Since childhood, books, too, have also been dear friends to me. Listening to the stories of others who have shared their journeys of wonder, grief, and healing, reminds me that I’m never alone. The capacity to listen to stories began when I was a child and has remained steadfast and necessary. The voices and imaginations gathered here are complete and gorgeous gifts to our shared humanity. —Rachel Eliza Griffiths, author of The Flower Bearers
James Baldwin lives again in his fullest and most complicated subject: Love. Courage blazes on every page for both Baldwin and Boggs. I’ll never forget that the seed of my friendship with Nicholas Boggs was richly planted by our mutual love for the life and truth of James Baldwin.
What Pulitzer Prize winner Cristina Rivera Garza achieves in her autobiography, Liliana's Invincible Summer, is an incandescent testimony, forging Garza's intellect, grief, rage, and heart in the name of justice for Liliana. A breathtaking account, Garza's book lifts her beloved sister's name and life as anthem and resistance.
This book is a dazzling feast of joy and pleasure by poet-brother Ross Gay. While sharing his joy and humor with us, I see Ross’s smile and hear his laughter on each page and am reminded to savor every moment of our ordinary and extraordinary lives.
A memoir by Safiya Sinclair whose voice lives in my heart. To hear this testimony is to witness a poet’s love for her family and her beloved country, Jamaica, as she offers a complicated journey that is breathtaking in its liberation and power.
For the rest of my life, I will always return to Sula by Toni Morrison and find myself astonished and grateful for how Morrison's lush voice fills my entire being in this tale of Black sisterhood, self-discovery, freedom, desire, and sorrow.
Rachel Eliza Griffiths is an American poet, novelist, photographer, and visual artist.
