Nella Larson, and aided in the establishment of Black studies and African American literary studies in academia. In the years that followed, they wrote books that defined the 1980s as a prodigious decade for Black women writers in the United States. A second Renaissance, a kin to the Harlem Renaissance led by Black male authors in the 1920s.
The Sisterhood is a scholarly work examining the cultural impact this group of female activists had during their time and changed American culture as the title states. Thorsson relied on both primary and secondary sources such as membersʼ meeting minutes, correspondence, journals, poetry, fiction, essays, biographies, and interviews to uncover and chronicle the everyday work of The Sisterhood. I thoroughly enjoyed the references to cultural, artistic and political happenings during this era. I was particularly captivated by the discourse illuminating the differences between the Black and White feminist agendas, and challenges faced within and outside the group related to homosexuality.
I am glad I read The Sisterhood as I feel I am much better informed about this influential group of Black women writers. It is unimaginable to think of the American literary cannon without the works of Toni Morrison, Alice Walker, or the recovered works of Zora Neal Hurston or Nella Larson. Yet, without the countercultural actions of The Sisterhood and their determination to change White Academia and White publishing houses, these literary masterpieces would not exist.
Many thanks to the author @courtneythorsson, @columbiauniversitypress, and @NetGalley for the gift of an advanced digital copy in exchange for an honest review.

[aliyahdobetter‧˚₊⋅ · Rating 3 out of 5]

3 ⭐️ - I started off really liking this book but unfortunately it got less interesting as it went on. Very incredible that the author was able to find out all this information on this group of women and it’s super niche. And it was interesting on how their work connected to this book. But I don’t know I wanted more from this book, also maybe a non-fiction wasn’t the vibe for me currently.

[Emma Julian · Rating 5 out of 5]

An important academic read about a collective of Black women writers, artists, and scholars, and their efforts to advocate for and advance Black feminist literature and culture. Professor Courtney Thorsson approaches the subject with the right blend of reverence and scholarship. (4.5/5)

[Jacqueline Nyathi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thorsson’s accessible book explores the story behind a 1977 photograph of nine Black women posed in front of a portrait of a tenth:

[Evelyn] White’s caption describes the photo this way: “A group of black women writers in New York who met informally during the 1970s. Back row, left to right: Verta Mae Grosvenor, Alice Walker, Lori Sharpe, Bessie Smith, Toni Morrison, June Jordan. Seated, left to right: Nana Maynard, Ntozake Shange, Audrey Edwards.”
[Alice] Walker knew this group was important enough to go back later and make sure that all the names of the women were on the back of the photo.
More than a decade after first holding “The Sisterhood, 1977” in my hands, I learned that the purple writing on the back had misidentified Audreen Ballard as Audrey Edwards. Both women were in the group and both were important journalists, editors, and activists, but Ballard is the one in the photo.

The woman in the portrait on the wall is Bessie Smith. The group of women in the photograph are the Sisterhood in question, and in this book, Thorsson has done the crucial work of excavating and recovering the history of these important women of letters, who changed literature and academia, and who were (and continue to be) pivotal in activism and Black feminism.

Although it feels quite repetitive in parts (perhaps in an attempt to make the same points over and over), The Sisterhood is an important record of what the Sisterhood was, and the work it did. Some of these women were or went on to become famous (Toni Morrison, Alice Walker, Ntozake Shange), but others are beginning to be forgotten outside of rarefied circles. Arguably, the Sisterhood laid the foundation for the current success of African American literature in academia (pedagogy) and popular culture, and The Sisterhood rightly remembers, honours and celebrates them. Highly recommended, for everyone.

Thank you to Thorsson for expanding my knowledge of these women and their work; my copy of the book is almost completely highlights. Thanks, too, to NetGalley and to Columbia University Press for access.

