What I’m Reading this Black History Month

I see you, February… 👀

With your MLK quotes and Maya poems coming out of the woodwork for Black History Month.

And don’t get me wrong—those voices absolutely matter. But Black history (and Black brilliance) is so much bigger than the greatest hits.

I have a personal tradition: every February, I try to read only Black authors. Of course, I read them alongside many other voices throughout the rest of the year. But this month, I’m especially intentional about the stories I’m sitting with and how their narratives are shaped by a history I share.

This year, I’m taking on The Love Songs of W.E.B. Du Bois. My gawd, YES. All nearly 800 pages of it. (Many thanks to Christina for the rec and letting me borrow her copy!)

I’m already bracing myself to be emotionally unavailable for a while.

I’m also bummed this will wreck my Goodreads 2026 Reading Challenge… but I digress.

Some other favorites from recent years:

• 📕 Sing, Unburied, Sing — Jesmyn Ward

• 📗 Junie — Erin Crosby Eckstine

• 📘 An American Marriage — Tayari Jones

• 📙 Happy Land — Dolen Perkins-Valdez

• 📚 Anything by Colson Whitehead (though Harlem Shuffle wasn’t my fave)

• 📔 The House of Eve — Sadeqa Johnson

What are you reading this month? And which Black authors should we all be adding to our lists?