From left to right: Cheryl Clark (Kris Snibbe/Harvard Staff Photographer), Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Nikki Giovanni, Maya Angelou (York College of PA), Angie Thomas, N.K. Jemisin (Laura Hanifin). Image sources are linked for each author’s name.
Quakers seek truth, community, and justice, and Black women writers can help us grow in these areas. Through their work, they share stories of strength, struggle, and hope. In turn, these stories invite us to look at the world with clearer eyes and kinder hearts. As Friends, when we read the work of Black women, we learn more about how race and gender shape people’s lives. As a result, we can build a more just and loving community led by the Spirit. To continue your exploration, find many of these books at QuakerBooks of FGC.
Elizabeth Alexander – More Info
The Trayvon Generation; Antebellum Dream Book
Maya Angelou – Website here
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings; And Still I Rise
Octavia Butler – More Info
Parable of the Sower
Gwendolyn Brooks – More Info
Seasons; Maud Martha; Annie Allen
Valerie Brown – More Info
Hope Leans Forward;The Road that Teaches
Candice Carty-Williams – More Info
Queenie; People Person
Staceyann Chin – More Info
The Other Side of Paradise; Crossfire
Cheryl Clark – More Info
Living as a Lesbian; 48 Years
Lucille Clifton – More Info
Blessing the Boats; The Book of Light
Yrsa Daley-Ward – More Info
The Terrible, Bone
Diana Evans – More Info
Ordinary People; 26a; A House for Alice
Bernadine Evaristo – More Info
Girl, Woman, Other; Manifesto: On Never Giving Up
Jessie Redmon Fauset – More Info
Plum Bun
Roxane Gay – More Info
An Untamed State; Graceful Burdens
Nikki Giovanni – More Info
A Good Cry; Bicycles; Acolytes
Amanda Gorman – More Info
Call Us What We Carry; “The Hill We Climb“
Zora Neale Hurston – More Info
Their Eyes Were Watching God; You Don’t Know Us Negroes
Vanessa Julye – More Info
Fit for Freedom, Not for Friendship
N.K. Jemisin – More Info
The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms; How Long ’til Black Future Month?
Audre Lorde – More Info
Sister Outsider; The Collected Poems of Audre Lorde
Andrea Levy – More Info
The Long Song; Small Island
Toni Morrison – More Info
Beloved; Song of Solomon; The Bluest Eye
Michelle Obama – More Info
Becoming; The Light We Carry
Claudia Rankine – More Info
Just Us; The White Card; Citizen: An American Lyric
Ntozake Shange – More Info
Lost in Language and Sound; Nappy Edges
Anne Spencer – More Info
Time’s Unfading Garden; The Book of American Negro Poetry
Angie Thomas – More Info
The Hate U Give; On the Come Up
Alice Walker – More Info
The Color Purple; Gathering Blossoms Under Fire
Phillis Wheatley – More Info
A Hymn to the Evening; On Being Brought from Africa to America; Complete Writings
Jamila Woods – More Info
The Truth About Dolls; Black Girl Magic
Jacqueline Woodson – More Info
Red at the Bone, The Year We Learned to Fly
From left to right: Ntozake Shange, Andrea Levy (photo credit: Kirsty Wigglesworth/PA Wire/PA Images), Michelle Obama (photo credit: Gage Skidmore), Jacqueline Woodson, Valerie Brown, Candace Carty-Williams (photo credit: Emil Huseynzade). Image sources are linked for each author’s name.
Last updated June 29, 2026.