[E W · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Sisterhood re-introduces Black women writers whose role and work are not as well-known as it should be and provides a fuller understanding of some many of us assume we know well, Toni Morrison and Alice Walker in particular. The affiliation of the women in the “the Sisterhood,” a group of Black women writers and intellectuals who gathered in NYC in the 1970s—a short-lived collective in the formal sense, an enduring one in its influence—is the starting point of the book, but the account is wide-ranging, engaging, and informative. Some of the women—most notably Morrison and Walker—are assumed today to be part of the pantheon; this book illuminates their path to that status, how the women in the Sisterhood stepped in to help one another and promote one another, and how they also reached back to recover the displaced work of those who had gone before, such as Zora Neal Hurston. We take for granted today access to the work of Hurston and that her work is important. It is hard to appreciate both the fact that it had to be recovered and how difficult and labor-intensive the recovery was—from locating physical copies of long out-of-print books pre-internet, to standing at the copier to reproduce the books so students could read them for class, to facing questions about the work as part of a course syllabus. The book highlights the deeply uncomfortable, if not hostile, environment many of the women experienced in the academy—as the only Black faculty member in their department or one of very few at their institutions. The atmosphere was not much better in white-dominated feminist organizations, such as Ms. Magazine, or in the Civil Rights movement, where important women were relegated to behind-the-scenes roles or simply not recognized for their leadership. In that context, the community of the Sisterhood was essential. Thorsson’s admiration for three women is evident, as is her gratitude that several of them saved their papers and deposited them in accessible archives that she mined for this book. In doing so, she has performed a great service.

[AnnieM · Rating 4 out of 5]

Based on historical archives and interviews, this book centers the black women authors who formed a sisterhood to support each other's writing to get published. Alice Walker, Audre Lorde, Toni Morrison, Ntozake Shange, June Jordan, Michelle Wallace, Margo Jefferson, among others.. The subtitle is "How a Network of Black Women Writers Changed American Culture." and as outlined in this book, they clearly did! They had to fight against racism within the white feminist community as well as sexism within the black community. When Michelle Wallace published "Black Macho and the Myth of the Superman" she even had critics within the black feminist community. Similarly, there was controversy with Ntozake Shange's important work too. There was harsh criticism from prominent black men. Wallace felt chastised for being too young, too bourgeois, not scholarly enough etc. What I had forgotten is that Michelle Wallace is Faith Ringgold's daughter! The key is in all this work and art -- the focus here is on Black women's voices not on men's reactions to these voices. At the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, there are archives where you can find letters and meeting minutes from the Sisterhood. Sometimes the writing felt a bit disjointed but overall a really good and important read.

Thank you to Netgalley and Columbia University Press for an ARC and I voluntarily left this review.

[Cecile · Rating 4 out of 5]

“Framing Morrison as an exception among Black women writers and measuring her work using novels by white men as a benchmark uses Morrison to DERACINATE her books and erase other Black writers’ works.”

This statement is in response to some white asshole’s—Boris Kachka— assumptions about Morrison’s professional goals. As though her goal was to be compared to white men. He flatters himself, as is the way of entitled white men. Makes me want to throw up.

This sums it up. White people as a group, especially the men, swim in an ocean of white superiority and can’t exist, breathe, without it. It would be too threatening to not look through the white capitalist patriarchal gaze. It’s because of the inhumane brutality of the white race that her themes exist. But the cowards can’t face that, so diminish us as a group.

I admire the effort put into this scholarly book. I couldn’t read it all, however. It was written in a dense way that I haven’t had to read since grad school. That was decades ago.

So, I read chapters one and two and six, the one focusing on Morrison. As I write, I might go to the last chapter as well.

[bookishciara · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book!

This is a book full of research and archives from my favorite black women writers from the 70's and 80's and how they were doing revolutionary work to advocate for each other and for black women writers of the past to get their work published and out in the public.

These women organized together to advocate for their professional wants and needs and really challenged power structures and made an imprint on academia and African American studies.

I think female friendships are revolutionary and this book proved that by highlighting the good the bad and the ugly. These women were not perfect and had conflicting opinions on how to be activist but at the end of the day had a common goal that black women artist, including myself, follow to this day.

I graduated from Spelman College so a lot of the names mentioned in this book were professors of mine in college so it was amazing to see their names in this text being apart of something so small yet so big.

[Candace Cabbil · Rating 4 out of 5]

Reading this book and the audacious work of these literary giants and amazing Black women, encouraged me to write!

[Nicole Lewis · Rating 3 out of 5]

I had such high hopes for this book!

I admired the kinship this group of writers, poets and educators all had (two members were Tony Morrison and Alice Walker).

According to the book, “Self-directed study was common among black women intellectuals in the 70’s”. The Black Arts Movement (BAM) was also happening at that time so these women would talk about these subjects in their meetings.

