- hye-young pyun, the hole (skyhorse, 2017)
- han yujoo, the impossible fairy tale (graywolf, 2017)
- patty yumi cottrell, sorry to disrupt the peace (mcsweeney's, 2017)
- samhita mukhopadhyay & kate harding, eds, nasty women (picador, 2017)
- shobha rao, girls burn brighter (flatiron, 2018)
- carmen maria machado, her body and other parties (graywolf, 2017)
- kim fu, for today i am a boy (HMH, 2014)
- jessica b. harris, my soul looks back (scribner, 2016)
- rowan hisayo buchanan, harmless like you (sceptre, 2017)
- ayobami adebayo, stay with me (knopf, 2017)
- jenny zhang, sour heart (lenny imprint, 2017)
- julie buntin, marlena (henry holt, 2017)
- molly yeh, molly on the range (rodale, 2016)
- yoojin grace wuertz, everything belongs to you (random house, 2017)
- kamila shamsie, home fire (riverhead, 2017)
- kristen kish, kristen kish cooking (clarkson potter, 2017)
- kim thuy, mãn (PRH canada, 2014)
- chinelo okparanta, under the udala trees (HMH, 2015)
- julia turshen, small victories (chronicle, 2016)
- sylvia plath, the letters of sylvia plath, vol i: 1940 - 1956 (harpers, 2017)
here's my annual stack for 2018 international women's day, and i love making these stacks so much. i love that i can populate them with predominantly women of color, that finding queer women (and, more importantly, queer WOC!!!) is not like hunting for that needle in a haystack, that i'm left thinking, ah! i should have added this title and this title and that one, too!
diversity makes my cold, little heart warm and swell, and i'm not interested in any celebration of womanhood that celebrates only white women or straight women or mainstream women. in relation, i'm not interested in feminism that excludes certain economic classes, feminism that says that we can be a part of their community only if we have the means to gain admittance into their playground. i'm not interested in feminism that only pays attention to the marginalized when they fulfill a specific need, more often than not a PR one.
and i know that i have to do better, too; i'm not trying to claim that i'm perfect or so much better off than anyone. i know i need to widen my geographic scope and read more from women all over the world. i know i need to read more from trans women. i know i need to read more from women who are not able-bodied.
that said, if you want to start reading more from women who aren't white and/or straight, here's a place to start. for full disclosure, i haven't finished every single book in this stack, and i didn't love them all equal amounts, but i stand by them. there are definitely a few books i've been pushing harder than others — like, oh my god, if you haven't read patty yumi cottrell's sorry to disrupt the peace or julie buntin's marlena or jenny zhang's sour heart yet, i highly, highly recommend you hurry up and do so. if you want to get your heart wrecked, read shobha rao's girls burn brighter and kim fu's for today i am a boy. and, if you're wanting to get into the kitchen more but are kind of intimidated, julia turshen's small victories is so freaking fabulous — and julia's so worth following on instagram and twitter because she actively boosts other women, especially WOC, using her platform to bring attention to issues and pressing concerns and needs.
should i not be spotlighting a few books over all the others? but, wow, i shamelessly admit that i'm stealing time between tasks at work to get this post up sooner than later.
so, hey, to keep this short and sweet: to all my women out there, WOC or not, queer or not, keep telling your bombass stories. keep putting your voices out there and sharing your strength. keep being the heroes of your stories.
and keep listening to the stories of your fellow women and keep supporting your communities and keep lifting up the voices of your fellow women, especially those marginalized among you.
together, may we continue to thrive.