Celebrate Black History Month with these deeply personal books

The best histories are, well, made of stories.

As readers of every background seize the moment that is Black History Month, it's worth digging into work by writers who share their own stories and, in doing so, shed a greater light on the world around them. Here are just five such titles by gifted, trustworthy authors.

Hanif Abdurraqib, "A Little Devil in America" (2022)

Among the most gifted and versatile authors of our moment, Abdurraqib's book bears the subtitle "In Praise of Black Performance" and arrives as a cultural exploration of the worlds around Whitney Houston, Merry Clayton, Dave Chappelle and more. But Abdurraqib's writing can never help but be personal, drawing on his remarkably soulful and tender perspective, and showing how we all are part of one another's stories.

James Baldwin, "Notes of a Native Son" (1955)

Perhaps our greatest American writer, Baldwin deserves all the attention we have to spare — and then some. Many readers will suggest breaking the spine on his catalog with "The Fire Next Time" or "Go Tell It On the Mountain," the latter a novel that still feels nakedly autobiographical. And, with Baldwin, there are no bad starting blocks. But "Notes of a Native Son" allows you to walk beside him through neighborhoods in Atlanta, Harlem and Paris, around sensations of displacement and belonging, and headlong into very thick, very distinct family grief.

Eve Ewing, "Electric Arches" (2017)

Part poetry collection, part memoir, part visionary experiment, Ewing's work here is both a coming-of-age and coming-into-your-own tale. On these pages, readers are plunged into the emotional truth and elemental details of girlhood, while also navigating Chicago landmarks and even fixing their faces ahead toward some embodied future.

Audre Lorde, "The Selected Works of ... " (2020)

The inimitable Roxane Gay does the selecting here, gathering essays, criticism and poetry across Lorde's rich career. These works are personal enough, exhibiting and enfleshing the gifted thinker's perspective. But Gay takes us a step closer to Lorde, devoting a significant middle passage to correspondence written from life shrouded by a cancer diagnosis. These deeply intimate dispatches complete a portrait of the artist as a three-dimensional human being.

Crystal Wilkinson, "Praisesong for the Kitchen Ghosts" (2024)

Go on and reserve every kind of award for Crystal Wilkinson's latest. It's a cookbook, a family history, a book-length poem about the elemental details that bind us, that we pass down as an inheritance. The former Kentucky poet laureate shares recipes for hot milk cake, sautéed fiddleheads, pimento cheese and more; but what lingers are the generational connections Wilkinson treats readers to.

Columbia readers can engage with Wilkinson's work in even more intimate fashion when the author visits this year's Unbound Book Festival in April.

Aarik Danielsen is the features and culture editor for the Tribune. Contact him at adanielsen@columbiatribune.com or by calling 573-815-1731. He's on Twitter/X @aarikdanielsen.

This article originally appeared on Columbia Daily Tribune: 5 deeply personal books to read during Black History Month