These women fostered mentoring relationships and inspired many future black female leaders. I particularly resonated with the writer of the play, Ntozake Shange’s “For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow is Enough” since I went to see the play in NYC as a young girl.

Overall, this book was very interesting in the beginning but I found myself NOT wanting to read it because at times the writing was just dry and boring.

[Sharon Dene · Rating 5 out of 5]

One very interesting book how to use black writers? Who were women got together in a sisterhood to help each other out. So they would get published occasions. And it was really interesting how they helped each other out especially tony morrison. Some of the black men did not want them because they felt it was too feminist. How they turned the magazine. My essence around so they can promote the block writers of the In the seventies. This was very interesting, How some of them got 10 years at these really well-known schools. This is also very fascinating. How amused writers were exposing people to different subjects in their black lives. This is so refreshing to see how these writers. Especially the ones from the harlem renaissance are following getting recognition too. It's very hard for women to write, especially black women. And this was interesting how they all got together and talked about things and had meetings and helped each other out. We've come a long way in this country now. I think this would be a really good book to read for black month. Because it would show case different writing and the how they evolved over the years.

[Rachel Ryan-Dorn · Rating 5 out of 5]

An extensively researched book by Courtney Thorsson that delves into the lives and history of a relatively small but tremendously impactful group of Black women writers called The Sisterhood. The group consisted of Vertamae Grosvenor, Alice Walker, Toni Morrison, June Jordon, Nana Maynard, Ntozake Shange, Lori Sharp and Audreen Ballard. These Black women writers didn't just happen to get noticed in mainstream literature; they worked diligently and tirelessly to promote their own work and the work of other Black women while juggling their careers, family life and political activism. The book also describes the intense backlash that many of them faced from White critics who would regularly pit them against Black men for the sheer entertainment of a White audience as well as the intracultural rebuke from Black men who were determined to put race first and feminism never.

[Ari · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Across the 1970s and '80s, Washington [Mary Helen], and other scholars created a contemporary Black feminist literary criticism. Then and today, Black feminist literary criticism is committed to the recovery of out-of-print and understudied works by Black women and asserts that poetry, fiction, and drama by Black women offers way to understand identity, systems of power, and history." (27)

I was initially wary of this book, as I am often suspicious of white historians or other academics who appear to profit off of Black people's history and culture. However Thorsson eased my concerns a few ways: by naming her mentors, most of whom were African American literature professors and by constantly citing Black women scholars both that influenced her book or that could be read alongside hers (#CiteBlackWomen). Additionally she is keenly aware of the ability of literature to help make meaning of the world and that as a professor of African American literature she needs to make sure she draws those connections with her students in addition to committing herself to racial justice and Black liberation. I did want her to explain why she chose to study African American Literature, a topic she avoids and instead focuses on why she wanted to read about The Sisterhood. It was convincing but unsatisfactory for me. But I don't think you need the explanation as the book proceeds and her deep respect for Black feminism and Black literature illuminate the text. She also emphasizes that this book is a starting point and that she hopes others build off of her work and continue to explore the work and legacies of the Sisterhood members. Ultimately it was a relief to read work by a white academic who clearly understands that reading is part of political education but that action is also required.

I've read a critique that the book is too New York centric but I think that was done on purpose because members of The Sisterhood "identified strongly with its New York location. (73)" They were also mistrustful of the West Coast (see chapter 3). This was mostly amusing to read as I can imagine some of the distrust was based on stereotypes but it would have been nice if Thorsson dug into this more deeply or provided primary sources to offer an explanation. There are also some common threads that are only brief mentioned and then left alone. At one point Shanghe, Jefferson and Wallace (who only attended one meeting) express suicide ideation in their work or in the meeting minutes, while there's no record of a reaction in the minutes this could have been something Thorsson asked the living members/those on the periphery (including Jefferson and Wallace) about. It made me wonder if the Sisterhood ever discussed mental health and the intersection of class as all three of those women came from upper middle class backgrounds. Furthermore while I appreciated that Thorsson offers brief biographies of the members at the end I think having more biographical details would have strengthened the book, at least for the less well known members. Those few quibbles aside this book is an archival treasure trove, the stories shared are sometimes glamorous, sometimes dramatic, but always riveting, as to be expected given the dynamic personalities involved.

