Recommend Classics by POC

[Jenna]

Does anyone have any recommendations for classics by Black authors or people of color? Thanks!

[Ashley]

Just Mercy and How to Be Antiracist were awesome. I’m also half way through Warrior Dont Cry and it’s brilliant so far. Pretty sure I’ll be requiring my kids to read this in high school.

[Ashley]

Oh wait. You said classics. Well those books are great. Haha. We often don’t talk about the fact that Dumas was black, so Count and his others. Frederick Douglass. W.E.B Dubois. Sojourner Truth. Harriet Jacobs. I’d consider Maya Angelou a writer of classics. And I love anything by Toni Morrison.

[Jenna]

Ashley wrote: "Oh wait. You said classics. Well those books are great. Haha. We often don’t talk about the fact that Dumas was black, so Count and his others. Frederick Douglass. W.E.B Dubois. Sojourner Truth. Ha..."

Haha, yes but thank you I love all the recs! I did not know about Dumas, will be adding to my TBR. I decided to pick up Native Son, but I am now hearing that this classic is problematic. I'm going to read it anyway, but it's so unfortunate that there really aren't that many literary classics by Black authors.

[Rosa]

Giovanni’s Room by James Baldwin
Beloved by Toni Morrison
Sister Outsider: Essays and Speeches by Audre Lorde
Passing by Nella Larsen
Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston
The Color Purple by Alice Walker
Octavia E. Butler
Samuel R. Delany
Langston Hughes
Maya Angelou

[Rosa]

Also, check out The Artisan Geek on youtube! Among other things, she has a bunch of videos on black classics and diversifying one's reading :)

[Solomon]

I would definitely recommend Chinese literature, if you’re looking for works by non-white people. I am Chinese and I would definitely recommend the works by the authors during and after the language reforms, for example Lu Xun (not saying that more classical and dated Chinese works are bad, but “baihuawen” literature is an easier start). His Call to Arms is a collection of prose that I love because it provides a lot of insight towards the nature of Chinese people and the nature of humans in general.

[Jenna]

I am interested thank you so much!!!

[Ashley]

Solomon, can you say more? I have been trying to dive into eastern literature, being from the west and well read in “our” classics. What else would you recommend? What immerses the reader into the culture? I used to love to read historical fiction like Memoirs of a Geisha because I felt like I was there with the people, a part of them. But the books have to be really good or I won’t be excited about it. And I’m not sure good authors that actually represent the culture and people. Im so interested in history and philosophy and anything you want to recommend! Thanks!!

[Solomon]

To start with, there are many writers from the Kuomintang era and the early communist era, such as Xiao Hong, Eileen Chang, Mao Dun, Lao She and more. Chinese literature in those time periods are pretty straight-forward (differs from writer to writer), many incorporate regional dialects (such as the Northeastern and Beijing dialects) in their writing. Many writers describe corruption, poverty, sexism, the Japanese Occupation, and how the Chinese people were conformists. I personally would recommend Xiao Hong, because I love her raw writing style. She writes a lot of her books in a child's perspective, and I think it is a smart decision because it captures the lives of people in a very relatable manner. One of her books is Tales of Hulan River; it tells us how people lived in her (Xiao Hong's) hometown. Unfortunately she died in Hong Kong when she is around 30 :(

[Ashley]

Wow. How sad! But thank you for the great info!

[A.]

Excerpts from short story titled, Finally, by the first non-white and non-European Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore listed below, inter alia:
"A romping non-conforming feminine nature bespeaks itself and pulsates unceasingly in the eyes and aspect of this girl like a swift free-roaming wild antelope and makes her vibrant face unforgettable."
"Her name had been associated with an amount of infamy. The menfolk called her moonstruck, but the wives of the village were worried sick by her feral disposition. She always played with the boys and looked down upon the lasses no end and she came across like a free-booting Maratha cavalry upon the village kids."

Kindle/Print/LPE:
Haimanti: Of Autumn by Rabindranath Tagore
Clouds and Sunshine by Rabindranath Tagore
Finally by Rabindranath Tagore
Missing My Bejeweled by Rabindranath Tagore
One Night by Rabindranath Tagore
The Crown by Rabindranath Tagore
Letters from an Expatriate in Europe by Rabindranath Tagore

[mariam]

Try Aaangan [Courtyard] by Khadija Mastoor!

[Dan]

I would recommend either Their Eyes Were Watching God. The Bluest Eye, or A Lesson Before Dying. You can start with Beloved, but you have to wrestle with a winding, non-linear narrative--which isn't a literary trait everyone enjoys.

For something prior to the 20th century, you can also try The Life of Frederick Douglas or Up from Slavery

[Lorri]

Twelve Years a Slave

[Cedricsmom]

Well there’s always Alexander Dumas, Alexander Pushkin, Frederick Douglass, etc. What time period are you going for? Depending there on, you can find various authors of color.

[Miriam]

Try "Another Country" by James Baldwin.