12 Books by Black Chicago Women 2025

blackgirlsreadchi Host

33 participants (35 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
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
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
The Mayor of Maxwell Street by Avery Cunningham

The Mayor of Maxwell Street

Avery Cunningham

508 pages • first pub 2024 (editions)

fiction historical emotional reflective slow-paced
The Game Changer by Embassie Susberry

The Game Changer

Embassie Susberry

9 hours, 39 minutes • first pub 2024 (editions) user-added

fiction historical
A Season of Light by Julie Iromuanya

A Season of Light

Julie Iromuanya

256 pages • first pub 2025 (editions)

fiction literary medium-paced
The South Side: A Portrait of Chicago and American Segregation by Natalie Y. Moore

The South Side: A Portrait of Chicago and American Segregation

Natalie Y. Moore

272 pages • first pub 2016 (editions)

nonfiction history politics sociology challenging informative reflective slow-paced
We Are the Culture: Black Chicago's Influence on Everything by Arionne Nettles

We Are the Culture: Black Chicago's Influence on Everything

Arionne Nettles

224 pages • missing pub info (editions)

nonfiction history race medium-paced
Noor by Nnedi Okorafor

Noor

Nnedi Okorafor

214 pages • first pub 2021 (editions)

fiction science fiction adventurous challenging reflective fast-paced