12 Books by Black Chicago Women 2025

blackgirlsreadchi Host

36 participants (46 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
Death of the Author by Nnedi Okorafor

Death of the Author

Nnedi Okorafor

16 hours, 12 minutes • audio • 2025

fiction literary science fiction thriller adventurous emotional reflective medium-paced
Broken Places Outer Spaces: Finding Creativity in the Unexpected by Nnedi Okorafor

Broken Places Outer Spaces: Finding Creativity in the Unexpected

Nnedi Okorafor

2 hours, 18 minutes • audio • 2019

nonfiction memoir challenging reflective slow-paced
The Life of Herod the Great by Zora Neale Hurston

The Life of Herod the Great

Zora Neale Hurston

334 pages • hardcover • 2025

fiction classics historical reflective medium-paced
Remembrance by Rita Woods

Remembrance

Rita Woods

416 pages • hardcover • 2020

fiction historical magical realism adventurous challenging emotional slow-paced
Upstate by Kalisha Buckhanon

Upstate

Kalisha Buckhanon

5 hours, 45 minutes • audio • 2004 user-added

fiction romance young adult emotional hopeful reflective medium-paced
Saving Ruby King by Catherine Adel West

Saving Ruby King

Catherine Adel West

10 hours, 13 minutes • audio • 2020

fiction mystery emotional mysterious reflective slow-paced
The Two Lives of Sara by Catherine Adel West

The Two Lives of Sara

Catherine Adel West

11 hours, 38 minutes • audio • 2022

fiction historical emotional reflective medium-paced
A Few Red Drops: The Chicago Race Riot of 1919 by Claire Hartfield

A Few Red Drops: The Chicago Race Riot of 1919

Claire Hartfield

3 hours, 59 minutes • audio • 2017

nonfiction history race reflective slow-paced
The Game Changer by Embassie Susberry

The Game Changer

Embassie Susberry

9 hours, 39 minutes • audio • 2024 user-added

fiction historical
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

192 pages • paperback

nonfiction memoir