So there have been many glorious 2017 anticipated books lists, and I have put a ton of books on my tbr. So I thought my list would be pretty redundant with all that work out there already. But there are a few nonfiction books I’m excited for that I haven’t seen on most lists, so what the hell, here are 10 diverse new books by women of Color and indigenous women I’m looking forward to this year:
Living a Feminist Life by Sara Ahmed
Duke UP: February 3rd, 2017
In Living a Feminist Life Sara Ahmed shows how feminist theory is generated from everyday life and the ordinary experiences of being a feminist at home and at work. Building on legacies of feminist of color scholarship in particular, Ahmed offers a poetic and personal meditation on how feminists become estranged from worlds they critique—often by naming and calling attention to problems—and how feminists learn about worlds from their efforts to transform them. (GR)
Field Theories by Samiya Bashir
Nightboat Books: April 4th, 2017
Field Theories wends its way through quantum mechanics, chicken wings, Newports, and love, melding blackbody theory (idealized perfect absorption vs. the whitebody s idealized reflection) with live Black bodies. Woven through experimental lyrics is a heroic crown of sonnets that wonders about love, intent, identity, hybridity, and how we embody these interstices. (GR)
Nameless Woman – An Anthology of Fiction by Trans Women of Color
March 2017 if you support the kickstarter here! (13 days left)
At a time when the trans literature is overwhelmingly white and hostile to us, Nameless Woman:An Anthology of Fiction by Trans Women of Color is an unprecedented opportunity for us to tell our stories, create an innovative book of fiction that trans women can enjoy, and begin to create a place for trans women of color to thrive in publishing. (KS site)
The Best We Could Do: An Illustrated Memoir by Thi Bui
Abrams ComicArts: March 7th, 2017
This beautifully illustrated and emotional story is an evocative memoir about the search for a better future and a longing for the past. Exploring the anguish of immigration and the lasting effects that displacement has on a child and her family, Bui documents the story of her family’s daring escape after the fall of South Vietnam in the 1970s, and the difficulties they faced building new lives for themselves. (GR)
Graywolf Press: March 7th, 2017
WHEREAS her birth signaled the responsibility as mother to teach what it is to be Lakota therein the question: What did I know about being Lakota? Signaled panic, blood rush my embarrassment. What did I know of our language but pieces? Would I teach her to be pieces? Until a friend comforted, Don’t worry, you and your daughter will learn together. Today she stood sunlight on her shoulders lean and straight to share a song in Diné, her father’s language. To sing she motions simultaneously with her hands; I watch her be in multiple musics. (“WHEREAS Statements”)
Critically Sovereign: Indigenous Gender, Sexuality, and Feminist Studies by Joanne Barker
Duke UP: April 28th, 2017.
Critically Sovereign traces the ways in which gender is inextricably a part of Indigenous politics and U.S. and Canadian imperialism and colonialism. The contributors show how gender, sexuality, and feminism work as co-productive forces of Native American and Indigenous sovereignty, self-determination, and epistemology. (GR)
Tender: Stories by Sofia Samatar
Small Beer Press: April 11th, 2017
The first collection of short fiction from a rising star whose stories have been anthologized in the first two volumes of the Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy series and nominated for many awards. Some of Samatar’s weird and tender fabulations spring from her life and her literary studies; some spring from the world, some from the void. (GR)
There Are More Beautiful Things Than Beyoncé by Morgan Parker
Tin House: February 14th, 2017
There Are More Beautiful Things Than Beyoncé uses political and pop-cultural references as a framework to explore 21st century black American womanhood and its complexities: performance, depression, isolation, exoticism, racism, femininity, and politics. The poems weave between personal narrative and pop-cultural criticism, examining and confronting modern media, consumption, feminism, and Blackness. This collection explores femininity and race in the contemporary American political climate, folding in references from jazz standards, visual art, personal family history, and Hip Hop. (GR)
The January Children by Safia Elhillo
Univ. of Nebraska: March 1st, 2017
The January Children depicts displacement and longing while also questioning accepted truths about geography, history, nationhood, and home. The poems mythologize family histories until they break open, using them to explore aspects of Sudan’s history of colonial occupation, dictatorship, and diaspora. Several of the poems speak to the late Egyptian singer Abdelhalim Hafez, who addressed many of his songs to the asmarani—an Arabic term of endearment for a brown-skinned or dark-skinned person. Elhillo explores Arabness and Africanness and the tensions generated by a hyphenated identity in those two worlds. (GR)
Hunger: A Memoir of (My) Body by Roxane Gay
HarperCollins: June 13th, 2017
In her phenomenally popular essays and long-running Tumblr blog, Roxane Gay has written with intimacy and sensitivity about food and body, using her own emotional and psychological struggles as a means of exploring our shared anxieties over pleasure, consumption, appearance, and health. As a woman who describes her own body as “wildly undisciplined,” Roxane understands the tension between desire and denial, between self-comfort and self-care. In Hunger, she explores her own past—including the devastating act of violence that acted as a turning point in her young life—and brings readers along on her journey to understand and ultimately save herself. (GR)
Which new releases are you most looking forward to this year?
