12 Books by Black Chicago Women 2025

blackgirlsreadchi Host

34 participants (38 books)

01 Jan 2025—31 Dec 2025

Overview

Join us for the 12 Books by Black Chicago Women Reading Challenge for 2025! 

Whether you participated in the inaugural challenge or are participating for the first time—welcome! This year, let’s continue to celebrate the depth, diversity, and dopeness of Chicago’s Black women writers. Read at least 12 books by Black women from Chicago. The books can be in any genre, on any topic, and from any time period. 

Follow along here and on our Instagram page @blackgirlsreadchi, and use the hashtags #12BooksByBlackChicagoWomen and #12BooksByBlackWomenChi to share your progress. 

If you need a few more suggestions to get you started, check out our book list on Bookshop.org.

Challenge Books

All books added
Maud Martha by Gwendolyn Brooks

Maud Martha

Gwendolyn Brooks

180 pages • first pub 1953 (editions)

fiction classics literary poetry reflective fast-paced
Remote Control by Nnedi Okorafor

Remote Control

Nnedi Okorafor

4 hours, 7 minutes • first pub 2021 (editions)

fiction science fiction adventurous dark mysterious fast-paced
Ironheart, Vol. 1: Those with Courage by Eve Ewing

Ironheart, Vol. 1: Those with Courage

Ironheart (2018) #1

Eve Ewing

136 pages • first pub 2019 (editions)

fiction comics young adult adventurous medium-paced
A Season of Light by Julie Iromuanya

A Season of Light

Julie Iromuanya

7 hours, 43 minutes • first pub 2025 (editions)

fiction literary medium-paced
Broken Places by Tracy Clark

Broken Places

Cass Raines #1

Tracy Clark

12 hours, 58 minutes • first pub 2018 (editions) user-added

fiction crime mystery dark mysterious tense fast-paced
1919 by Eve L. Ewing

1919

Eve L. Ewing

1 hour, 5 minutes • first pub 2019 (editions)

nonfiction history poetry race emotional informative reflective fast-paced
Original Sins: The (Mis)education of Black and Native Children and the Construction of American Racism by Eve L. Ewing

Original Sins: The (Mis)education of Black and Native Children and the Construction of American Racism

Eve L. Ewing

387 pages • first pub 2025 (editions)

nonfiction history race
Threads: A Tapestry of Life in the Black Community of Shiloh and Beyond by Tanya Davis
Threads: A Tapestry of Life in the Black Community of Shiloh and Beyond
—
Tanya Davis

Threads: A Tapestry of Life in the Black Community of Shiloh and Beyond

Tanya Davis

192 pages • missing pub info (editions)

Last Summer on State Street by Toya Wolfe

Last Summer on State Street

Toya Wolfe

224 pages • first pub 2022 (editions)

fiction contemporary emotional reflective sad medium-paced
From #BlackLivesMatter To Black Liberation by Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor

From #BlackLivesMatter To Black Liberation

Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor

10 hours, 45 minutes • first pub 2016 (editions)

nonfiction history politics race informative reflective medium-paced