THE SISTERHOOD is an enriching piece of scholarship that looks at a pivotal group of Black women writers and their influence on each other and American (literary) culture. Thorsson convincingly argues that the heightened visibility of Black women writers (and writer here is broad, not just novelists but poets, journalists and academics as well) is largely due to The Sisterhood's organizing efforts. The tone of the book is never dry and while it does get repetitive I believe it's common in academic writing to repeat things in different variations, to make sure readers are grasping the point(s). This book not only looks at the Sisterhood members' books but also the history and conditions of the time period they were organizing in to elevate Black women's writing. They knew it mattered and that it needed to be more highly publicized. Their relationship was one of deep respect, collaboration and care even when the higher profile members were no longer able to attend the regular meetings (which did eventually lead to its demise). At its heart the group started because they all wanted to read Black women's writing together and discuss along with wanting to see many their peers as well as themselves published (and their work archived). I delighted in reading about a variety of organizing tactics they deployed such as a campaign to make Essenceinclude more Black feminist writing. There are also plenty of fun facts you can share at your next dinner party if that's your vibe especially around the Morrison National Book Award snub and other bouts of pettiness. This is a book to come back to especially as you read The Sisterhood member's books, it will surely help us better understand how they're all in conversation with each other and perhaps see threads of influence we might not have previously noticed. I hope scholars continue to dig through the archives of The Sisterhood members and those who are part of a new generation carrying on this beautiful tradition.

PS We need to bring back reading groups!

[Jeffrey M · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was such an amazing and enlightening read. The Sisterhood was a blueprint of the importance of community, something that we can learn and grow from and importantly preserve, especially at such a time as this.

[Karen Carlson]

some day I'm going to read a series of books about books

[Mae B · Rating 4 out of 5]

Such an important read.

[Tatenda]

DNF: 21%

It has great information, and it's written well. I got bored because it did not have the information I was looking for.

[Greg · Rating 3 out of 5]

It provides useful context for some of the most important Black radical feminists and their work, but I spent most of this wanting to read or reread their works. And everybody should do said reading.

[LiteraryMarie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Picture this. A Sunday afternoon in February 1977. Toni Morrison, Alice Walker and several other Black women writers met at June Jordan's Brooklyn apartment to eat gumbo, drink champagne and talk about their written work. The group called themselves "The Sisterhood" and would meet once a month over the next two years to discuss literature and liberation.

The Sisterhood: How a Network of Black Women Writers Changed American Culture tells the story of how this legendary community of women changed American writing. Original interviews, meeting minutes and correspondence is shared. Author Courtney Thorsson traces the personal and professional ties that brought the group together and how their work impacts Black women's writing today.

The Sisterhood is an informative book and intimate look into the thoughts of black feminist literary greats. How many times have we as readers wondered, "What was Toni Morrison thinking when she wrote this? What's the meaning behind this plot of Alice Walker's? What is the story behind this photograph on the book cover?" Well we get more than a glimpse in this new nonfiction novel.

I will revisit my highlighted passages often for inspiration and guidance. It provides a cultural background on writing and publishing. A great resource of aspiring and active writers today.

Happy Pub Day, Courtney Thorsson! The Sisterhood is now available.

Disclaimer: An advance copy was received directly from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. Opinions are my own and would be the same if I spent my hard-earned coins. ~LiteraryMarie

[Lily · Rating 4 out of 5]

In this fascinating book about the Sisterhood, readers learn all about a group of great Black feminist female authors from the late twentieth century. Including names like Toni Morrison, Audre Lorde, and Alice Walker, readers learn about the influence that this particular group of women has had on Black feminist scholarship and Black literature by and for women. Courtney Thorsson draws on existing scholarship, correspondence, and interviews with members of the Sisterhood to explore the scope of their meetings and their influences on changes to various social institutes. Many of these women went on to publish books or work in academia, where they continued to change and challenge social institutions through their discussions of literature and Black feminist thought. Thorsson, beyond looking into the successes and platforms of the Sisterhood, also explores the dissolution of the group and their organizational and community building successors in the decades after. By highlighting the large-scale social contributions of these women, Thorsson brings a critical part of Black studies and gender studies to life, emphasizing these connections and the larger significance of this body of intersectional work and theory. This excellent deep dive into Black feminist scholarship is a great introduction to the topic or a great companion piece to the work done by these incredible women.

Thanks to NetGalley and Columbia University Press for the advance copy.