Wonderful list, Bina! I want to read Living a Feminist Life (Sara Ahmed) and Field Theories (Samiya Bashir) 🙂 Thanks so much for recommending this list!
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Thank you Vishy! Glad you like the list and can’t wait to hear your thoughts when you get to these😊
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These look great! Thanks for the list.
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Glad you like it😊 Happy reading in 2017!!
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OMG these all sound brilliant! I’m so glad that Nameless Woman reached its target – this is definitely a release that I’m jumping up and down about 😀
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Yay glad you like the list!😊 Yess!!💜 I have been unable to get my hands on the editors’ first anthology so I got my last bucks together for this!🙌📚
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NICEEE!
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Living a Feminist Life sounds interesting! Curious to know what you think. 😃
Also I’m a sucker for poetry collections, so Field Theories sounds exciting!
Honestly all of these sound amazing and unique! Looking forward to reading your reviews. 😊
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Yay thanks! 🙂 Very excited about that one, hopefully it’s as good as her other works.
Yass poetry! There Are More Beautiful Things Than Beyoncé and Whereas are also poetry collections if you’re interested 🙂 Hope you enjoy Field Theories!
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These are so cool, Bina! Would it be alright for me to add some of these titles to my master list of #ownvoices and diverse lit releases for 2017? Thanks for sharing these titles! 😊 Happy new year!!
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Of course!! Always happy when I can help someone find diverse reads!😁 Happy New Year!🎉
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Great list! I added every single one of these.
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Thanks 🙂 Oh yay that’s awesome! Happy reading!
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Oh wow great list! I haven’t heard of a few of these so definitely have to go find out more! Happy New Year dear Bina!
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Thanks you! 🙂 Happy new year to you too, Sharlene, hope it’s a good one:) Hope you find some good ones to read from the list!
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I have been waiting so long for Hunger. I hope it is amazing.
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Yes! Me too 🙂 It was on my list last year as well. Oh that makes sense, I’m sure it’s tough and super personal to write about this.
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thank you for sharing! I really want to read that first one!
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Awesome! Hope you’ll like it! 🙂
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And my TBR got that much longer 🙂 what a great list! Also, great to include the Nameless Women Kickstarter project. It is successfully funded and I am looking forward to reading, reviewing, and promoting the anthony! Happy New Years and cheers to 2017. I hope you read many fantastic books this year 🙂
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Thank you! 🙂 Wonderful! So glad to it got funded, can’t wait to read the collection. Still sad I missed the first book. And a happy new year to you too! It’ll probably a tough one but hope it’ll still be a great one one for you! 🙂 I know the books this year will be amazing at least 🙂
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I’m looking forward to Gay’s Hunger and have already pre-ordered it. I know some people pre-ordered it two years ago! I read an interview with Gay yesterday that states the book was postponed by a full year because it’s been so difficult to write.
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Yeah I can only imagine! I’ve been waiting for it for a year, I’m sure it’ll be worth the wait 🙂
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I’m still feeling a little stuck-in-2016, but not in a bad way, so I can’t comment thoughtfully on what I’m most interested in for new releases in 2017 yet, but you have some fantastic options here. Thanks for adding to my TBR again! (Missed your transition to the new blog, but I’m caught up now!)
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Heh yeah I might’ve confused some people with the abrupt blog switch, sorry! 🙂
Always happy to add to your tbr 🙂 I think you’ll find amazing reads among the 2017 releases once you’re ready to embrace the year! I still need to get caught up on last year’s books, too, always a year behind, sigh.
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I can’t believe Hunger isn’t coming out until June!! I remember making a list last summer saying that it was scheduled to release in August or something. What is up!? haha
The Nameless Women anthology sounds like a must-read! adding it on Goodreads right no!
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Yeah apparently it was a very difficult book for her to write so it’s been postponed to this year. It was on my anticipated reads list 2016 too 🙂 YYay awesome! Yeah definitely excited for the anthology, so glad to see it got funded! Can’t wait to read, squeee! 🙂
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I feel like I have done nothing the past few weeks but adds zillions of books to the “forthcoming” tab on my spreadsheet. WHY ARE THERE SO MANY AMAZING BOOKS.
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Haha I think it’s because political it’s gonna be brutal, we need something positive! 🙂 You are super organized, Jenny!! Forthcoming tab, must remember that one! Off to steal/ copy your idea in what’s hopefully a flattering way 🙂
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I really should read more poetry. Maybe I’ll make that a 2018 goal.
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That’s a great goal! There’s three poetry collection on this list if you want to read newer works. Hopefully I’ll manage more poetry this year.
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You are right, I haven’t seen these on any lists! This is why I appreciate your blog so much 😊 Nameless Woman – An Anthology of Fiction by Trans Women of Color, The Best We Could Do, and There are More Beautiful thigs Than Beyoncé, and Hunger all look particular interesting to me. Fantastic list Bina!
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Thanks Amanda!😊 Always happy to add to your tbr! I’m very excited for these too, fingers crossed Hunger really comes out this year. I hope to read plenty non-fiction this year.
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