Black History Month

Good morning,

It’s Black History Month. I plan to celebrate a few of my favorite Black writers. Will you? 

I was lucky enough to meet Toni Morrison at a NYS English Teacher’s Convention many years ago. I purchased and she signed my copy of Sula. Unfortunately, I let someone borrow the book, and she didn’t return it. Ms. Morrison was a fabulous speaker. Have you read any of her books or heard her speak? Perhaps, this is the month to read a Toni Morrison book.

Alice Walker’s The Color Purple won a Pulitzer Prize and was adapted into a film and musical. It’s one of my all-time favorite novels. Consider reading it.

Langston Hughes is another of my favorite authors. I love his short stories and poems. Hughes’ blues poem “As Befits a Man” provides a humorous look at a funeral. In contrast, his poem “Misery” is full of angst. When I read his works, I go on a roller-coaster ride. Read a few Langston Hughes’ poems and you’ll be hooked on his writing style.

Jacqueline Woodson’s award-winning book, Brown Girl Dreaming, is a novel in verse an agent recommended I read. Since I write novels in verse, I read her adolescent novel with great anticipation. Although highly acclaimed, it did not rock me in the way Jason Reynolds’s Long Way Down did. Long Way Down is my new favorite novel in verse. Published in 2017, this book is a must read for teens, teachers, librarians, parents, and writers of novels in verse. Consider reading a novel in verse this month.

Celebrate Black History Month by reading. Please let me know what poem or novel you read and what you liked or didn’t like about it. Thank you for visiting my site and blog.